Who I spent time with
is who I became...
I jumped in the ocean, and while falling, I grew wings...
Growing up on a small island, there was no indication that my journey would lead here. At 14, I nearly died in a motorcycle accident and spent two weeks in a coma. It was a hardship but also a miracle and a blessing - I discovered strengths I did not suspect and developed the will to never give up. Since then, my life has been filled with ruptures, rebirths, and extraordinary encounters. Today, I have aligned my professional life with my personal values and feel I am in the right place.
Several catalysts/crises - near-death experience, financial crisis, my father's sudden death, my divorce - gave me the courage to be the change I was seeking and lead a life true to myself. Along the way, I have also been incredibly lucky to get support from inspiring and efficient mentors, therapists, coaches.
From Finance to Art via Social Enterprise
After graduating from Harvard University, Cambridge University, and Sciences Po Paris, I started my career in Finance in 1997 covering institutional clients for Paribas and Lehman Brothers, and since 2006 advising private clients via my own firm, OraNui Finance, in Paris where I live and Tahiti where I am from.
In 2012, I had the urge to make a documentary "Social Business-A New Path for Capitalism?" when the subject was still in infancy. I had no experience in either film or social impact, but it resonated as the financial crisis had shaken my beliefs in the system and had raised the need for change. My message was clear : unless business aligns all actors' interests, it is unsustainable. I made this film aware that our backs had reached the wall.
Learn, Earn, Return. Change the world. This is my realistic utopia.
At the same time, I have promoted artists, and coached women and young adults to reveal their Leadership qualities, to act for change. Find their voices. Launch their projects. I have created a series of conferences "C like Diamond" to awaken the leader in each of us, thanks to the 4 C's: Courage, Creativity, Communication, Corporeality (Embodiment).
For years, I have also accompanied and invested in various projects in Media, Technology, Design, Ethical Fashion, Environment, Real Estate.
Building Bridges - Mediator for a New Economy
From working and living in 5 countries on 3 continents, connecting dots, I have made some realisations:
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Business cannot thrive unless all interests are aligned : People, Planet, Profit - "If climate was a bank, we would already have saved it";
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Creativity encourages Leadership, Innovation, Efficiency and is the main competency to achieve Impact - "Data rarely moves people, but great art always does";
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Female qualities are essential to drive the Transition - "There is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women" (Kofi Annan).
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Action is the only path to change - this requires courage and clarity, vision. "Action without vision is only passing time, vision without action si merely daydreaming, but vision with action can change the world " (Nelson Mandela).
Inspire the Transition by Supporting Individual Change
Our system is in a dire state, ecologically and socially. Yet, never before have we witnessed so many initiatives to address these issues and so many individuals longing for a change. Awareness is on the rise.
I am a person of transition, moving from the 20th to 21st century, between continents, countries and industries, between educational systems, and between status: from salaried employment to entrepreneurship, from marriage to divorce...
More than ever, I believe in a sustainable world where business, society and the environment are aligned. The current Covid crisis, even if tragic, is giving us another chance (or ultimatum?) to wake up.
My WHY is to inspire, accompany and support the transition in each individual so that we all Learn, Earn and Return our gift to the world and together transform it.
Advising. Coaching. Investing. Speaking. Teaching. Giving.