Within the CAC40, only two women are chairmen of the board of directors of a company. We find Barbara Dalibard, appointed at the end of 2020 at Michelin, and Angeles Garcia-Poveda. This NEOMA graduate took over as Chairman of the Legrand Board of Directors in July 2020. She looks back on her career, her daily life, but also on being a woman in the business world.
The journey of Angeles Garcia-Poveda
What is your academic background?
I grew up in Spain and was educated in a bilingual school. So I became French-speaking quite quickly. I chose to continue my studies in a business school and joined the E4 program which allowed me to complete a double degree with a certain number of major European schools and universities, including NEOMA. So I spent two years in Reims, then two years in Madrid.
When I left school, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. I was young and had a financial background. So I was recruited by a small stockbroking company, since bought by Morgan Stanley, which was looking for analysts. I had a summer ahead of me, so I applied for a special program at Harvard that prepares those who want to enter the MBA in September. I spent two extraordinary months on the Harvard campus and I have very fond memories of it.
After the experience as an analyst, you moved directly into consulting and BCG. For what ?
I learned a lot about valuation, market models… The learning was extremely quick, but, before moving on to the next step, I was condemned to repeat several tasks that I had already done. I crossed paths with BCG and I hadn’t prepared for the first round. Then, I discovered a deeply human company. So I waited to find out if I was called to the second round. When I got the call that I was accepted, I prepared and got the job!
So I joined BCG in Madrid where I was the only and first female consultant in a small team. I was transferred to the Paris office to follow the man who became my husband and to whom I remained married for 17 years. I spent 14 years as a consultant at BCG before moving into human resources. In the meantime, I became a mother of three children. My second daughter has a disability, so BCG gave me the opportunity to leave for three years. It has benefited me in my career. I took the opportunity to deepen my knowledge of rehabilitation methods and set up a small team that took care of my daughter and other children.
And it was after this experience that you decided to live another life?
It’s a fascinating job, but I realized that I was no longer in contact with the customer, a notion that I have always maintained. I decided to change careers and move into leadership and governance consulting and landed at Spencer Stuart. I discovered a job that fascinates me where we can have a huge impact on businesses. I also discovered that I was a manager and I was quickly appointed head of France, then I took charge of Europe, which I took care of for three years.
How did you get to your position as President of the Board of Directors of Legrand?
Spencer Stuart is a private company and the partners elect the representatives to the board of directors. I was elected to the board of directors and stayed there for three years. At the same time, another seed begins to be born in me, that of an administrator. Thanks to the Copé-Zimmerman law, I was contacted in 2012 to be a candidate for the Legrand board through Jacques Garaïalde, an investor in Legrand and formerly of BCG. So I passed the processes and joined the Legrand board in 2012.
Since then, things have accelerated and responsibilities have increased. Between the departure of two investors and the handover between the CEOs, I am asked if I want to be a candidate for president. The board of directors votes in my favor and the shareholders ratify the decision. So I take my job on the 1ster July 2020.
Being at the head of the turnover of a CAC40 company
What is the daily life of a woman at the head of the board of directors of a CAC40 company like?
No two days are the same. I am not an executive, so my degree of involvement at Legrand depends on governance cycles or current events. There are times of the year when I am much more active.
I have the same daily life as any working family member. We have relatively little time for ourselves. We give a lot of time to work and family. I get up pretty early, I try not to stay up too late. It is rare that I make social commitments. My days start around 8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. at the latest. I try to close shop, unless there is a major problem, between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Then it’s family time. If I have things to finish, I try to do it later. However, I don’t have the same frequency of absences as when I was Spencer Stuart’s Europe boss.
Is it easy to have a personal life?
Balance is important in all aspects: sport, the way we eat and having social interactions. I cultivate these aspects with faithful friends.
I try to open my mind through two things: I read a lot, both reading for pure pleasure, from novels to poetry. Art does a lot of good for business. But I also do manual activities: I love cooking, gardening, doing activities with my daughter as part of her rehabilitation.
Is it possible to be a parent while being chair of the board of directors of a CAC40 company?
Having a full personal and professional life, even without being a woman, is always complicated. You can do anything, but it’s not easy, especially when you’re the head of a family with three children. I’ve had times in my career where I felt like I wasn’t where I needed to be. I’ve done crazy things! One day, I arrived on a motorcycle to my last show. I was so stressed and late that I forgot to take off my helmet.
I always get asked about my way of balancing my personal and professional life. I answer two things:
- I never managed to balance it. I managed to learn to live in imbalance, without it being a problem. The advantage is that the imbalance rarely goes in one direction. In important moments, professional or personal, I have always been there. I learned to embrace the imbalance instead of enduring it. It doesn’t matter, as long as you are passionate about what you do. I get there because I love the company I’m in.
- It is important to measure your energy levels. There comes a time when I am no longer efficient enough if I don’t recharge my batteries. Everyone must find something at home to recharge their energy. When you feel that there is this breaking point, you have to give yourself time: it could be a day, a few hours… But you have to know how to put the rest in parentheses. We live in a world that demands a lot from us. We are connected 24 hours a day. We must grant ourselves this right.
From the glass ceiling to chairman of the board of directors of a CAC40 company
Isn’t it more complicated to climb the ladder when you’re a woman?
I didn’t ask myself the question much, because maybe I didn’t want to hear the answer. I had the chance to join companies that were fantastically meritocratic and that helps. If you are measured only by results, there is no problem. They all had caring cultures. I was lucky to have very good bosses. It matters too, because they suck you into their trajectory. I really didn’t leave room for this question. I always put one foot in front of the other. Sometimes I doubted and I still doubt. Doubt is the beginning of wisdom.
I haven’t faced this, but I always put a lot of pressure on myself. Every time I joined a team or a company, I was always the only woman and often the first woman. This question always concerns the unconscious, but it is always present. Prejudices exist. I was talking with a woman who told me about the concept of microaggressions and we realize that there is still work to be done.
Is it harder for women? Yes, it’s harder! When we see the distribution of tasks at home, how unbalanced it is, but also the comments that we can read when a woman arrives at a position of responsibility, comments that we never hear for women. men, we realize that it is harder for women. Fortunately, my children’s generation is more sensitive about this subject.
Everything you need to know about Legrand
Legrand is a global specialist in electrical and digital building infrastructures. Our purpose is linked to our business model: to improve lives by transforming the spaces where people live, work and meet (houses and apartments, data centers, offices, shopping centers, factories, etc.), with electrical and digital infrastructure and simple, innovative and sustainable connected solutions. We are present in nearly 90 countries. Our approach is based on leadership, particularly within niche markets. Our two drivers are organic growth and external growth, with high demands in terms of profitability.
Our model has proven resilient during the various crises and also makes it possible to seize growth opportunities, once these crises have passed, as in 2021. We are a digital and electrical player best known for its sockets and switches, but we position ourselves linked to new trends, such as data centers, solutions for energy efficiency or even connected solutions which improve comfort at home for example. As such, we have made recent acquisitions in electric vehicle charging and connected objects.
We are extremely committed. We are going to present our fifth CSR roadmap which displays ambitious objectives. Our management bodies have on average 40% female profiles while that of the CAC40 is more around 23%. We are also anchored in the region since we are one of only two CAC40 companies, with Michelin, to have its headquarters in the region. We are based in Limoges and we are very proud of it!
