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Jill Warren heads the European Cyclists’ Federation, a Brussels-based nongovernmental organization that advocates cycling to help lower carbon emissions.
This article is part of a Women and Leadership special report highlighting women who are charting new pathways and fighting for opportunities for women and others.
Jill Warren was in corporate law firms for 20 years, doing business development and working as chief marketing officer. But in her private life, cycling was her absolute passion.
“I cycled for daily mobility,” she said in a phone interview, “and a holiday wasn’t complete without taking a bike along.”
Like many people, she had cycled as a child. But when she got her driver’s license at age 16, like most teenagers in American towns like Cary, Ill., the Chicago suburb where she grew up, the car was her main means of transport.
That changed when she was studying abroad in Freiburg, Germany, where “absolutely everybody cycled.” There, she said, “I rediscovered cycling.”
Now 56, she is the chief executive of the European Cyclists’ Federation (E.C.F.), a Brussels-based nongovernmental organization that advocates cycling as a sustainable and healthy form of transport and leisure. The conversation has been edited and condensed.
Why is the federation’s work necessary?
It’s a chance to make a big difference to people’s health, the environment and the livability of cities. Transport is responsible for about 27 percent of global carbon emissions. Road vehicles account for about three quarters of transport CO2 emissions, and this isn’t decreasing. A recent study found that people who cycle daily have 84 percent lower carbon dioxide emissions than noncyclists.