“There wasonly one spot, and I went for it.“
Alumni | Sup de Pub
Program | Corporate and Institutional Communication
Obtained in 2011
City of residence | Paris
What made you progress as a student, and still does today?
The discovery! At home, in my parents’ house, there were always newspapers, in which I was interested in the tribune part; it allowed me to refine my ideas, to understand where my beliefs, my commitments and my values lay. And then, when I see a peak, I tend to take it to the side; in my student or personal life, that’s how I’ve always oriented my choices.
For the inveterate backpacker, it was not enough to travel to all the continents; as enthusiastic about the idea of knowing the world’s issues in depth as she is about surveying the scope of advertising well beyond the flashy slogans, Julie advocates a strategic communication that cannot yield to the artifices of logorrhea or logomania: “Being creative without caring about understanding our environment leads nowhere. After an exemplary schooling, notwithstanding a year of law studies, she integrated Sup de Pub Paris on the advice of a friend. Although she didn’t really care about the artistic side of things, Julie enjoyed the geopolitics courses and their perennial implications, extracting from this prose so much material to nourish her tactical talents – “knowing which lever to press according to the circumstances is precisely what I find interesting. Julie was able to distinguish herself during the life-size immersive practical cases, which for her school are as much a trademark as a signature – “ultra formative, so concrete. In the same way, she chose her internships and succeeded in winning over the Sciences Po candidates to legitimize her presence in the political and institutional branch of the Havas agency: “It was a path that was not very popular with the others, but I like what’s niche. After an experience at the Paris City Hall and a university exchange in Sydney, in line with customs and habits, between a surfing session and a barbecue on the beach, Julie was able to deepen her knowledge of a more global field during a stopover in the southern land: “There was only one place, and I went to get it. Sup de Pub Paris also did me a favor by agreeing to let me take courses in political science and international relations, which did not fit in with my curriculum!
After completing her master’s degree in corporate and institutional communication and adding a year in political and public communication, Julie quickly found a position tailored to her at the Commissariat général à l’Égalité des territoires. Continuing as communications manager at French Tech and the Agence du Numérique – “a real intellectual gymnastics” – she followed her intuition and seized “the opportunity of a lifetime”.-She followed her intuition and seized “the opportunity of a lifetime”. Here she is, telescoped to the United Arab Emirates, as communications director for the French Pavilion at the Dubai 2022 World Expo, where she will spend two years going back and forth before settling in the Middle East for six months. She will juggle daily with press relations, intervening on the “influence” and “digital” aspects, accompanying the programming choices while supervising the creation of a virtual exhibition. Constantly at ease when it comes to receiving the leaders of major French companies, institutional personalities, or even VIP visitors like astronaut Thomas Pesquet, she sometimes had to rub shoulders with more down-to-earth stars, influencers and other divas. Julie will not fail to build with her best friend met on the benches of Sup de Pub Paris, in charge of the heritage of the House Jean Paul GaultierIt was through this kind of action that I realized that in a decision-making position, you have the freedom to set to music what you think is right for a project. To top it all off, the travel lover immersed herself in a kaleidoscope of codes from all over the world, multiplying encounters in the “Erasmus” style, discovering other points of reference and new customs in the richness of expatriation – “but the next one, in 2025 in Osaka, will be without me: I prefer to move around to challenge myself.”
Solicitations from the space or cultural world may come, but now that her mission in the Arabian Peninsula is behind her, Julie knows that nothing falls from the sky: “When I speak at Sup de Pub Paris, I like to remind students that being good is not enough to build a career; because there are plenty of talented people! No one is irreplaceable, no one is waiting for us, you have to work hard and fight all the time without resting on your laurels. I am the first one to knock on doors! Rigor is as important as perseverance. Given the atypical nature of her trajectory, whether she plans a future trip to Nepal or maintains her dream of creating a scuba diving school, it is by zigzagging through the lines that Julie draws this residual and driving force, bringing her to the summits of mountains as well as to the coral reefs.
Written portrait© Maison Trafalgar | Watercolor drawing © Maison Trafalgar & Camille Romanetto
Updated 21 October 2022