Mathilde has her background in human and environmental geography. Her studies included field-work researching bio-fuel production in Northern Tanzania from a livelihood perspective and value chain analysis of fuel efficient cooks stove production in Cambodia. As part of her master's degree she did a six months internship in Vietnam researching and identifying opportunities for climate change mitigation energy projects at community and household level benefitting the rural poor population of Northern Vietnam. From 2007-08 she worked in the private sector in Canada developing wind power projects conducting regional wind and spatial data analysis using a Geographical Information System (GIS).

Mathilde joined URC in January 2011 as a research assistant and works in the Cleaner Energy Development group. She is involved in the work of the Global Network on Energy for Sustainable Development (gnesd.org) and other work related to energy access and rural electrification. She has been responsible for the newly launched database of good examples of energy access cases (energy-access.gnesd.org).