On the occasion of International Women's Rights Day, we are launching Talented Women of ESCP, a series of portraits and interviews of inspiring Alumna who are experts in their field. Shedding a light on the profiles of talented women to discover the diversity of our community.

 


Delphine Chevallier (ESCP 92)

 

What is your area of expertise?

I am quite an eclectic person. So I don't think I have an area of ​​expertise and predilection. I federate several of them I think even if it is true that HR and management are undoubtedly now my core expertise. With a zest of leadership, that is to say this ability to train and unite people around projects.

And what took you on this path?

I started my career in the arts. When I joined ESCP I was a dancer in a contemporary company. (…) I also took care of a law firm specializing in the rights of artists and performing arts. Then I took over the general administration of a chamber orchestra.

I then did organizational and IS consulting for the public sector. It was at this point that HR came onto my career path. (…) It was an exciting moment in my career: big projects to be piloted on a global level, such as developing training programs linked to job transitions careers that did not exist at the time and implement them on scopes of several thousand consultants.

I then joined a business law firm to build their talent strategy and their internal university on a global level. Another exciting step. At a complicated moment of life with a child to accompany in the disease.

This is where my career branched off into cybersecurity (but I didn't know it yet). The firm I worked for was affected by the NotPetya cyberattack. This experience upset me so much by our unpreparedness as a manager, that I drew a book from it. The cybersecurity ecosystem has given this book an exceptional welcome and many encounters (…) led me to found Thalia NeoMedia, a consulting, publishing and cyber training firm. I developed original solutions to train and engage leaders and managers on these issues. Probably in synthesis of all my previous experiences. This is how I was approached to join the ComCyberGend citizen reserve. I have also just founded and taken the presidency of ASSOVICA, the Support Association for Victims of Cyber ​​Attacks

 

What is your best memory at ESCP?

I don't think I have ONE best memory. But rather a lot of good memories. Exciting courses: an elective on Islamic civilization, a course in market finance, those of the public management option (my final year major). I remember being picked up by an analytical accounting teacher about breaking down the costs for making a pastry! I also remember our HR course bashing (SHO pipeau). We understood quite quickly then during the first years of career that the humanities are in fact an essential key to success in business.

Of course, I also have a lot of memories of very nice meetings with people I still see today, even with whom I regularly exchange on a professional basis. And then of course the 'fiestas' (in particular a grandiose evening at the Palace, in the 90s it was a must!), another in a warehouse I don't know where in the suburbs, the Agro gala in the middle of the fields (I think about it regularly because now I live nearby!), the campaigns for the JE and BDE elections, the ESCP gala of which I was treasurer then President with the pride of having associated specialized master's students with its organization. An awesome trip to Turkey organized for us by a Turkish class student, another with AIESEC in Budapest just after the events of the fall of the Berlin Wall. A dive into a country still under the yoke of the USSR. I remember a mountain of caviar during a dinner at the restaurant; the first time I ate it. Besides, that has not been reproduced since!

 

To you, what does 'success' mean? 

Success, on a lifetime scale, is having achieved what is most important to us, including a number of our dreams. It is very intimate and personal and in no way a conformity to a model of success imposed by society at any given time. ‘To each his own way’.


What advice would you like to give to those who read you and that you would have liked to receive when you were a student or at the start of your career?

Welcoming hardships (professional or personal) as stages, cultivating our lucky stars and having confidence in this path on which life puts us while keeping our own course: “Everything happens for those who know how to wait”.

 




Fériel Fodil (ESCP 01)

 

What is your area of expertise?

I can call myself a manager of the cultural world with an international experience.

And what took you on this path?

I started my career in an audit firm at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in 2001 in the field of insurance in Paris and then in Washington DC. I did not know my real aspirations.
I then left for the United Arab Emirates to work for a government institution in charge of the development of the largest cultural conglomerate in the world on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, but beause I am trilingual my manager pushed to position me on the museum development of the 3 museums of the Island.

I became manager, then financial director of the operational division in charge of the prefiguration of museums including the Louvre Abu Dhabi inaugurated in 2017. When returning to France, it was only natural that Prince Aga Khan recruited me as director. finance then executive director of the Château de Chantilly. 
I'm now joining AFALULA (French agency for the development of Al-Ula). From March 20, I will be the general manager of Villa Hégra in Al-Ula in Saudi Arabia, the first Franco-Saudi cultural institution.

We can say that it's the languages ​​that have guided my career.

What is your best memory at ESCP?

Accounting classes with Christophe Thiberge. He had the art of making this subject simple, accessible and playful. I've always had a lot of admiration for him.

Another highlight was the graduation ceremony at the Palais des Congrès, with Madame de Chantérac Lamielle, of whom she was general manager. Her inspiring speech has followed me throughout my personal and professional life.

To you, what does 'success' mean?

Winston Churchill described it very well: “Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm”. I think this quote sums up the fact that success is earned through perseverance.

Success is also getting to know yourself and helping the people around you grow. It's being aligned with your choices.


What advice would you like to give to those who read you and that you would have liked to receive when you were a student or at the start of your career?

In my opinion, you have to listen to your desires, test different routes and paths. It's what you love that will carry you and make you better than others. You have to know how to welcome and seize the chance when it presents itself.

As the saying goes: “Everything happens for a reason."

 

 

 


Magali Payen (09)

 

What is your area of expertise?

What has driven me for several years is to contribute to accelerating the metamorphosis of the world, particularly through imagination. So I have a double ambition: on the one hand, to inform, raise awareness and mobilize on the major current environmental and societal issues. This is how the On est Prêt movement was born in 2018, which brings together experts, actors in the field and artists in the service of causes that are dear to me, such as the preservation of biodiversity. On the other hand, to promote new narratives, in the service of a more desirable future. This is what led me to create Imagine 2050, also in 2018, to advise and support cultural leaders and the media in this essential paradigm shift.

And what took you on this path?

My graduation thesis was devoted to the socially engaged cinema. But it also was meetings, films, questions that accelerated my awareness. In order not to remain in amazement or bewilderment that eco-anxiety can cause, I have found only one possible way: action! Working on a daily basis to bring about a world that is fairer and more respectful of living things, what better job than that?

What is your best memory at ESCP?

The courses on Spanish cinema by Mr. Jimenez!

To you, what does 'success' mean?

Although I graduated from a business school, I do not believe in these external signs that our time wanted us to wear as the indisputable markers of success! More than status, wealth or notoriety, what comes closest to my vision of success is undoubtedly the notion of coherence, of alignment, with one's values ??and convictions, coupled with a positive contribution to the great challenges of our society.


Do you have something that we haven't mentioned that you would like to share with our ESCP Alumni Community?

We are living and will live through major global upheavals. I want to to tell these young people that more than any other generation before, it is up to them to create, to dream, to invent, to dare. Our founding myths have fizzled out, it's time for irreverence, imagination, audacity to build a future that makes sense for humans and living things.

Perhaps you would like to discuss what made you want to launch Newtopia?

Far from alarmist speeches and the darkest projections, to make every citizen want to mobilize, we must give them a view of a desirable future. This is Newtopia's raison d'être. Alongside Cyril Dion and Marion Cotillard, I founded this impact production company to highlight new imaginations and thus bring to life, through images and stories, the world of tomorrow.

 

 


Joséphine Bouchez (14)

 

What is your area of expertise? And what took you on this path?

In 2014, I had not yet graduated from ESCP but I already had co-founded Ticket for Change, a social enterprise that trains and supports individuals who want to build a career with a positive impact. We support entrepreneurs in their first steps, but also students, people in retraining, or employees of large companies, to put social and environmental issues at the heart of their careers and their jobs. Ticket for Change is also a movement that wants to transform the education, training and guidance systems to make these professions useful for society and the planet, accessible and desirable! We have reached nearly 120,000 people to date. For 8 years, I have developed expertise in entrepreneurship and social innovation, educational engineering and impact measurement, hybrid economic models, as well as scaling up strategies.

What is your best memory at ESCP?

There are plenty... and they all involve something outside the classrooms :) The most memorable thing is undoubtedly the creation of an association: the Star Trekk' ESCP Europe. We wanted to make students aware of the environmental cause through mountain sports and the organization of a trek open to all. The first edition with a hundred participants was extraordinary! It was the discovery of entrepreneurship without knowing it: sharing a vision, uniting and managing a team, convincing partners, raising funds, promoting the brand... The association still exists today, it celebrated its 10th anniversary, and tickets are now selling out in just a few hours!

 

To you, what does 'success' mean?

For me, success is devoting your time and energy to what is essential to you, both in your personal and professional life. It's about being aligned between who you are and what you do on a daily basis. In my opinion, it is contributing to building a fairer, more equitable society, more respectful of the planet and which I will be proud to bequeath to future generations. There is work to do! It's also being able to do all of this while being in good shape, enjoying my family and friends, and living in material conditions that allow me to do what I love the most. A big challenge ;) This is a fundamental question, everyone should take the time to answer it. This is a key idea of ??the Manifesto that I co-wrote with my co-founder Matthieu Dardaillon (ESCP 2014) "What do you do for a living? Your work can make a difference for society and the planet".

 

Do you have something that we haven't mentioned that you would like to share with our ESCP Alumni Community?

As an ESCP Alumna, because we have a reputed degree and because most of us are in a leadership position, I think we have a particular responsibility to ask ourselves the question of the consequences of our work. Is it part of the problem or part of the solution? Are we actively contributing to building the society in which we aspire to live? We will spend an average of 80,000 hours in our life working, it's an incredible lever to change things! Yes, it is possible to reconcile career and social usefulness, material security and search for meaning, work and fulfillment! I see hundreds of examples of this every day with Ticket for Change, and I would love for the Alumni of the ESCP community to be inspired in turn by these models!