"I had my eyes set on attending IMHI from the moment I graduated from Lycée International in Saint Germain-en-Laye, when a couple of IMHI students shared with me their experience and appreciation for the French and American (joint Essec Cornell) Hospitality curriculum, at a career fair held at my high school. I was only 17 at the time but still remember it so vividly. The prospect of working for an industry that would allow me to maintain my multicultural background and travel worldwide was extremely enticing. I wanted to explore and learn from other people and cultures as much as possible. The only downside was not being able to start right away. I needed to get my bachelor’s degree first, which I pursued at Lycée Hotelier of St Quentin-en-Yvelines.

I grew up in a multicultural household being raised by a Danish father and French mother, with strong family values and an openness to cultural differences. My parents were entrepreneurs and certainly promoted values of hard work, caring for others, and following your passion in us as children, myself and my two younger brothers. Today, despite the sad passing of my father in 2004, we are closer than ever while living in four different countries, on two different continents. 

IMHI has shaped my life in the most surprising and beautiful way. I interviewed with Michael Nowlis and Gerard Guibilato, prepared for the GMAT, and was admitted in 1994. At the time, I was determined to finance my own graduate studies. IMHI allowed me to interview for the apprenticeship program, a pioneer program at the time, that allowed me to work and study concurrently. I was hired by Remy Rein (Promo 83) and worked for him and COGEPA, a Real Estate Investment company in Paris. I commuted to Tour Montparnasse a couple of days a week and worked all holidays and summer breaks for the group. Remy was very vested in the program and to this day I am grateful for this early launchpad to my career, as he gave me the opportunity to work in business development in the corporate office and in the field for his growing hotel group, which had properties in the Basque Country, Languedoc Roussillon and were building a hotel in the Parisian area. We recently met again in New York in 2019, just pre-COVID and reminisced… it was truly amazing to reconnect and share personal stories, career experiences and philosophies.  

My two years at IMHI went fast as I had to juggle the school’s intense curriculum while working. I probably missed out on some memorable ESSEC and IMHI parties but have no regrets and would recommend the experience of working to new students coming in. I was probably on the younger side joining IMHI, many of my peers had more work experience and this apprenticeship gave me the work experience I needed to put the academic knowledge I was gaining into practice. The real highlight though beside the faculty, courses, and work, are the many friends and connections I made for life. Andre Saade has created a What’s App group for our 96 Promo and with the help of Marie-Laure Lortal, Claire Houard and Margreet Papamichael, they have managed to reunite us. An amazing way for us to stay connected and celebrate birthdays and special occasions in real time.  Sadly, Erlend Heiberg is no longer with us and will always be remembered.

When I graduated IMHI, I set my mind on getting an internship in the US and was hired by an IMHI graduate, Dimitrios Zarikos, who was the Hotel Manager at the Essex House in New York at the time. Thanks to him, I had the opportunity to intern in housekeeping for a year and a half prior to joining Starwood’s Human Resources Complex as a training manager for five properties in New York City (Sheraton, Westin, and St Regis brands).  From there I moved to Starwood’s corporate office and worked as a Global Corporate trainer launching their Six Sigma initiative. I lived out of a suitcase for a little over four years which I look back at with tremendous pride, as we trained many executive teams throughout Starwood’s international portfolio of properties. We first launched the program in North America, then Europe, Africa, and the Middle East and finally Asia Pacific. The company’s unwavering commitment to maintaining the program was extraordinary. We were on a mission to implement a global initiative by adapting the program and methodology to each local region.  I remember travelling worldwide after September 11^th, 2001, when the airports were quiet and empty.  Very different circumstances than during COVID, the parallel being a time of uncertainty when we maintained trust and prepared for better times ahead. 

I have many people to thank at Starwood and in particular Allison Barber, Cornell alumni, and her husband Maurizio Bonivento, for allowing me to be part of that Six Sigma dream team.  Those years were probably the richest in terms of the travels, learnings I had along with the diversity and meaningful connections I made. 

My next chapter and introduction to Club Management was through a Search firm where I was offered to interview with Robert James, faculty, and alumni of Cornell University, who was the Executive Director, running a 650 employee Platinum Club in Westchester County, New York. I joined his team in a recruitment and training role and developed the Human Resources function, over a number of years, while raising my growing family. The HR function was underdeveloped in an industry, the Private Club Industry where many General Managers and Financial Controllers still often bear the responsibility of HR in addition to their roles.  Robert James and Michael Feil, General Manager (Cornell alumni) were wonderful mentors who gave me the opportunity to create something new, empower my team and build the processes and tools to support a positive work culture.  I took a leap of faith as I realized that what I had created there, I could scale and leverage across several businesses and bring to other industries. This was the start of my HR consultancy EquaMagna, mindful people solutions, in 2019. EquaMagna is a Boutique Human Resources Solutions Consultancy providing strategic and just in time HR Outsourcing, HR consulting, Staffing and Executive Search. My early roots of watching my parents work for themselves gave me the stamina and confidence to create the business plan for a company that would give me the flexibility to work for several businesses and brands with the same goal of improving their work cultures. It felt like a calling and is my true passion today.  The opportunity to partner with Boards, Business owners, General Managers, and their teams to assess their current processes and design / redesign their teams, core processes and culture, allow me to play to my strengths and have given me a true sense of purpose. I plan to continue to grow my brand and services to serve a community that believes in empowering their teams to be and do great work.  

To all the IMHI and Cornell alumni who have supported my career path, and are continuing to enrich my life and career, I am eternally grateful to you for believing in me and giving me a chance to work with and for you and contribute; similarly, I have been blessed with many opportunities to guide, train and mentor throughout my career, and those are my absolute favorite moments.  I certainly plan to have many more of those in the years to come!

My word of advice to IMHI graduates today is to focus on defining your life purpose and find or create a company, brand, product, or service that you feel aligned with from a values and cultural standpoint. Work hard and stay committed to your goals, with the knowledge that you can have fulfilling professional and personal lives. Interestingly my oldest son is now 17 and is facing the same college and career decisions I had when I first decided to join IMHI. I hope he will find the same sense of purpose, happiness, and accomplishment that I have felt and experienced throughout my career.

You are incredibly talented coming out of the IMHI program, so be humble, curious, and bold at the same time, and commit to employers who acknowledge your potential and embrace your strengths. Learn to build teams and elevate others. Ultimately, I wish for you to get a taste for significance, a sense of balance and peace coming from within for making choices that are congruent with your core beliefs and values. 

Today I am the founder of EquaMagna, mindful people solutions, and live in Westchester County, New York with my husband and four children."