Appointments - Frédérique Clavel est nommée Présidente de la Fondation EM Normandie / Frédérique Clavel is appointed President of the EM Normandie Foundation

On 25 March 2022, following a unanimous vote at the EM Normandie Foundation General Meeting, Frédérique CLAVEL (class of 1981) was elected President of the organisation. She follows in the footsteps of Jean-Louis GREGOIRE (class of 1968), appointed Chair of the School at the end of 2021. Co-founder and member of the Foundation’s board of directors since 2017, the business leader and CEO of Fincoach is committed to developing all forms of entrepreneurship.

Frédérique began her career at the bank, working in asset management at HSBC, before joining Crédit Lyonnais in Düsseldorf, where her client base consisted of SMEs in the Ruhr region. She returned to France and worked as Head of food industry clients at Crédit Mutuel. In 1990, she left the bank and joined the Galeries Lafayette Group in which she was a stakeholder as a financier and strategist involved in a major restructuring programme. In 1994, she became Director of Financial Affairs and member of the executive committee of the Laser Group. She managed company mergers, capital increases, restructuring and outsourcing of operations. 

In 2001, she set up Fincoach, and has since been leading the company, which supports entrepreneurs with their financial strategies and helps them to optimise their sources of funding. In 2010, she co-founded Mix For Value SAS, an investment company that connects active investors with added value and new entrepreneurs committed to innovation. 

A director of companies such as Kitchen Bazaar and Logali, she has been a member of the board of directors of EM Normandie since June 2019 and that of the La France s’Engage Foundation since 2017. She has also been a director of a number of charities: Femmes 3000, Femme Business Angels, Women Business Angels for Women Entrepreneurs (WA4E), and a member of CODEV METROPOLE DU GRAND PARIS (2016-2019) and the cercle des administrateurs at INSEAD (2000), which she founded along with 11 other members.

In 2003, she founded Paris Pionnières, which later changed its name to les Premières, the first “pioneering” network of incubators made up of 20 regional incubators in mainland France, overseas French territories, Morocco, Belgium and Luxembourg, to support female entrepreneurs providing innovative services linked to all stakeholders active in the economy. One of them, Caen La Mer by Les Premières is a special partner of EM Normandie.

In 2012, she was appointed Chair of the agency for the creation of business (APCE), which later became BPI France création. She is the first woman to take on this role having been recommended by the Minister of Innovation and SMEs.

In 2009, Frédérique CLAVEL was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite. She then received the Legion of honour in 2013, and the Prix Mongolfier for the business category in 2010 for her role in supporting female entrepreneurs. She also co-wrote the book Entrepreneuse, pourquoi pas vous? with Sophie Meurisse (Editions Eyrolles), published in 2017.