My story starts in France but soon moves to the U.S. where I attended high school in Iowa and college at The University of Maryland, and it has gone global since.
I have had the privilege to take two companies from small startup-stage to acquisition, both times building their entire marketing departments from the ground up.
The first one is ILOG, a French-American software company; counting fewer than 100 employees when I joined in 1995. I led its financial communication team as it went public. Four years later it became a 500-employee strong company and has since then been acquired by IBM. I hired a marketing writer before content marketing was invented. As a global marketing executive, I directed campaigns in person, on the ground, in 7 countries and 3 continents.
KDS, a leading software company providing a cloud-based B2B travel & expense management solution, is the second one. With less than 40 staff members and no marketing department before me, the company, now part of American Express, has become a globally respected brand in the business travel sector. I hired and managed 17 sales and marketers and launched programs across 20 countries. My department generated 95% of the sales opportunities amounting to $30 million in revenue.
(See some videos of my work at KDS on my Youtube channel).
Long before that, my career actually started in Fleet Street, London, as a journalist working for Reuters. My understanding of the press has helped me throughout my career. Nailing the right angle and the right pitch landed me high-profile stories in the New York Times, the FT and the Wall Street Journal. Along the way, I also headed business development for a prominent IT PR agency. As ACTE EMEA director, I led European fundraising, successfully growing the US business travel association's memberships and signed several strategic partnerships.
In August 2016, I relocated from Paris, France to Princeton, NJ.
Here, I initially set up a marketing consultancy and had an amazing start working for high-profile clients such as marketing automation software provider Marketo, global insurance company Euler Hermes, and several large international travel management companies. In this capacity, I also trained teams on marketing automation strategies. Read a post I wrote on marketing automation.
Global Retail Project
I have been hired by VisaHQ.com an online passport & visa application solution to head its international development.
As VP of Global Growth, I have focussed on market segmentation, winning proposition; reorganizing the sales team, streamlined processes and launching an account management team.
I boosted the company brand and market perception through content, PR and review management; increasing 5-stars reviews by 452% in just 2 months. My new automated referral platform is expanding our user base.
I strive in this multi-cultural environment and remote teams based in 24 offices across 12 countries.
The Startup Experience
I have always been passionate about solutions that foster one-on-one communication between a brand and its clients. So when my longtime friends Vianney and François Lecroart, two remarkable entrepreneurs of the French Startup movement, launched Talkus, a Help-Desk solution for the SMB market, I volunteered to help them. In the 18 months since its inception, Talkus has become a serious player in its market space.
Read a post on this startup's content strategy.
In December 2016, I joined them as CEO. I drafted the sales and marketing strategy, developed a pitch, and led Talkus to be selected as one of 13 companies out of 400 candidates by The Refiners, a Silicone Valley startup incubator. After three amazing months in San Francisco, I had pitched Talkus in front of 200 investors and sat with hundreds of mentors and VCs. With my co-founders, we incorporated the company in the U.S., flipped its legal structure and changed our business model a few times.
Talkus provides me with awesome opportunities: running a small yet global enterprise, serving international customers, running digital growth marketing programs, determining product and sales strategies... Read about this startup's global customer base.
As an experienced company spokesperson, I have been invited to pitch Talkus at the French Consulate and at the NASDAQ studio of the French Business TV BFM, in New York.
Talkus is doing great and I am continuing to support it, however, it is too early to finance three salaries and I am hungry for even more!
This is why I am looking for the next exciting opportunity.
Do reach out if you believe I can help you grow your business!