Sophie Beau is co-founder of the European sea rescue association SOS MEDITERRANEE. She is General Manager for the French association and Vice-President of the European network SOS MEDITERRANEE.

Holder of a master's degree in anthropology and a postgraduate diploma in political science, she has been managing social and humanitarian programs for the past twenty years. In particular, she has worked as program manager for Médecins Sans Frontière and Médecins du Monde in many crisis areas in Africa, the Middle East and the Caucasus, as well as in the headquarters of these NGOs in France, the Netherlands and the United States. 

She has also led medico-social teams and accompanied actors in the fight against exclusion in France (associations, local authorities and foundations) within the National Federation of Associations for Social Reinsertion and as a consultant. 

Co-founder of the association SOS MEDITERRANEE in May 2015 with the German merchant navy captain Klaus Vogel, she is the general manager for the French and vice-president of the European network which includes four associations (Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland). The French association, based in Marseilles, currently employs around thirty employees and is deployed through 17 branches and 600 volunteers across France.