FACE TO FACE Aurélie Lévêque

At 44, Aurélie Lévêque manages the Les Arcs/Peisey-Vallandry mountain resort, one of the largest ski areas in the French Alps. An Arts & Métiers engineer, she has spent her entire career with Compagnie des Alpes, moving from ski lift construction sites to operational management in Val d’Isère before returning “home” to Peisey, the area where she learned to ski and where her son is now growing up.

In a technical and demanding environment, she adopts a management style based on action, boldness and collective commitment. For her, the mountains are a living ecosystem that must be cherished, protected and transformed with clear-headedness. Between her passion for technology, the demands of her role and her deep attachment to the region, she has a simple conviction: “the mountains deserve to be fought for”.

Aurélie Lévêque, could you tell us a bit about yourself and your career path?

My name is Aurélie Lévêque. I trained as an engineer and am now Director of the Arcs / Peisey-Vallandry mountain area. I am 44 years old, mother to a seven-year-old boy, and live in Peisey, the village where my mother was a ski instructor. Even though I didn’t spend my entire childhood there, this area shaped my relationship with the mountains: it was where I learned to ski, discovered high altitudes, resort life and the energy of those who bring it to life. Coming back to work here is a source of pride and, in a way, a return to my roots.

After training as an engineer at Arts & Métiers, I joined Compagnie des Alpes, where I have spent my entire professional career. It all started with an end-of-studies internship on a ski lift construction site: the construction of a chairlift. This first learning experience immersed me in the reality of a high-altitude project, working alongside the construction teams and dealing with engineering constraints and safety and scheduling issues.

A few months later, I had the opportunity to pilot the ISO 14001 environmental certification process at the group’s first resort. This work allowed me to understand very early on that operating a ski area is not just a technical matter: it is a living organisation that has to deal with biodiversity, water, energy and land use. After this first assignment, I supported all of the group’s resorts in their environmental initiatives, an internal auditing and consulting role that took me to all of the mountain ranges and allowed me to work with a wide variety of people (marketing, operations, snowmaking, maintenance, HR, etc.).

This experience gave me a comprehensive overview: how a station operates, where each decision comes from, how to balance the environment, economy and customer experience.

But I remained an engineer, drawn to the field and operations. So I accepted a position as operations manager at Les Menuires. At 26, I was one of the very few women in France to hold this position at the time. I discovered how to manage teams of often highly experienced men, make operational decisions and run a resort on a daily basis. I learned through practice: the wind forcing the closure of a chairlift, urgent decisions to be made, risk management, coordinating teams in the field.

After five years, I was appointed Deputy Director of Operations at Val d’Isère Téléphérique, in an environment that was very demanding in terms of service quality and innovation. I then became Director of Operations for the ski area, with a much broader strategic scope: projects to replace key equipment, expand the artificial snow network, and manage highly complex environmental construction projects. For ten years, I was able to lead iconic projects that transformed the skier experience and the very structure of the ski area.

For just over two years, I have been Director of the Les Arcs/Peisey-Vallandry mountain resort. This position combines everything that motivates me: managing a high-altitude resort, anticipating the needs of the region, driving forward structural projects and ensuring that operations are sustainable and forward-looking. It is also a personal commitment: contributing to the development of a region where I grew up and where my son is growing up today.

This journey has taught me that mountains are never just a backdrop: they are an ecosystem, a responsibility, a community. And that is what motivates me to keep moving forward.

What are your passions?

I deeply love the mountains. Over time, I have learned to love them even more by exploring them in different ways: I do a lot of hiking and trail running, and I run at altitude whenever I can. It is an environment that recharges my batteries and reminds me every day how lucky I am to live in such an inspiring place.

But my most unexpected passion is undoubtedly the circus. I did gymnastics at a high level for a long time and developed a real taste for acrobatics and flying trapeze. At one point, I even dreamed of joining Cirque du Soleil. I wasn’t skilled enough to make it my profession, but this passion still lives within me and I find it strikes a balance between creativity, rigour and pushing myself beyond my limits.

Today, I don’t have as much time as I used to for practising, but I still retain that artistic side of myself. It inspires me and probably influences the way I work.

What motivates you? Why do you get up in the morning?

What motivates me every morning is, first and foremost, the pleasure of contributing to the vitality of a region that I love deeply. I love the idea that our work allows people from all over the world to discover the mountains, to be amazed by their beauty and to leave with that famous “wow” effect. When a customer says to us, “It’s amazing what you’ve managed to do”, it’s hugely satisfying. That’s one of my main driving forces: offering wonder and making people happy through the experiences we offer them.

I am also motivated by human dynamics. I enjoy working in a team, bringing people along with me, building things together. What drives me is movement: projects, change, innovation. I like to step outside my comfort zone and get teams to step outside theirs. I admit I have a strong personality, but that’s because I like to get things done and get everyone fired up with the same energy. Bringing people together, transforming, opening up new avenues: that’s where I feel at home.

Even though my role today is more strategic, I remain very attached to the technical side of things. That’s where I come from, and it continues to inspire me: mechanics, maintenance, a detailed understanding of installations. I am happy when I can still get my hands dirty on a complex project, get back in the field, talk to the technical teams, and monitor a construction site. The engineer in me still gets excited when it comes to solving a problem.

And then there is one last, very simple driving force: the awareness of how lucky we are. We live and work where others come on holiday. The mountains inspire humility, but they offer us an incredible quality of life. Waking up every morning knowing that our work helps to bring this region to life (and to share it with those who are discovering it) is a huge source of motivation.

What gives you the greatest satisfaction?

My greatest satisfaction lies at the intersection of my personal and professional lives. On a personal level, I am extremely proud to have found a balance between my role as a mother and my management responsibilities. I am raising my son almost single-handedly, and despite the mental load, the sometimes unpredictable hours and the operational demands of a ski resort, I manage to support him in his daily life, spend time with him and offer him a life in the great outdoors. Seeing him grow up here, in the heart of the mountains, taking him to discover this area and passing on my love of nature to him is one of my greatest achievements.

Professionally, my greatest satisfaction comes from the large-scale projects I have had the opportunity to lead or support:

– The Solaise project, which took us into completely new territory, far removed from the ‘cables and pulleys’ we were used to, was the first large-scale project where the words ‘customer experience’ took on a whole new meaning.

– the preliminary design for the Vallon cable car, with major environmental constraints,

– and more recently Transarc, where I supported a project that was already underway and provided an overall vision.

These projects presented real environmental challenges: we had to find the right balance between what the project could bring to the destination, our customers and our region, and the smallest possible environmental footprint. They taught me that it is possible to innovate, transform an area and remain exemplary in the way you do it.

These projects are a source of collective pride. I often think back to that very special moment when, after months of construction, the teams climb into the cabin on the first day of opening. When I hear customers say, “What a change!”, I realise how far we’ve come. It’s for moments like these that I do this job: to see the stars in our customers’ eyes, to feel the power of teamwork and to tell myself that we have created something concrete and useful that will continue to inspire dreams and bring our region to life.

What is your greatest regret?

If I have to talk about regret, it’s not about a project I didn’t carry out, but rather about the way I acted at certain times. I am a wholehearted person, driven by action, with a real desire to move forward quickly, defend the territory and unite people around a vision. I have a lot of energy and I go straight to the point. But this intensity can sometimes be disruptive. Looking back, I know that I may have hurt some people, even unintentionally, and if that was the case, I truly regret it.

There is also something deeper: successfully conveying the meaning behind our actions. We are sometimes perceived as just a “big” company that only makes profits by exploiting a ski area. But our role is much broader than that. We are passionate people who try to do our best for our region, creating local value while protecting the environment and adapting to climate change. However, we often fail to explain this. This lack of understanding can create resistance, which is frustrating because I know that what we are doing is right, useful and well thought out. We are doing the best we can with all the constraints that apply to us.

But I don’t dwell on regrets: every experience teaches me something. I move forward, I adjust, I learn to communicate better, to bring people together more effectively. What matters is to move forward with sincerity and consistency.

If you had a list of three wishes for the mountains, what would they be?

If I had three wishes for the mountains, the first would be that they continue to bring life to our regions through tourism, and above all that they continue to inspire dreams. What touches me most is seeing the stars in people’s eyes when they discover the mountains: children seeing snow for the first time, families marvelling at the landscape, employees themselves feeling proud to belong to such a unique place. I want this emotion to continue, for the mountains to remain a place of discovery and simple joys, where people leave with their eyes full of memories. That’s what drives me: preserving the mountains’ ability to inspire wonder.

My second wish would be that we succeed in supporting the transitions ahead. We will have to change the way we do things: we will no longer be able to operate as before. Some choices will be difficult; we will have to give up projects that no longer make sense, accept change and take the time to explain. What matters is to support these transformations with clarity and education, so that everyone understands why we are doing things and where we are going. I would like us to be able to say collectively: “We are stopping what no longer makes sense,” and to move forward together in a coherent direction.

Finally, my third wish would be for the mountains to remain beautiful and preserved, and for us to continue protecting their biodiversity and landscapes. I am very sensitive to the aesthetics of the region, to the way in which development blends into the environment. I hope that future generations will be able to experience the same magic that we do: a sunset over the peaks, the changing light, that feeling of being privileged in the presence of nature. The mountains are not just a backdrop, they are a living heritage.

Aurélie Lévêque, how do you see the future unfolding?

I see the future here, in Les Arcs. The first few seasons were intense: the area is vast, spread across four municipalities, with a complex organisation. It took me a while to find my place, but today I feel aligned with the territory, the teams and the vision of the project. I am in the middle of my third season, and I feel that I can now enter a phase of consolidation and projection.

What I want is to be part of a key moment: the renewal of the public service delegation with the municipality of Bourg-Saint-Maurice, which is due to expire in 2030. For me, this is a major step for the future of the resort and the region. I want to experience this transition, actively contribute to it and defend a model that will enable the resort to continue to exist sustainably. I feel like a citizen first and foremost: I want my son to be able to continue living here, if he so wishes, in this incredible setting, and for this region to remain attractive and dynamic.

I am convinced that we still have many good years ahead of us. Skiing still has its place, and around it we can develop other activities (especially in summer) by managing our resources, improving water management, integrating respect for biodiversity and landscapes, and making the model more resilient. It is not “skiing at all costs”, but a thoughtful evolution to keep the mountains alive.