train to rebuild

Stéphane Cossard is the founder and director of Activemedia Développement, a French Social Enterprise dedicated to human capital development for Ukraine's reconstruction.

With over 20 years of field experience in insulated panel construction and industrial cold chain, Stéphane identified a critical gap: Ukraine needs hundreds of thousands of skilled construction workers for its reconstruction, while millions of displaced Ukrainians in Europe remain underemployed. His response was to create an integrated programme that bridges this gap.

The Activemedia programme provides displaced Ukrainian citizens in France with 450 hours of professional construction training, 5 European certifications, and permanent employment, before deploying them back to Ukraine as bilingual team leaders. The model is entirely funded by French and European public grants and costs 36% less than standard subcontracting.

Stéphane structures consortiums that combine French industrial expertise with workforce development, creating autonomous Ukrainian capacity rather than foreign contractor dependency. The methodology is scalable to every construction trade.

His approach is aligned with OECD recommendations on skills development for displaced persons and addresses an untapped niche: among the 19 laureates of Ukraine Fund I, zero projects covered construction or cold chain.

Activemedia Développement is supported by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Entreprises (regional international department) and accompanied by Endrix, a national accounting firm with Bpifrance, France's public investment bank, in its equity.

Stéphane is attending the EU-Ukraine Business Summit and the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdańsk (June 2026) to connect with Ukrainian public beneficiaries seeking reconstruction partnerships in cold chain, warehousing, hospitals and public infrastructure.