Martine Liautaud
CEO of Liautaud & Cie
Martine Liautaud is an entrepreneur, an investor and a philanthropist.
Since 1990, Martine has been giving innovative, strategic advice to major French companies and their leaders and investing in entrepreneurial projects in the industrial sector.
She is the founder and chairperson of Liautaud & Cie, a consultancy specializing in financial engineering as well as strategic and financial advice for large French companies.
As an entrepreneur in the industrial sector, Martine acquired majority and large minority stakes in several companies including two success stories: Meccano, world leader in metal construction toys (disposed of in 1995) and the publisher Groupe La Martinière forwhich she sold her stake to the Wertheimer family in 2000.
From 2003 to 2006, Martine Liautaud was President of the Stanford Business Club in France (the Stanford Business School Alumni Association). She has been the association’s Honorary President since 2016.
Since 2010, Martine has invested heavily in her philanthropic activities, promoting women in business in France, Europe, the USA, Canada and now Singapore.
With several Stanford graduates, she founded WBMI (Women Business Mentoring Initiative) in 2010, a volunteer program for women CEOs\/Founders with more than 3 years’ experience. She succeeded in gaining support for the program from a number of sponsors including Engie and BNP Paribas. At the end of 2015, she set up the Women Initiative Foundation to promote women in the economy and in business in France. Martine went on to create the US Women Initiative Foundation in California with Bank of the West in July 2016. The Foundation has now representatives in Paris, New York, San Francisco,Montreal and Singapore and organizes at least 25 events every year.
The Foundation has 3 goals:
To build research programs in Europe in collaboration with French and international business schools and higher education institutes (ESSEC, Centrale-Supélec, Stanford and Concordia);
To initiate university programs such as the Women Entrepreneur Program developed with BNP Paribas at Stanford, for women entrepreneurs from Europe, the USA, Canada and Asia or with McGill for women leaders.
To offer voluntary programs (i) to support women entrepreneurs developing their businesses in France or across the Atlantic, between France and the USA or Canada, and vice versa and (ii) to support Women executives with a European intercompany mentoring program and a US intercompany mentoring program.
Martine has published four books, drawing on her experience as an entrepreneur and a mentor:
In 2014, with Marie-Claire Capobianco, executive committee member at BNP Paribas, she co-authored The Guide to Entrepreneurship for Women, published in French by Eyrolles.
In 2015, she wrote a book on her experience in mentoring, Culture Mentoring, published in French by Eyrolles.
In mid-2016, Martine published a book for the American market with Wiley & Sons: “Breaking Through: Stories and Best Practices from Companies to Help Women Succeed”. The book supports the Foundation’s work in the USA.
At the end of last year, in 2019,she published an international book on the story of the Women Initiative Foundation.
Martine Liautaud is a member of the entrepreneurship commission at the MEDEF, France’s largest employer federation. She is a member of the board of the strategic committee at Centrale-Supélec. At Groupe Savencia, she is a member of the board of directors and member of the audit and risks committee. At last she is a member of the board of the strategic guidance committee at Paris-Saclay University.
Martine has been decorated Knight of the Legion of Honor, she is married and has two children.
