Séverine Simon, Logistics Programs Manager at Quartus Logistique: “I like complex things”

After earning her engineering degree in food science, nothing predestined Séverine Simon for a career in either real estate or logistics. And yet... One of her first jobs was as an HSE (Health, Safety and Environment) manager, overseeing HQE (High Environmental Quality) matters at Biocoop—more specifically, at one of its logistics platforms, owned by English real estate company Proudreed. In 2018, Proudreed offered her a position as a property manager. “But I missed ICPE facilities,” says Séverine Simon, who ultimately took up the position of Logistics Programs Manager at real estate developer Quartus Logistique in 2023. “Delivering a logistics platform is much more complex than developing a business park,” she explains. “Whether from a technical or regulatory standpoint, involving applications for administrative authorizations, prefectural orders, building permits, or the environmental criteria to be taken into account, logistics is a field where solutions must constantly be found.”

As Logistics Programs Manager, Séverine Simon ensures the feasibility of projects on sites identified by Quartus Logistique’s teams. Once the investor and/or tenant has been identified, she oversees building delivery, having first secured all the necessary authorizations. “I am the project’s conductor,” she explains. “I also have to surround myself with the right engineering consultancies, architects, project managers...” However, “trust does not rule out oversight,” so she makes a point of checking every stage with the relevant teams. “Even though I am flexible and listen carefully, I also see myself as an iron fist in a velvet glove, as an architect I worked with once pointed out.” While her initial training as a food-industry engineer is not directly useful in her day-to-day work, Séverine Simon nevertheless believes it gave her certain interpersonal skills, a way of working, and strong organizational abilities, “more than useful for the files I handle, particularly for managing reverse schedules and the contingencies inherent in this type of project.”

Because she enjoys working under pressure, she sometimes has to remain patient when a project can take 10 years to get off the ground. Fortunately, new challenges arise every day. “I am thinking in particular of a project currently under way: a multistory logistics building near Paris, which, to the best of my knowledge, has no equivalent and for which we are responsible for the design.” What she likes is that everything is more complex than in a conventional project—architecturally, in particular, since this is uncommon in France, but also from a regulatory perspective. “In this project, the requirements are stricter, and we have to make difficult trade-offs with the Paris Fire Brigade (BSPP), for example, as well as with the Dreal, which are also confronting something new.”

Another ongoing project is in Tremblay, in an airport area, where she has to work with a client facing significant constraints and a development authority with particular requirements. “In this case, it is more a matter of legal complexity. Even though it is not the part of my day-to-day work I prefer, it is one of the challenges I enjoy taking on in order to find solutions.”

For every logistics program developed, Séverine Simon is responsible from A to Z. Together with her Programs Director, she manages teams made up exclusively of service providers and must align tenants’ needs with the site’s specific characteristics. “It was not a world I imagined during my studies,” she admits. “But today I can say that logistics real estate is definitively a choice I have made.”