The team

Frédérique Clavel, a graduate of EMN and Insead (IEP 2000), served as Financial Affairs Manager for the LASER Group. Starting in 2001, she founded and ran Fincoach, a company which supports entrepreneurs in their financial strategies and helps them optimise their financing sources. She serves as a director of companies such as Kitchen Bazaar and Logali. She has advised associations such as Femmes 3000, Femme Business Anges and the INSEAD Cercle des administrateurs, where she was one of its twelve founding members.
She is the mother of two children.
Frédérique Clavel founded Paris Pionnières, the first women’s business incubator in Paris supporting innovative service companies in France. She has served as its Chairwoman since its inception. She expanded these efforts in early 2008, founding Fédération Pionnières of which she also serves as Chairwoman. Supported by its public and private partnerships, Fédération Pionnières develops business incubators based on the Paris Pionnières model in new regions.

Marie-Claude Gleize joined Fédération Pionnières as Executive Officer. Her services are provided to us through our partner, Caisse des Dépôts, where she worked as a private equity, equity investment and property portfolio manager for in-house accounts. Prior to this, she served as Director of property defeasance operations for CDR and Managing Director for capital goods and property leasing companies. She is a graduate of HEC and holds the DESCF degree (an advanced diploma in accounting and finance).
See the interview with Marie-Claude Gleize.

A 2009 graduate of IESEG business school, Emilie Legrand joined Fédération Pionnières in January 2010 as Project leader.
After gaining experience with Walt Disney World in Florida, she continued her career in the Partnership Department of the Lille3000 Association. She is responsible for reporting, communications and network coordination.

Monique Halpern has worked on gender issues since 1975 in a number of capacities:

- with national institutions (Women’s Labour Committee, Ministry of Women’s Rights, Ministry of Labour, the European and International Affairs Delegation, GIP International, etc.)
- with European institutions (the European Commission’s Equal Opportunity Bureau, CEDEFOP, the ILE and NOW Programmes) and international institutions (OECD, the BIT Training Centre, the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women, etc.).
- in liaison with various foundations (Women’s World Banking, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Fondation Jean Jaurès, etc.).
- with associations that promote women’s economic empowerment (ADIEF, Retravailler, Forum Femmes Méditerranée, CLEF – French Coordination for the Women’s European Lobby -, Paris Pionnières and Fédération Pionnières) as well as the Institut Emilie du Châtelet.

She led CLEF from 2002 to 2008. Today she represents Fédération Pionnières within the organization and chairs the Women’s Entrepreneurship Commission.

A graduate of the Institut d'Etudes Politiques, Sophie Meurisse worked for the journal Médias as Head of Advertising and in its marketing department. She has been involved in community service both in France and abroad.