“Impacting with Positivity”

Natalia Shuman, the CEO of Bureau Veritas North America, has made her mark by putting her leadership team and employees first. Her belief in accountability—and positioning her people to be entrepreneurs—are the two things that have transformed Bureau Veritas as a whole under her leadership. As she continues to shepherd Bureau Veritas’ evolution in North America, the organization has adopted a true commercial culture that is focused on clients’ needs, which has also enabled them to grow together in partnership with customers. By making success a collective effort, Natalia is helping all employees truly embody Bureau Veritas’ mission of shaping a world of trust.

"Bureau Veritas’ fingerprints can be found on almost everything in our lives ensuring safety, quality and performance from produce to power plants. Let’s start a conversation about how Bureau Veritas can help you make the world a safer place while growing your business."

Over its 200-year history, Bureau Veritas has been a trusted advisor in testing, inspections, and certification services, helping companies on a global scale to serve their customers with transparency and truth. The word “truth,” in fact, is literally in Bureau Veritas’ name. “So while the organization has obviously changed from when it was founded to what we are today, the mission has always stayed the same: to work tirelessly to make sure we remain close to our core values that ultimately come down to making the world a safer place,” says Natalia. “We consider Bureau Veritas to be a business to business to society company, providing services to most of the market segments including oil and gas, food and agriculture, power and utilities, building and infrastructure, and more.”

Natalia broke a significant cultural barrier at Bureau Veritas when she became the first woman to ever serve on the company’s executive committee. She has since used her unique distinction among colleagues to empower women to achieve leadership roles both within the organization and through her involvement in STEM-focused initiatives outside Bureau Veritas. She continues this journey today by inspiring all those around her to celebrate diversity in the workplace.

Natalia believes that she cannot simply talk about her passion for diversity—she must lead by example. She does this in a number of tangible ways. Natalia actively supports initiatives at Bureau Veritas that promote gender diversity. She places high value on mentorship throughout the company, which extends not only to her leadership team, but to every employee at every level in order to drive true innovation within the testing, inspection, and certification industry. At Bureau Veritas, she has instituted cultural changes that more fully support women’s career paths. She continues to develop opportunities for celebrating the women who have made great strides in leadership at Bureau Veritas.

There are many goals and strategic initiatives Natalia hopes to help Bureau Veritas achieve in the near future, positioning North American operations to grow and expand. Renewables and Sustainability services are especially critical in that Bureau Veritas is helping clients become more sustainable every day. Service offerings in this area will remain a priority as Bureau Veritas continues to focus on the renewable sector. Bureau Veritas also continues to double down on safety, making it a strategic priority, especially in light of the global pandemic of 2020 and how that has significantly changed the world we live in. “We will do this through continued focus on testing, inspections, and certifications, as well as health, safety, and sustainability actions that help businesses achieve verifiable hygienic standards,” says Natalia. “Finally, Bureau Veritas will focus on a mergers and acquisitions strategy to align itself with organizations that share in our core mission and values for making the world a safer place.” IE