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NEWS & FEATURES |
Interview of the Month – September 2001: Xavier Leroy (ESSEC 1992)
Q: What is your background ? I am actually an AST (Admis sur Titre), and originally graduated from Sciences Po Paris and Langues O (in Persian). ESSEC was a great experience, it opened up the corporate world to me, while before that I was more interested by politics or academia. This was the result of a combination of excellent courses, encounters with classmates from all backgrounds, from Cameroon to Korea, from Pharmacy to Statistics, and of course free distribution of Les Echos. ESSEC definitely helped me get ahead for my VSNE (with Air France in Johannesburg, South Africa, 1992-1994, an enlightening experience in many aspects) and later in joining Monitor Company, a strategy consulting firm which had newly opened its offices in Paris. I was joined there by another ESSEC, Vincent Ravanas, who now lives near San Francisco. Monitor Company (1994-1997) was a real experience builder, allowing me to work and live in many fields, from building materials in Albi to supermarkets in Hong Kong, from telecom operators in Singapore to aluminum manufacturers in India. It is actually through my extensive experience with pharmaceuticals and consumer goods in China and Asia in general that I joined one of our then clients, the pharmaceutical group Hoechst Marion Roussel, as assistant to the Asia Pacific president, based in Tokyo, Japan. I lived in Japan two and a half years, touched base with the very dynamic ESSEC community there (hello Mrs. Ohmori) and generally had a great time professionally and otherwise. When HMR merged with Rhone Poulenc at the end of 1999, the company, renamed Aventis, transferred me to their world headquarters in Bridgewater, NJ. Q: Why did you decide to come and stay here? I had several offers, within the group, and outside (back to consulting), but decided to join a HQ position, and also naturally to have the opportunity to come and live in New York. Who would refuse such an offer? Q: What advice would you give to ESSEC graduates who would like to come to work here?
Try to get transferred here by a European company, try to get an expatriate contract (with generous housing benefits, because apartments are horrendously expensive here), do it early in your career, or mid career, and try to have a contract with clear conditions of return to the European HQ if necessary. I have an L1 visa, and my wife Andrea filed for a Green Card with me, and she was able to work less than two months after filing (very convenient). My contract is indefinite, so the question of a return is still unresolved. Q: How do you think your ESSEC background helped you to be where you are? Tremendously. Like I said, ESSEC gave me the credit / confidence needed to move on, first to an enriching VSNE experience at Air France, then to a rising consultancy firm which sent me around the globe, and now here to my current position as Head of Strategy Coordination at Aventis Pharma, where I also do business development (in licensing / out licensing of products). Before ESSEC, I had opened up my mind to general problems and civilizations, and I had basically learned to read the newspaper. After ESSEC, I wanted to work in private corporations, develop concrete projects, create value, and never regretted nor going for ENA for example. Q: What do you consider as you role in the ESSEC family? ESSEC was a great booster for me personally, and I know it brought a lot to many others as well. I would like to help in developing a sense of community among ESSEC alumni, and raise the profile of our alma mater, especially in the US. This is our MBA school, and ESSEC should be up there with the other MBAs of this world, including the best of this country, Wharton, Stanford and Harvard, to name a few. I would like to create a forum where we would continuously learn about each other’s careers, responsibilities and industries, where one month we would learn about luxury goods, the next about project finance or trading, and the next about pharmaceuticals. We would also help each other in our respective careers, wherever we are. In the mean time, I have been volunteered to be the Treasurer of ESSEC USA... Thank you ...
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