Helen Zhou was born in Shanghai, where she was raised by her grandmother. She graduated from the Sun Yat-sen University in English and Business and started her career at a beauty brand in Guangzhou. She is now General manager of Guerlain, China.
In 2013, she applied to Sephora, her first job within the LVMH Group. She had to be interviewed by the Group's President for China. To her great surprise, when she opened the door, the President turned out to be a woman, Anne-Véronique Bruel.
Anne-Véronique, who is now CEO of FRESH, asked her to sit down not in front of her, but beside her: "And this has completely changed the relationship, because sitting on the opposite side as I used to do to report to my line manager, it gives some kind of hierarchy." Helen remembers.
This particular moment made her realize that women can reach the highest positions, while remaining true and authentic: "Being a female leader doesn’t request being a copycat of other leaders”.
Since then, Helen has completely changed her way of being a manager, she doesn't hesitate to express her feelings to her team, to talk about her own difficulties. Finally, Helen realized that « [she can be true to who [she is]”.
All content for Confidences particulières is the property of LVMH and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Helen Zhou was born in Shanghai, where she was raised by her grandmother. She graduated from the Sun Yat-sen University in English and Business and started her career at a beauty brand in Guangzhou. She is now General manager of Guerlain, China.
In 2013, she applied to Sephora, her first job within the LVMH Group. She had to be interviewed by the Group's President for China. To her great surprise, when she opened the door, the President turned out to be a woman, Anne-Véronique Bruel.
Anne-Véronique, who is now CEO of FRESH, asked her to sit down not in front of her, but beside her: "And this has completely changed the relationship, because sitting on the opposite side as I used to do to report to my line manager, it gives some kind of hierarchy." Helen remembers.
This particular moment made her realize that women can reach the highest positions, while remaining true and authentic: "Being a female leader doesn’t request being a copycat of other leaders”.
Since then, Helen has completely changed her way of being a manager, she doesn't hesitate to express her feelings to her team, to talk about her own difficulties. Finally, Helen realized that « [she can be true to who [she is]”.
#2 - Karen Williams "I’m a better person and a stronger manager"
Confidences particulières
7 minutes 30 seconds
5 years ago
#2 - Karen Williams "I’m a better person and a stronger manager"
Karen Williams is Global Academy and Education Director at MAKE UP FOR EVER. Every day, she teaches young people how to become make-up artists.
She came from a very polyglot family and lived all over the world: Germany, Africa, India, Portugal, wondering what she wanted to become. She dreamed herself as a make-up artist for horror films. Then she came to France and graduated from a make-up school. For twenty year, she has been working her way out to backstage, advertising, etc. in the make-up sector.
One day, Karen Williams was working as a make-up trainer at Parfums Christian Dior, when she met with a neuroscientist researcher named Kate-Mary. Kate-Mary was working on people’s brain and how they learn. At first sight, she appeared to Karen as eccentric. But then she turned out to be her role model.
Kate-Mary taught Karen how to be a better person and a much stronger manager. She checked Karen to be who she is today, including from a vocational perspective. She taught her about education. And when Karen became Global Academy and Education Director at MAKE UP FOR EVER three years ago, she wanted to pay tribute to Kate-Mary. Thanks to her she realized that education is everything.
Confidences particulières
Helen Zhou was born in Shanghai, where she was raised by her grandmother. She graduated from the Sun Yat-sen University in English and Business and started her career at a beauty brand in Guangzhou. She is now General manager of Guerlain, China.
In 2013, she applied to Sephora, her first job within the LVMH Group. She had to be interviewed by the Group's President for China. To her great surprise, when she opened the door, the President turned out to be a woman, Anne-Véronique Bruel.
Anne-Véronique, who is now CEO of FRESH, asked her to sit down not in front of her, but beside her: "And this has completely changed the relationship, because sitting on the opposite side as I used to do to report to my line manager, it gives some kind of hierarchy." Helen remembers.
This particular moment made her realize that women can reach the highest positions, while remaining true and authentic: "Being a female leader doesn’t request being a copycat of other leaders”.
Since then, Helen has completely changed her way of being a manager, she doesn't hesitate to express her feelings to her team, to talk about her own difficulties. Finally, Helen realized that « [she can be true to who [she is]”.
