27 March, 2023
#42: Portrait of a woman in the financial sector: Emilie Jacqueroux
Emilie Jacqueroux shares her extraordinary career path and explains how she moved from the communication department to a more digital environment, with a particular focus on customer experience. A French native from Lyon, Emilie seized different opportunities that allowed her to forge her own path within BNP Paribas Fortis. Today she holds a key position, as head of the bank's digital channels: a team of 350 people that she co-leads with an IT colleague.
With her typical outspoken nature and keen sense of humor, Emilie Jacqueroux gets straight to the point: her current role is pure coincidence because nothing destined her for this function of head of the bank's digital channels, after having spent more than fifteen years in the communication department.
What drives her more than anything is collective success. The function suits her well because, together with a team of 350 people, she is able to make life easier for customers by offering services and products in the most intuitive way possible (particularly through the transactional web and the bank's app). Being at the heart of the bank's transformation process to have a real impact is a daily source of motivation for her.
Emilie certainly owes her impressive career development to her work ethics, and her ability to get out of her comfort zone, but also to the help of people within the bank who trusted her and offered her new challenges.
Having a circle of people who act as sounding board is essential for Emilie, because they help to take a step back from certain situations and see if they are making the right decisions. With experience, Emilie has learned to differentiate between what is important and what not, and to make the best out of the most difficult experiences "There is a lesson to be learned with each small failure, without questioning the person you are. It is important to be able to redefine your own ambitions".
To her younger self, she would say to trust herself, to see her career as a long journey, which will allow her to acquire a kind of wisdom and to take a step back.
When it comes to gender equality, Emilie originally wasn't convinced of the usefulness of setting objectives. Yet she has learned that it is ultimately a necessary evil, as long as it doesn’t come at the expense of people's competences. Quotas seem to be one of the most effective solutions to break glass ceilings and accelerate women's access to positions of responsibility, provided that it is part of an overall plan that also acts on inclusion and corporate culture.
Even if nothing destined Emilie to join the financial sector, it is clear that she feels entirely at home. "The diversity of possible jobs within a bank allows everyone to flourish, regardless of their field of study, experience or ambitions," says Emilie.
Interviewed by Anne-France Simon
