You are at the head of MONDAIR as well as having founded INEXTAIR. How do you manage these two projects and what synergies do you create between them?
MONDAIR is an expert in indoor air quality and ecological interior design. INEXTAIR is a French brand of healthy, eco-responsible furniture.
We market the INEXTAIR brand on our MONDAIR projects, and have also referenced INEXTAIR on the MOM platform at Maison & Objet, to market it to professionals and private individuals internationally.
What led you to combine innovation, ecology and design?
I come from a family of entrepreneurs, my father being a farmer. I grew up in the countryside in a small commune called Montsinery – Tonnegrande in French Guiana. So I was very close to nature, starting with eating healthily and living a life that respected nature and animals.
What’s more, clean air was my daily routine, until it was overtaken in adulthood by a decorative purchase that poisoned one of my children with chemical pollutants. That’s how I came up with the idea of combining expertise in indoor air quality with ecological interior design. As an interior designer by training, I trained in the field of indoor air quality expertise to propose a new way of designing and protecting people.
It was no longer ethically conceivable for me to continue without ensuring that I was offering healthy spaces. So I came up with an innovative methodology for assessing indoor air quality, which I registered with the French Intellectual Property Office. I also came up with an innovative French brand for healthy, eco-responsible furniture, INEXTAIR, as well as a mobile and web application called AIR AMAZ.
I joined several start-up incubators in Paris (schoolab, Paris&Co) to help me with all these projects, and recently joined the Ville de demain programme based at Station F, dedicated to smart cities.
In your opinion, how can tech, and more specifically AI, accelerate the ecological transition while remaining human-centred?
Artificial intelligence is a very good accelerator for companies in automation, but also in the creation of ingenious tools, capable of transmitting data and results very quickly.
However, in order to guarantee control, I think that the human element should be retained for verification purposes, to avoid incidents.
Let’s not forget that artificial intelligence was created to help us, to speed us up, not to direct us. Humans must remain in control and ensure that the data centres used to generate a lot of CO2 to power AI do not become another problem.
That’s why, at MONDAIR, every choice of tool is carefully thought through to optimise our carbon footprint, and we favour French or European solutions as much as possible.
There’s a lot of talk these days about “digital sovereignty” in Europe. Do you think that the principles of “Made in Europe” in industry can inspire technological and feminine sovereignty on a continental scale, as JFD is defending?
To date, there are still not enough French solutions to guarantee autonomy in all areas of technology and industry. European sovereignty is the solution if we are to join forces without being seen as competitors.
France and Europe as a whole must support women in innovation and create synergies between them. Let’s not forget that women give life, so their approach is sometimes closer to the human.
I believe that JFD must pursue this vision by integrating the overseas territories to extend this European sovereignty and use the power of women in all territories.
Is that what motivated you to join the JFD Club?
What motivated me to join the JFD Club was the fact that I had applied for the Margaret Award twice and had the opportunity to take part in the 2025 award ceremony. During the evening, I was able to see the wonderful synergy between all these women who are innovating in tech in France with the aim of developing internationally, in the presence of some great personalities with experience that I can’t wait to discover more about.
And finally, what advice would you give to a woman who wants to launch an impact project?
The advice I would give to a woman who wants to embark on a project with an impact is first to ask herself why? Then to build everything around that why, because that’s what will enable her, in moments of doubt and strategic decisions, to find the right path while remaining connected to her values. And above all, to experiment, to explore, to be supported, and to never give up.
Glawdys Epailly, CEO Mondair and JFD Club Member
Glawdys Epailly is an entrepreneur committed to the intersection of sustainable design, ecological innovation and digital technology. As Project Director at MONDAIR, she drives the company’s eco-responsible approach and develops forward-looking solutions.
Founder of the INEXTAIR brand, she rethinks furniture with a circular approach, aesthetically pleasing without chemical pollutants and 100% made in Europe. Through her creations, she advocates more conscious consumption and environmentally-friendly design.
A visionary, she is also leading the development of innovative software designed to bring together her expertise in a platform dedicated to professionals and private individuals. Glawdys embodies a new generation of leaders who combine ecology, tech and entrepreneurship to build a more sustainable future.
