NEOMA Alumni Mag - N°21 - Décembre 2019 - 26

MAGAZINE

❱❱❱

Charlotte Girardot
(CESEM 03)

Julie Hérault
(PGE 10)

Dimitri Mussard
(CESEM 06)

AN ATTRACTIVE LIFESTYLE ...
BUT POOR PUBLIC SERVICES
In São Paulo for five years, Rémi Lhéritier (PGE 08)
has also been enjoying the Brazilian sweetness of
living and for him Brazil has represented a real
career accelerator. Only 35 years old, he is the chief
financial officer for LimeLife, the Brazilian branch
of L'Occitane group in Brazil, a job he learned by
doing: "You need to have some background but
there are definitely opportunities to be seized
inside French or European groups", he affirms.
What will make him return to France? The cost of
education for his two daughters as they grow up:
"It is clearly what makes expatriates move back,
unless they have very high salaries. For pre-school
the cost is already 2500 reals (550 euros) a month,
more than half the Brazilian minimum wage." A
figure that goes up to 1,000 euros a month for primary school.
"We wouldn't be here if my husband wasn't on an
expatriate contract that covers school fees. Even
the good Brazilian schools are inaccessible and the
arrival of Bolsonaro is not going to improve the
situation", agrees Charlotte Girardot (CESEM 03),
a regional staffing manager at Boston Consulting,
with three children at the French high school. In
Rio de Janeiro since January 2018 after an expatriation in Norway, she lives in the fancy neighbourhood of Ipanema, where she could see herself
staying for another year or so: "We enjoy a pleasant life, the weather is always nice and the sea is

DIMITRI MUSSARD (CESEM 06), FOUNDER OF THREE
COMPANIES IN SÃO PAULO
In Brazil for 10 years, Dimitri Mussard sees Brazil as a land of opportunities for
entrepreneurs, despite a complicated environment: "It is a nightmare! One of the worst
countries in the world, everything is terribly bureaucratic and slow!", affirms the 36
years old entrepreneur. One issue is the unfavourable exchange rate with the dollar,
which has made it particularly difficult for his company Acaju do Brasil, a showroom
for international fashion brands and multibrands' store: "The distribution has been
more complicated with the drop of the real since 2015 and we have had to go from
wholesale to retail... Adding this to the 100% import taxes, this company would have
been easier to establish in France", he asserts. Still, he has experienced some real
success with his second company, Dri Dri ice cream, which he sold to an Italian
investor after only five years. A transaction which he feels was facilitated by the
election of Jair Bolsonaro: "He is not someone I appreciate on a human level but for
my business I was happy he was elected, overall foreign investors are very satisfied
that Bolsonaro is in power", he affirms. His last project, Abaca$hi, may be the one he
is most excited about: "We partnered with French start-up Pot Commun and we have
been able to raise one million euros... Online crowdfunding is new in Brazil and it
represents a potential market of 200 million people and a serious alternative to
traditional banking as 70% of Brazilians do not have a credit card", he explains.

- 26 - NEOMA ALUMNI mag DÉCEMBRE 2019

five minutes away; it feels like being on vacation all
year! However, the city is less cultural than São
Paulo, and from an administrative point of view, it
is not very efficient: infrastructures are poorer, in
case of rain the roads collapse... Coming from
Scandinavia where everything functions well it was
a big change! But Brazilians are warm and welcoming, overall it is a great experience", she details.
Regarding safety, she feels the very bad reputation
of Rio is not completely justified: "In my daily life I
don't experience that at all", she nuances, though
she remains careful. "There are certain habits I
have adopted like never walking home at night
and never leaving my kids alone." The changes she
has felt since the arrival in power of Bolsonaro:
"The income gap is growing, and in my neighbourhood, I see more people on the streets than when
we came. And of course, the fires in the Amazon
forest and his constant attacks toward the gay
community are creating a lot of tensions and discontent", she claims.
ONE YEAR AFTER THE ELECTIONS, MANY
BRAZILIANS DISILLUSIONED
In Spain since July 2019 after three and a half years
in Brazil, Julie Hérault (PGE 10) has good memories of her stay in the country's capital: "Brasilia was
a little difficult at first as young adults because one
has to drive everywhere but once we got used to
it we enjoyed being able to afford a big house with
a garden, a pool, a barbecue, along with nice climate and air", she recalls. By contrast, she had a
harder time adapting to São Paulo, a western style
city but sprawling and polluted, where she found a
job as a Data Governance Officer at BNP Paribas
Cardiff Brazil after one year in the country. Leaving
Brazil six months after Bolsonaro took office however had nothing to do with the results of the Brazilian election: "We had already decisded to go
back to Europe to raise our new-born daughter",
she explains. Moreover, she feels the portraying of
the Brazilian president in France is somewhat
exaggerated: "He is indeed very conservative,
opportunistic as well as tough on violence, which
is the main reason why a lot of Brazilians voted for
him. Living in Brazil, I realize that the relationship
to violence is quite different here. Half of the Brazilians I know voted for him." Even before her
departure however, she could sense disillusionment from Brazilian voters, a feeling confirmed by
the October 2019 figures of the Datafohla institute,
according to which only 29% of the Brazilians
still support him, while 40% are opposed to his
policies. ❚

NEOMA Alumni Mag - N°21 - Décembre 2019

Table des matières de la publication NEOMA Alumni Mag - N°21 - Décembre 2019