Introduce yourself in few lines.
I am currently the Managing Director of OLEA Gabon. I started my career as an Account Manager in the International Subsidiaries Department of Gras Savoye, then as a Sales Director for Gras Savoye Cameroon. After the takeover of Gras Savoye by Willis Towers Watson, I decided to join the OLEA project to build the pan-African broker of the 21st century.
On a personal level, I love baking and I have been playing golf (with less success than in insurance) for 3 years.
How did you join OLEA ?
Since the beginning of my career, I worked with Olivier Dubois. When Olivier Dubois and Olivier Canuel contacted me to join OLEA, it was an obvious choice to support them in building a pan-African insurance brokerage network. I have always appreciated the vision, enthusiasm, high standards and ambition of our Founders, so for me it was a natural step
What was the most challenging event as MD?
Being Managing Director of a growing network (we were 7 subsidiaries when I arrived with tools under construction or still to be built) that already had continental ambitions. We were tackling the servicing of major accounts historically established on the continent (Bolloré, SOMDIAA, CFAO, etc.) which was a significant challenge, shared by all those who joined the OLEA adventure in its early days. My greatest challenge was that the SOMDIAA Group agreed to trust me by choosing the OLEA offer even though we were not established or represented in two of the seven countries in which the Group operated. We had to open our subsidiaries in Chad and the Central African Republic in less than six months, in addition to setting up the service for this client.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Managing Directors of our subsidiaries in these countries for their participation in our project and for having successfully completed these openings.
How do you participate in the development of the OLEA Group ?
The thing I like about OLEA is that there is no limit to the ambition that an employee can propose and achieve. We are an extremely close-knit group of individuals who are always excited about new opportunities for development.
I have been able to develop relationships with major investors on the continent (MSC, ARISE, SOMDIAA to name the best known) for sometimes innovative and even unique on the scale of these groups. In Cameroon, which was my first country of expatriation, they say: "if you sleep, your life sleeps"; so I try to stay tuned and alert to all the opportunities that I can identify for the benefit of the OLEA Group and its partners.
