08.05.2019

What is your role at Rémy Cointreau?

I am in charge of Compliance for the Rémy Cointreau Group. My mission is to put in place rules and procedures within the Rémy Cointreau Group in two areas:

• Fight against corruption, conflicts of interest and fraud;
• Protection of personal data (employees, customers / prospects, suppliers, etc.)

My role is to:

• Ensure that the Group complies with applicable regulations (Sapin 2, UKBA, FCPA, RGPD, CCPA etc.)
• Prevent and identify risks within the Group to ensure effective management;
• Train employees and managers to explain to them in a pragmatic way the issues and rules to be put in place within the Group.

What does “Compliance” mean?

The definition of “Compliance” is not simple. The word “Compliance” itself is not the subject of consensus. In my opinion, this is a set of procedures and means to ensure respect of:

• Rules and standards applicable to the company by all its employees and managers;
• Company values and a culture of ethics.

The Compliance Department must implement an effective system to prevent the risk of infringement regarding the rules and standards applicable to the company. Compliance helps to ensure better risk management, moreover, compliance must prove its ability to create value.

What is your background?

As a certified lawyer in France, I completed my legal training at the University Paris II Panthéon-Assas with a Master from Queen Mary University, a business school in London. I started my career within two major American companies, namely the strategy consultancy firm ACCENTURE. Then, I joined the international business law firm Baker McKenzie before joining the French family group Rémy Cointreau last year.

What do you like most about your job?

Human relationships!

The Compliance Manager must be in daily contact with the operational teams in order to follow projects in progress. It is a cross-functional business that allows me to interact with all functions within the Group (Marketing, Com, HR, IT, Finance, Legal, etc.) and at all levels of the hierarchy.

I went from “Savoir-Faire” (“Know-How”) learned in  law firm, to “Aimer-Faire” (“Love my job”) within the Rémy Cointreau Group. Indeed, as an attorney, my mission was to provide advice and recommendations to my clients, but I was not able to deploy them operationally. At Rémy Cointreau, I can both define the Compliance strategy, share my recommendations with the operational teams, and deploy the procedures, both in France and abroad, in our subsidiaries, working closely with local teams.

Which missions can represent a challenge?

My main challenge is to make Compliance a tool for economic performance and competitiveness for the Group (make compliance “attractive” and “accessible,” strengthen the trust of customers by effectively protecting their personal data, etc.) while developing a Compliance culture that irrigates the Rémy Cointreau Group.