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.

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).

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.