CLAI SEC Newgate France

Founder of CLAI, Eric is a professional in corporate communications, public affairs and sensitive and crisis communications. He advised or still advises Air Liquide, Rio Tinto, Nestlé France, AstraZeneca, Schindler, Lafarge, Lilly France, Urbis Park, e.on, Altéo, the Ansa, the Hersant Media Group, the Reyl bank, Transdev, International Papers, Bridgestone, the CESE.

President for more than 8 years of Publicis Consultants, he was in charge of many large-scale campaigns, such as the pension reform, the health insurance reform, the state reform, the establishment of the LOLF, the GDF-SUEZ merger, Alcan’s takeover bid for Pechiney and Sanofi’s for Aventis.

Honorary ‘Maître des Requêtes’ at the ‘Conseil d’Etat’, former technical adviser to the Cabinet and then director of central administration at the Ministry of the Interior from 1981 to 1986, Eric has a thorough knowledge of the decision-making processes for public actions.

A former ENA student (Pierre Mendès-France promotion-1978), Eric also has a DESS in political science, a master’s degree in private law and a diploma from Sciences Po (Public Service section, promotion 1974).

He is a published author, his books include: “Corporate communications: le manuel des strategies” (2009), PUF; “Affaires de com’” (2011), Odile Jacob; “Il y a 30 ans, l’Acte I de la décentralisation” (2012), Berger Levrault; “Pour en finir (vraiment) avec le millefeuille territorial” (2015), l’Archipel; “De l’art de faire dire du bien de soi par les autres” (2019), Ed Bourin François.

Eric has been decorated as Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honour and Officer of the National Order of Merit.

SEC Newgate CLAI co-president, Elisabeth is an expert in brand strategies, corporate communications and global communications systems. She supports the ANSSI (French State Agency for Cybersecurity), the AESIO Group, the French Agency for Biodiversity (Agence Française de la Biodiversité), the French National Bar Council (Conseil National du Barreau) for which a web series has been produced, and several other companies for their brand platform and brand architecture, including SPIE and Valeo.

She worked in advertising 20 years, then turned to corporate communications, and eventually became a corporate advocate at CLAI, 12 years later. Before that, she was a strategic planner at CLM-BBDO, then the manager of BDDP strategic planning for 6 years after it was launched, then Director General of EURO-RSCG Fichard Roussel and Coutureau, Managing Director of ALICE, and Executive Vice President of TBWA \ Corporate.

Her experience is as much linked to public institutions (Ademe, Health Insurance, Inpes, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of the Environment, Unedic, SNCF …) as to the private sector (Afflelou, Elior, Ernst & Young, Malakoff Médéric , Spring, Kering and Nexity …)
Elisabeth has a degree in economics and political science.

She is a lecturer at Sciences Po Paris and she is the Vice-President of AACC Corporate.

Vice-President at CLAI since 2014, Stéphanie conducts various missions in corporate communications, media relations, and crisis communications, both for private companies and public institutions (Association Nationale des Sociétés par Action, Colisée, Fonds de Garantie des Dépôts and Résolution, Haropa, Haut Conseil des Biotechnologies …).
She has been passionate about corporate communications since 1995. She first worked for the Société Générale, where she participated in the creation of the international communications department, then for Havas Paris (formerly Euro RSCG Omnium) where she conducted major missions for companies such as Engie or Orange, as well as for SMEs that were about to go public.
In 2000, her career took a digital turn as she joined Business Lab, a web agency that was a pioneer in merchandising, and in which she learned about online sales issues for major brands.
In 2002, due to her interest in economic and strategic issues, she took on responsibilities at Publicis Consultants, first as a consultant and then as an Account Director, and eventually she joined the Management Committee as Development General Manager. She worked on corporate communication issues and supported them in their transformations (repositioning, strategic plan, sale of activities, investments, business model change, governance, IPO …), be they large groups (Arcelor Mittal, Groupama, GDF Suez, Michelin, Dexia, Lafarge, Société Générale) or SMEs (Hubwoo, Monceau Fleurs …).
Stéphanie graduated from the European Business School Paris.

Gaëtan joined and participated in the creation of CLAI in 2009.
He has since supported numerous companies and institutions in their change communications (AstraZeneca, Hersant Media Group), their internal communications (Delsey), their training for crisis communications (Air Liquide, IdKids) and their institutional communications (Anssi). He has also conducted more than 40 reorganization and restructuring missions.
Furthermore, Gaëtan trains directors and managers for their speeches and interviews in the media.
Gaëtan previously worked 3 years at Publicis Consultants, initially in new business development, then on issues of change communications (GDF Suez, Lorraine Region), restructuring (Thomson) and corporate press relations (Carrefour Group).
Gaëtan got a Master’s degree in Information Communications Sciences and a Master’s degree in Information and Organizational Communications.

Vanessa joined SEC Newgate CLAI in March 2017 as Vice President. She is specialized in brand issues and involved in the design and implementation of digital devices, and monitoring & analysis of opinion systems. She assists PMU, Sanofi, KFC, Maison Médelys and Messe Frankfurt France.

Vanessa began her career at Burson Marsteller where she supported French subsidiaries of major international groups such as Motorola and Microsoft in the design and implementation of their BtoB and BtoC communication strategies. In 2011, Vanessa decided to create, with Stéphane Mahon and Laurent de Védelly, the firm happycurious, specialized in social intelligence. In this context, she worked for the PMU, the HSBC Foundation or the Altran Foundation for Innovation.

Vanessa has a degree in Relations with European Institutions.

Emilie joined CLAI in 2013 and is now Associate Director.

She conducts missions in corporate communications, media relations, sensitive and crisis communications, and influence strategy. Her clients are, among others: the FGDR (supporting the rise in visibility of this institution responsible for protecting bank deposits), the MAIF (diversifying the group’s media footprint in support of its strategic plan, by further highlighting its uniqueness), Cipav (supporting the pension fund for liberal professionals in its media and digital communication, in a context of pension reform), l’Alliance du Commerce (to defend downtown shops interests with the public authorities and the media), DomusVi (to protect the reputation of the 3rd largest French player in the field of services for seniors), Würth (to redesign the brand platform of a leading group of tools and industrial hardware, and to produce a brand book).

Previously, Emilie worked 5 years at Tilder, a corporate communications consulting firm, and one year at the Alcatel-Lucent Communications and Sustainable Development Department.

She graduated from Sciences Politique in Paris and studied for one year at Tufts University in Boston (USA).

At CLAI since 2012, Domitille is involved in communication strategy consulting assignments that combine all of the firm’s expertise: crisis communication, media relations, brand strategy, digital strategy, etc. Among its clients, Domitille has the AESIO Mutual Group, which she participated in the creation and deployment, as well as Valeo and the Colisée group which she supports in their brand strategies. She also works for Eight Advisory for their media relations.

Previously, Domitille assisted the Mory Ducros group with its legal redress, the ready-to-wear company Façonnable and the Sanofi Group for their Job saving plan. She also participated in the development of the crisis manual of the Caisse des Dépôts and assisted, for nearly 3 years, the Nestlé France Foundation.

Graduated from Sciences Politique in Paris, Domitille also holds a Master in Marketing and Strategy from Paris Dauphine University.

Céline joined CLAI in 2016 as a senior consultant.

She works on corporate communication missions, as well as on crisis or change communication issues and media relations. Celine assists BlackRock, Constellium and the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation for their media relations, Air Liquide and SKF for their communication of change, DomusVi for their crisis communication. She regularly assists clients in the context of media training or crisis simulation.

Previously, she worked at Hopscotch within the Corporate department for more than 4 years and then at INSIGN on media relations assignments. In particular, she assisted the Ministry of Ecology for the National Conference of Natural Hazards, the Ministry of Justice for the Consensus Conference on the Prevention of Repetition and the National Debate on Justice of the 21st Century, EDF Energies Nouvelles for public debates concerning offshore wind farm projects, the National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management (Andra) for public debate, Cigéo, Coca-Cola, the Norwegian Sea Products Center / Norge.

Graduated from Science Politiques in Lille, Céline holds a Master degree in Public Affairs. As part of his university studies, she completed an ERASMUS year at Uppsala Universitet in Sweden.