The Air Liquide Foundation acts within the framework of its corporate purpose. On the one hand, it supports research or scientific education projects in the field of respiratory diseases and air quality, and on the other local development projects, in particular job integration, in the territories where the Air Liquide Group is present.
The Board of Directors meets at least three times a year.
It validates the Foundation’s strategic priorities and approves the annual budget, in accordance with the Foundation's bylaws.
The Board reviews and decides on all projects & partnerships beyond a certain size. The Board membership is a combination of Air Liquide directors representing the founders, independent directors with qualifications in the fields of interest of the foundation and an Air Liquide employee representative. They are appointed for a renewable two-year terms.
The Foundation's Scientific Committee reviews all research programmes and science education projects before they are submitted to the Board of Directors for approval.
Its missions are :
It ensures compliance with the Foundation's Ethical Charter.
For each project, the medical expert or R&D manager in charge of evaluating the project is invited to the Scientific Committee.
The members of the Scientific Committee are Régis Réau, Scientific Director of Air Liquide’s R&D and a senior fellow of Air Liquide, Dr. Juan-Fernando Ramirez MD., PhD, Chief Medical Officer, VP Medical, Healthcare-WBL and an international fellow of Air Liquide, and Dr. Catherine Billoet MD, Head of Global Medical Affairs at Air Liquide Santé Internationale (ALSI) and an international senior expert of Air Liquide.
The Foundation's Communities committee is responsible for selecting the projects recommended by Air Liquide employees and reviewing partnerships & multi-year projects for professional integration. These projects have been previously chosen by the Foundation’s team according to the established selection criteria. Multi-year projects or those requiring more than 25,000 euros are submitted to the Board for approval. The Communities committee grants funds to each project according to the Foundation's annual budget, monitors the chosen projects, and assesses the work that is done and the results achieved. It meets approximately every three months.
The members of the communities committee are Marine Canel, Director, Web, Editorial and Internal Communications, Claire Dessertine, Group Talent Management Vice-President, Ndeye-Khady DRAME, West & Central Africa Operations Controller, Caroline Drouart, Director of respiratory marketing at the Healthcare WBL, Hannes Moeller, Group R&D Program Director and Bernard Vaysse, shareholder representative.
They review new projects as well as ongoing programmes.
They invite, as appropriate, those Air Liquide colleagues who investigate scientific projects or sponsor community partnerships.
The committees form their independent views on projects and ensure that projects comply with the Foundation's ethical charter.
A summary of the committees' recommendations is reported to the Board of Directors.
A close-knit team of four manages day-to-day operations at the Foundation. The team receives and examines every funding request that comes in. They also work with Group employees to evaluate projects and prepare the applications for support for the Board of Directors and the Project selection committee. They proactively identify organizations or projects that fit with the Foundation’s priorities and develop meaningful projects with them. They closely monitor projects, expenses and results. They also produce the Foundation’s communication materials.
Every year, the annual financial statements of the Air Liquide Foundation are audited by the Statutory Auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
The Foundation's operations are also regularly and rigorously audited by Air Liquide's Internal Audit department.