Franco-British Chamber: our board

Françoise Rausch

OBE, President of the Franco-British Chamber

With more than 40 years' experience as a manager in leading Anglo-Saxon industrial companies in the global construction and agricultural machinery markets, such as the British JCB group and the American Case group, F. Rausch has acquired an outstanding knowledge and expertise in international business relations at both a European and global level. After having been Chief Executive Officer of JCB SAS for 15 years, she joined the Case group as Vice President in charge of EAME. At the end of 2000, she returned to JCB headquarters to ensure the development of global sales as Managing Director of JCB Sales and a member of the World Executive Committee.

In 2012, she was appointed Officer of the British Empire for services to British industry. Member of the board since 2015, she is President of the Franco-British Chamber since July 2023. Françoise is also Vice-President - Treasurer of the FICIME and Honorary Judicial Expert approved by the Court of Cassation

Thierry Drilhon

Vice President

Thierry Drilhon has 35 years of experience in the technology, digital and innovation sphere, acquired as an international manager of major companies such as Microsoft and Cisco Corp. of which he became Senior Vice President in 2007, based in Paris and San Francisco and member of the World Executive Committee. In 2012, he joined Euro Media Group in Paris as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, which he would go on to transform into a European media leader present in 8 European countries.

Deeply "Francoptimistic" and "Europtimistic", Thierry was President of the Franco-British Chamber of Commerce & Industry between June 2018 and July 2023, thus putting his international experience at the service of the attractiveness of Franco-British business relations.

Senior Advisor for Europe at Francisco Partners, a US private equity fund specialising in technology and healthcare, Thierry is also a member of the Boards of Directors of Claranet (London), Beijaflore and Synapscore (Paris). He is a member of the Strategic Committees of Yotta Capital and Idate DigiWorld.

Very committed to health and the heart, since 2002, as President of Cisco France, he has accompanied Professor Christian Cabrol in favour of organ donation, participating for 10 years in "La Course du Coeur". In January 2019, he became the Managing Director of the French Federation of Cardiology, from which he went on to co-found the Endowment Fund "Agir pour le Coeur des Femmes - Women's Cardiovascular Healthcare Foundation" with Professor Claire Mounier-Vehier.

Knight in the Ordre National du Mérite, he is a graduate of EAD Paris and Stanford University in the United States.

Marie-Christine Bilbow

Vice President, Chief Financial Officer – Treasurer

Marie-Christine Bilbow is the CEO of Euro Airship, a company that develops and markets rigid airships for the logistics, tourism and surveillance markets

She has gained international experience in major industrial groups such as 3Com, Sterling Software, Assa Abloy, Brinks, Locatel. She has such held positions as CFO, subsidiary director and general manager.

She was appointed Vice President of the Franco-British Chamber in 2015, in charge of finance, where she brings her knowledge and experience to the Chamber's development and growth.

Oliver Campenon

Vice Président of the Franco-British Chamber & Chairman of the Cross-Channel Institute

Olivier Campenon has been President of the Board and Executive Committee of the Lefebvre Dalloz group since 2018. This European family group is one of the leaders in publishing and legal training with iconic brands such as Francis Lefebvre and Dalloz.

With more than 25 years of business management experience at BT (formerly British Telecom), Deutsch Telekom, Siris and AT&T, Olivier has built up a solid experience of the digital world and its multiple implications on all sectors of the economy.

Olivier is also Vice President of the Franco-British Chamber of Commerce, of which he was President for several years, particularly during the Brexit vote and its first consequences. He was made a Knight of the Franco-British Chamber in 2019. Since September 2023, he is Chairman of the Cross-channel institute, the Chamber's Independent and apolitical Think- Tank. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Professional Women Network and the ETI Club.

Michel de Fabiani

OBE, Vice Président

Michel de Fabiani mainly held executive positions in the energy sector, where he began his career at BP in 1969 and rose to the position of Regional President Europe of the BP Group in 2005 and Vice President of EUROPIA.

Anglophile and deeply European Michel was President of the Franco-British Chamber in 2005 and 2010, of which he is currently Vice-President. In 2005 he was also appointed Chairman of the Hertford British Hospital Charity in Levallois-Perret (92), and was made a Knight of the Franco-British Chamber in 2019.

Director of industrial companies and specialist in Corporate Governance, he is also Chairman of the Policy Committee of EcoDa in Brussels, the lobby of the European Institutes of Directors.

Hubert Dupont L’Hotelain

Director – Business Development

Hubert Dupont L’hotelain was Treasurer of Vivendi from 1995 to 2016. Prior to that, Hubert was Treasurer of Compagnie Générale des Eaux, Aérospatiale and Atochem, three French CAC 40 companies. He also has experience as a banker, as Director of Development at BFT (formerly CCF Group, now HSBC France) for two years, and as a Director of the Global Treasury Advisory Board of Citibank for five years.

His personal experience was built between France and Great Britain where he lived for 15 years. He has adopted a bi cultural attitude in his relationships, trying to make the most of two exceptionally rich lifestyles. After leaving Vivendi, Hubert joined the Franco-British Chamber to develop activities and memberships, and has been a Director since 2017.

Marie-Alix Michel

Director, Honorary Secretary - Legal Counsel

A lawyer and solicitor, Marie-Alix has more than 20 years of experience as an international business lawyer. She has worked as a project manager for major international firms (Allen & Overy, PwC) as well as for major English, American and French groups (Grosvenor, Car Val Investors, Alstom, HP) in France and in the United Kingdom.

She has been a director of the Franco-British Chamber since 2014.
At the same time, Marie-Alix supports growing start-ups. She has taught at ESCP Europe and the University of Paris-Dauphine.

Loïc Chavaroche

Director

As Quality, Safety, Security, Environment, CSR and ESG Director for the Sterne Group, Loïc Chavaroche is involved in all the Sterne Group's Business Units - in France, Poland, Romania, Spain, China, Turkey and Russia.

The action of the QSSE-RSE-ESG Department is to support the Operational Teams in the implementation of their structures, procedures, risk assessments, PUPA and PCA.

Sterne's actions enable Business Units to be certified according to ISO 9001 - ISO 14001 - ISO 13485 and soon under other standards.

Thier interventions structure the achievement of thier CSR and ESG objectives by deploying third party assessments with Ecovadis.

James Palmer

Director

James Palmer is a partner and co-founder of Orphéon Finance. He is Franco-British and has 25 years of experience in investor relations and financial communications with major companies. He has worked for companies such as PSA Peugeot Citroën, Rhodia and Lafarge. Today, with his team, he advises and assists many companies of all sizes and in different sectors, industry, finance, biotech/medtech.... whatever their strategic communication challenges are.

Guillaume Laurent

Director

Guillaume Laurent is Group International Affairs Officer at
ENGIE

Frédéric BEZIERS ROSE

Director

Frédéric is Managing Director in France and Luxembourg for Hays, the world leader in specialised recruitment. Having a Master's degree in change management from HEC Paris and Saïd Business school, University of Oxford, Frédéric joined the group in France in 2001. While he was planning to move to London, he met with Tina Ling (CEO of Hays France, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) who recruited him for the launch of the French branch of the Hays group, forming a Franco-British team of six people. After three years of a successful launch in France, Frédéric took responsibility for rolling out the brand throughout France, which today has 21 offices and employes over 1200 people. In 2009, he took over the management of Luxembourg, relaunching it from scratch and positioning Hays as a leader in this market.

He quickly became Managing Director and took charge of the launch of numerous projects: the development of temporary work and contracting, the launch of a HR consultancy, a technology consultancy and even a payrolling company. For several years, he drove the transformation of Hays in France and Luxembourg towards a complete offering of “Technology” oriented services. Under his leadership, Hays established itself as the largest specialist recruitment consultant in France and Luxembourg. Internationally, Frédéric also participated in numerous projects at group level. In particular, he has taken responsibility for restructuring projects, such as that of the Hays International branch based in London in 2015 or that of the Netherlands as interim Managing Director for a period of one year in 2019. With 23 years of experience in recruitment, human resources and consulting, Frédéric is an intrapreneur driven by his vision of the future of work, his creativity and his dynamism who he likes to share regularly in articles and other media platforms.

Eric Del Cotto

Director

Eric is the General Manager for Southern Europe and North Africa at Owen Mumford, long-term member of the Franco-British Chamber.

Catherine Le Yaouanc

General Manager, Franco-British Chamber

Catherine has been the General Manager of the Franco-British Chamber since 1993, when she accepted the challenge of the Chamber's financial recovery, the creation of new services and the development of membership. Projects to which will be added include numerous innovations in event typology, the development of new digital media and the Brexit challenge since 2016, which led to the creation in 2019 of the Think Tank, Cross-Channel Institute

The Franco-British Chamber is today one of the most dynamic chambers of commerce in the United Kingdom on European soil, and has been awarded numerous prizes (Events, Membership and Digital communication...). For her 20 years in the Chamber in 2013, her European peers awarded her "The Howard Rosen Special Award for Excellence". The number of memberships is constantly growing with a high attractiveness factor for all types of members – President’s Forum, Corporate and Entrepreneurs.
Catherine previously held positions in a Special Products Export Department of the Elf Atochem-Ceca group. She is also a board member for the Fondation Franco-Britannique de la Colony de Sillery.

Jo Hawley

Deputy Trade Commissioner for Europe and Country Director for France at the Commercial Section of the British Embassy in Paris

Jo has worked for the British government for more than 20 years. She began as Country Director of the Department for Business and Trade team at the British Embassy in Paris and Deputy Trade Commissioner for Europe in August 2023. Jo's previous position was as British Consul-General Guangzhou since July 2019. She led the British Government’s engagement in the provinces of South China: Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hunan and Jiangxi. From 2014-2017, she was Director of International Trade and Investment at the British Consulate General in Hong Kong. She has previously served as Private Secretary to a Minister of State and completed two postings at the UK Representation to the European Union. In addition to working for the Foreign Office and Department for International Trade, she has worked at the Cabinet Office and Department for Education in roles focused on improving and modernising public services. Jo graduated from Durham University with a degree in Modern European Languages.

Scott Ruby

Director of Operations, UK Department for Business and Trade in France

Scott has held his position in the Commercial Section of the UK Embassy in Paris since October 2022. He has extensive experience in both the public and private sectors, having started his career in management consultancy with PwC and subsequently held a variety of roles in the civil service in London. At PwC, Scott led financial and operational improvement projects with public and private sector clients in the UK and overseas. Since joining the UK Civil Service in 2016, Scott has worked in a number of government departments including the Department for Transport and the Department for Education.

Board

News