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NEWS & FEATURES |
Interview of the Month - February 2005: Vanessa Kefaifi-Boz (ESSEC MBA Luxury Brand Management 2003)
I have spent the first five years of my career in Wall Street as a stockbroker for Société Générale. My main role was to advise our U.S.institutional customers on their investments in the European luxury andretailing markets. I have an analytical background, with a lot ofinternational exposure. My current job is very different from the experience at SG as I now work in the fashion industry, with a French designer basedin New York, named Catherine Malandrino. I am in charge of the wholesale activities and the business development of the brand. We are still a small company, with sales of less than $20mln, but growing fast. My responsibilities range from managing a team of account executives and making sure that our brand is positioned and promoted appropriately. Italso involves opening new markets and organizing events with our various partners. It is a multi-faceted role due to the nature of our business, andthe fact that Catherine Malandrino is still a small company. In that respect, I feel that I can contribute on several levels. Why did you decide to come and stay here? Upon graduating from University Paris-Dauphine in 1996, I received a scholarship to do a Master's degree in International Economics & Finance at Brandeis University in Boston. I was interested in the experience of living on campus and it was my first move to the U.S. I did an internship at SG in New York during the summer of the Master, and was then hired in theinternational equities sales team. I loved the experience of working on atrading floor and I spent five years there, ultimately as a vice-presidentspecializing on the luxury and retailing industries. Unfortunately, the nature of the brokerage business changed after September 11th, as well as theperception of my life in New York. I think it was 'my tipping point' - I decided that I needed a radical career change to enter my thirties. I wanted to follow my longtime dream of working in the fashion industry and went back to Paris to study for the one-year MBA in International Luxury Brand Management at ESSEC. It was the perfect transition to gain the marketing foundations I was lacking, to think of my ideal role in the fashion world, and to network. I ended up moving back to New York after the ESSEC MBA to live with my husband, whom I got married with during the MBA. To answer the question briefly, he is the main reason why I decided to come and stay here! What advice would you give to ESSEC graduates who would liketo come to work here? It is getting increasingly difficult for young foreign graduates to work in the US due to visa issues. Therefore, I think that studying in the U.S. on a postgraduate degree after ESSEC is a good way of obtaining the proper culturalexperience to enter the job market, and of getting an F1 visa which then offers a one-year period of work experience. ESSEC graduates must makesure to have an excellent level of spoken and written English before applying for any job here. The first couple of years of work experience in the US should be seen as aninvestment for the future. Finally, in my experience, the large companies as well as certain industries such as consulting and banking often make it easier to hire foreign graduates, so they should probably be targeted first. How do you think your ESSEC background helped you to bewhere you are? The ESSEC MBA in Luxury Brand Management has a great mentorship program which helped me open doors in the closed world of the luxury industry. I was very inspired by my mentor during the program. In addition, the class has every year a tremendous mix of students, with very diverse professional and cultural backgrounds. This was a great source of motivation for me. What do you consider as your role in the ESSEC family? I am not sure that there is yet an ESSEC family for me beyond the classthat I shared a full year with during the MBA. I work for a small company today, where unfortunately we have difficulties hiring foreign students without working papers in place. However, I do consider that it is my role and duty to provide advice to students who contact me sometimes to ask for direction on entering the luxury industry. Why do you think people should participate to the fundraising? The alumni book was a great source of information when I was networking during the MBA and contributing to the annual fees is very important to keep it up to date. Unfortunately, French business schools, ESSEC included, are still far from having well-organized alumni network such as the ones of the top U.S. business schools. For example, we still do not have a life time email address that corresponds to the year we graduated. I hope that with more fundraising, it will be achieved in the near future, as it will help forge a sense of community among the ESSEC alumni network throughout the world. Thank you Vanessa… |
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