Mercedes Erra

Mercedes Erra

Co-founder of BETC and executive president of HAVAS WORLDWIDE

11th April 2019, at Macéo

“TAKE RISKS AND BE BOLD”

Mercedes Erra became a proud feminist at the age of five, when she saw that her mother was expected to stay at home and clean the house while her father went out to work. She quickly rejected these gender roles. After a brief career as a teacher, Mercedes entered the business world, where she has risen to become the most powerful woman in French advertising. She is executive president of Havas Worldwide, co-founder of advertising agency BETC Paris and the brains behind Evian’s “Roller Babies” commercial, which became the world’s most-viewed brand video. A mother to five sons, Mercedes is an unwavering advocate for women in leadership. Please join LeadHers for dinner with France’s advertising queen to hear her insights into how society can create a new equilibrium that benefits both men and women. “The objective for women is not to be the best, it’s to do what they want,” Mercedes once said. “But they can want everything.”