Alumna shares her experiences as a MIBS graduate in the ’80s and what it meant to be one of a few women leaders

France native Catherine Jubin, ’82 MIBS, credits her time at the Moore School for helping her hone her ability to prioritize in high-stress situations — and in many cases, be the only woman in the room.

“The Moore School was among the three programs teaching international business then and the only one that offered foreigners a six-month internship in the United States,” Jubin says. “Women were a minority in this program at the time.”

Immersing herself in American culture was quite the feat with the language barrier.

“The first classes at the university were radically different from the ones in France,” Jubin says. “Luckily the first ones were accounting and finance, easy for me, despite my language skills being still a bit insufficient.”

As one of the few women in her cohort, this foreshadowed her career as she learned how to navigate a male-dominated industry. After tenures with Parfums Guy Laroche International, then L’Oréal’s second-largest fragrance brand, and the Yves Rocher Brand, Jubin founded The International Luxury Business Association, which facilitated business and communications strategies for major luxury brands, including L’Oreal, Louis Vuitton, Baccarat, Clarins, Dior, Cartier, Montblanc and many others.

“In every manner, specifically L'Oréal, operating in the beauty business, a woman needed to be pretty, competent, sexy — but not too much — and to have a good sense of politics,” Jubin says. “I had to navigate the ambiguities that always existed between me and top male managers.”

Jubin says she had her fair share of challenges as a woman executive in the 1980s.

“For example, one sales rep once challenged me to go and visit his clients with him riding on the back of his motorcycle — I had to accept it,” Jubin says. “So, respect from collaborators had to be earned; it was never a given as it would have been if I had been a man.”

When thinking of advice she’d share with students wanting to follow in her footsteps, Jubin acknowledges the drastic changes in business over the past four decades.

“Business has radically changed,” she says. “I would say today, students need to be prepared to be continuously learning new skills and adapting much faster than my generation was.”

Though she is now retired, Jubin still freelances in Paris and Montreal as a strategic business consultant.

-Christian Osborne