You have had a long and brilliant career in advertising…

Yes, that's true! I started out at Benton & Bowles in New York as media director for Procter & Gamble and then moved to Saatchi & Saatchi in Paris at the beginning of the 1990s. After Saatchi & Saatchi, I moved to the McCann agency before joining D'Arcy, Paris, where I was responsible for international management, with all its challenges—a position that suited me very well! Following the merger, I ended up in Publicis Groupe in 2002 and was appointed Managing Director / Global Head of P&G Surface Care Leo Burnett Paris, and member of the agency's management committee—and in 2010, was appointed Global Lead P&G Leo Burnett Worldwide, and, consequently, became part of the Chicago head office management team.

Why did you decide to become a mentor?

VivaWomen!—Publicis' internal mentoring network—is the only network I'm part of, and I believe it's important to share our experiences with younger women, so that they can understand how to develop their career in our sector.

This is not always an easy thing to do—but it's always exciting! As an American, even if I've been in France now for 20 years, I'm used to this type of network, and it's great to see it developing among the women in our group.

Did you receive any training before you started mentoring?

We had half a day's training, which enabled us to define what mentoring is within Publicis, and what it isn't. It is not counseling nor a place to let out your emotions! And we mentors are not the Human Resources department! What it is, is a sharing of experiences where the most experienced of the pair (the mentor) can bring a different perspective to help the mentee develop her career.

How did you choose your mentee?

The match between Charlotte Guillabert and myself was made by the program team according to the questions that Charlotte was asking and the topics that I had identified as good for me. At our first meeting, we agreed on the rules of engagement, so that everything was clear from the start. We also asked other questions, such as What were the goals of the mentoring process? How often would we meet? Where would we meet? Who would be responsible for what? How would we manage our relationship between meetings? How long would the mentoring last (three, six, or 12 months)? In the end, the mentoring lasted six months, which seemed the right amount of time to both of us.

What were the highlights for you?

I think that talking to someone who can see the bigger picture relieves the anxiety and stress that you might feel when you begin to question yourself. And sharing experiences was a good way to help Charlotte to find her route through difficult situations.

What do you think about it now—in retrospect?

It was a great experience on both a human and professional level. My only regret is that Charlotte and I weren't able to have a formal end to the relationship because of my sudden move to the United States! It would have been good to review the relationship together, look back on how far she had come, and look to the future to see where she might go. We're going to do it anyway—later on, and that will also give us some time for reflection…for me, I'd like to continue mentoring because it's not only useful for the mentee, but useful for the mentor too; it makes me look at things from a different perspective.

How did you get to where you are now?

I joined Publicis in 2007 as international knowledge manager for the Sanofi account team. The post had just been created in order to share information across a number of countries (67 in the case of Sanofi, which was my account) through digital asset management tools. In 2012, I changed jobs—still within the same team—and became International Account Manager. I look after Sanofi's regional and global clients, especially the Consumer Healthcare division and Pet Health, and I work to develop their advertising campaigns with our agencies within the group.

Why did you apply to the mentoring program?

In a major group such as Publicis, there are a lot of talented people, but it's not always easy to get in touch with them because we're all very involved with our daily jobs. When I learned that VivaWomen!, the internal network that I'm part of, was launching a mentoring program, I thought it would be a great opportunity to meet someone with more experience who could advise me on my career development. So I didn't hesitate to apply. It was a real opportunity to get some advice on my career.

What were you looking for?

First of all, I wanted to have a discussion about my career development—to get some advice to help me to make the right decisions; secondly, I wanted to hear about how a more senior woman had got to the position she had. I wanted to benefit from the support of a mentor who managed an international account. VivaWomen! looked for such a person for me, and it turned out to be Michele Gilbert. Before starting, I prepared a few questions for our first meeting. I wanted it to be as natural as possible and that, together, we'd decide on the range of topics for our subsequent meetings.

What were the highlights for you?

Michele and I immediately got on well together. We talked about our professional experiences, then listed the points where I needed some advice. The whole experience turned out to be hugely beneficial for my career, but if I had to choose one thing, it would be Michele's participation in a workshop I had organized for my client in which together we led an afternoon's topic on “creative debriefing.”

What do you think about it now—in retrospect?

The mentoring lasted six months. There weren't any difficulties—only positives! Overall, mentoring was a great experience. I increased my confidence and learned a lot about myself—both on a professional and on a personal level.

I got answers to the questions I wanted to ask, which enabled me to develop both in the short term and in the longer term. I would recommend that any woman interested in doing something similar should do it—and to do anything they can to have a similar experience. Don't hesitate to open yourself up, to ask questions, even if they seem simplistic, and above all, listen to your mentor and use her experience.