Elisabeth Ardaillon-Poirier to Join Publicis Groupe as Senior Vice-President

PARIS, April 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Mathias Emmerich, Senior Vice President and General Secretary of Publicis Groupe [EURONEXT Paris : FR0000130577] has decided to pursue projects outside the Groupe.

Elisabeth Ardaillon-Poirier will be joining Publicis Groupe as Senior Vice-President from May onwards.  In this capacity, she will oversee Groupe communications, and corporate social responsibility and sustainable development policies. She will also coordinate and oversee the communications of the main subsidiaries at global level.  She will take up her position in May 2013 and will be directly accountable to Maurice Lévy, the Chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe.

Anne-Gabrielle Heilbronner Senior Vice President has been named General Secretary. She will oversee Human Resources in addition to her current supervision of the legal department, and audit, internal control and compliance. In addition, Anne-Gabrielle Heilbronner is Secretary of the Supervisory Board.

"Elisabeth Ardaillon-Poirier's international experience and reputation are extremely important assets that will reinforce our communications and sustainable development teams. She will put her know-how at the disposal of the Groupe, and particularly of its subsidiaries. I am convinced she will make a major contribution thanks to her international expertise," said Maurice Lévy. "I am delighted by the promotion of Anne-Gabrielle Heilbronner, whose integration into the Groupe has been remarkably successful. I regret the choice made by Mathias Emmerich, and thank him for his collaboration. He has contributed a great deal to the Groupe and I am convinced his projects will be successful."

Elisabeth Ardaillon-Poirier is Adviser to the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, after being the ECB's Director Communications for over nine years and Chairman of the External Communications Committee of the network comprised of the 27 central banks in the European System of Central Banks and the 17 central banks of the Euro Zone (2003-2012).  Prior to that she was notably Special Adviser (Press and parliament) to the private office of Minister Jean-François Deniau (1978-1981), then Director of Development with the Bernard Krief Consulting Group (1981-1983), Head of Corporate Communications at the St. Gobain group (1983-1986), then at the Hachette multimedia group (1986-1993), with special emphasis on international operations. She subsequently became the first Managing Director of the Hachette Foundation which was later renamed Fondation Jean-Luc Lagardère (1989-1993).  When the Economic and Monetary Union came into force, she was appointed Director Communications of the Banque de France (1994-2003) and then member of the ECB's External Communications Committee (1998-2003).

Elisabeth Ardaillon-Poirier is a graduate of Centre d'Etudes Littéraires & Scientifiques Appliquées-CELSA (Advanced School of Information and Communication Sciences), and holds a Masters' degree in Arts and English from the Sorbonne. Her awards include France's Officier de la Légion d'Honneur and Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite.

Anne-Gabrielle Heilbronner, 44, joined Publicis Groupe in April 2012. She is a graduate of Paris business school ESCP and political science institute IEP. She is also an alumna of ENA (Ecole Nationale d'Administration, René Char Promotion). She began her career at the Inspection Générale des Finances in 1995, before moving to the French Treasury in 1999. In 2000, she joined Euris/Rallye as Global Head of Corporate Finance. Between 2004 and 2007, she was successively appointed Cabinet Director of the State Secretary for Reform, and Special Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in charge of international economic and financial affairs and corporate relations.

Anne-Gabrielle Heilbronner was Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management at SNCF (French railways) between 2007 and 2010, and then joined Société Générale Corporate and Investment Banking as Managing Director and Senior Banker in charge of a client portfolio of major French companies.

About Publicis Groupe

Publicis Groupe [Euronext Paris FR0000130577, CAC 40] is one of the world's leading communications groups. We offer the full range of services and skills: digital (DigitasLBi, Razorfish, Rosetta, VivaKi), creative services (BBH, Leo Burnett, Publicis Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi), public affairs, corporate communications and events (MSLGROUP), media strategy, planning and buying (Starcom MediaVest Group and ZenithOptimedia) and healthcare communications, with Publicis Healthcare Communications Group (PHCG). Present in 108 countries, the Groupe employs 58,000 professionals.

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SOURCE Publicis Groupe