French national Marianne Abib-Pech has undertaken a meteoric rise in business leadership. A Finance Director role at Kodak when only 32 years old was followed by a Chief Finance Officer position at Shell a few years later. She has recently published her first book, “The Financial Times Guide to Leadership”. The Watt Club caught up with her to find out the secrets to her success, and of her time studying at Heriot-Watt.
Marianne Abib-Pech
“I left France in 1994, and I’ve never returned to work there. I love working in multicultural, international corporations, and I can trace this enjoyment back to my time at Heriot-Watt”.It is the friendly spirit of international students that she remembers most fondly.
“Whilst studying at Strasbourg, I was required to take a year in a university abroad. Heriot-Watt’s reputation was – and still is – strong for business courses, so I chose to study Finance & Business Organisation. I was keen to be able to interact with students from all over the world, and so staying on campus – at Robert Bryson Halls – meant I was never far from the action.
Coming from a French background, I enjoyed the French-Scottish “Auld Alliance” culture, along with the ceilidhs, tours of Scotland and campus activities. As a young student in 1994/95, being exposed to all of this at Heriot-Watt, it was one of the most formative years of my life.”
After graduation, she worked as Senior Auditor at Arthur Andersen in Luxembourg, and then moved to London to work as Corporate Auditor for Motorola before becoming a balance sheet analyst for GE.
You hear about people undergoing their Crucibles of Leadership – well this was mine.
“From GE, I moved to Kodak where I took my first Finance Director role, having just turned 32. It was an interesting experience – I had 13 people directly reporting to me, all of whom were older. You hear about people undergoing their Crucibles of Leadership – well this was mine. I realised that maturity in business and a certain level of self-awareness were just as important in a leadership role as intellectual capacity.
I took what I learned at Kodak back to GE for a period, and then moved to shell as Chief Finance Officer. Back then, it was a £20Bn company with £1/2Bn net income annually, employing about 5,000 people. And there was me, 35 years old, in a position of massive responsibility. However through it all I was always going back to what I learned at Heriot-Watt, my journey of change. It’s what helped me perform to the best of my abilities. I then moved to BHP Billiton as Head of Commercial, where I was tasked to deploy £6-800M over three years.”
The lessons in it are as useful to new graduates as they are to those with ten, twenty, thirty plus years in the business.
From here, Marianne’s career diverted to Hong Kong for family reasons, giving her an opportunity to work on her book. “I’d been working for a while on a book about women in leadership. After speaking to the Financial Times about publishing it, we decided to re-focus it and make it more about leadership in general, I started to analyse my own career in business, and understand the whys and lessons learned from my successes and failures. I’ve wanted to ensure it’s got as wide an appeal as possible, from those considering a career in corporate business, to emerging leaders and global executives. The lessons in it are as useful to new graduates as they are to those with ten, twenty, thirty plus years in the business.”
Marianne’s book, “The Financial Times Guide to Leadership: How to Lead Effectively and Get Results” is available on Amazon, and she has two further books in the pipeline.
Perhaps a key insight into Marianne, though, is the fact that even though she has moved to Hong Kong, and even though she has written, published and promoted a new book, she has found the time to set up two new companies of her own.
“Setting up Leaders– inspiring the future – a leadership consulting business – was a great step for me, however, not working in finance just felt wrong, like something was missing” she admitted.” So I set up another company as a financial advisory for the Energy sector. I wanted to be able to test my skillset outside of the protection of a big company; to become an entrepreneur, and so far it has been a great learning experience… and I haven’t looked back !”
Her parting advice to new graduates wishing for the best possible career they can get?
“Believe in yourself. Never stop observing the environment around you, and how it impacts on you and your business. Over and above all – find your purpose in life. No matter what stage of life you are at – it’s never too early to start.”
**Edit 22/05/2013: Click here to watch Marianne talk about her book on France 24 (in English). **
The Watt Club 