Word: hermann
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...promotion has not altered Hermann's strength of character, Morton notes, describing her at Galliano's side in April after his closest collaborator, Stephen Robinson, died suddenly. "She was a rock," Morton says. "But that's Valerie. She is human as much as assertive, a good soul as much as a number cruncher...
...unclear where that balance of toughness and perspective originates. Hermann hints that it comes from a childhood spent watching her parents, both doctors, deal with the carnage of emergency rooms. Hermann grew up in Concarneau, a fishing port in northern Brittany where car crashes were routine on the rough coastal roads and regularly disrupted the family's evenings. "I was often in the corridors of hospitals for emergencies, and it's funny, but I got used to that sort of activity," she recalls. "Maybe it's why I am so comfortable in fashion, which is so quick and aggressive...
Unlike her older brother and sister, who became doctors, she was drawn early on to an environment of "quality and beauty," Hermann says. She aimed high for l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC), one of Europe's best business schools, but that meant moving to Paris alone at age 16 for a two-year prep course. The girl from the provinces was lonely in the beautiful city and distracted herself on weekends by shopping, she says, "to be out among people...
...Hermann met many people who would determine her future. Foremost was Jean-Christophe Hermann, her husband, now a telecommunications executive. PPR chief Pinault was also there, and although they were not close, he remembers her as "loyal, hardworking and easy to work with...
After graduation in 1985?fewer than one-third of Hermann's classmates were women?there were three job offers for every student. Hermann turned down an entry-level post at L'Oréal in order to supervise special projects at the Comité Colbert, a luxury-goods trade association. (Maureen Chiquet, Chanel's global CEO, who is the same age as Hermann, started at L'Oréal as a brand manager for hair color.) When a L'Oréal director inquired why Hermann went elsewhere, she told him, "I didn't want to spend my days selling shampoo in the south...