Michael Lelievre
CFO, North America
Havas Media Group
Michael Lelievre is the CFO, North America for Havas Media Group, and he is a Governing Body Member of the New York CFO Community. In the past 25 years, he has worked on 4 different continents and in 3 different service industries in various financial roles – spending most of his time encompassing HR, IT and Legal, as well.
In his spare time, he enjoys long distance triathlons and wingfoiling.
Learn more about the New York CFO community here.
Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.
Curiosity and mobility have led me to accept various successive roles in many places. In most instances, proposals started with a challenge or issue to solve. Fixing these issues and completing these challenges, as well as being adaptable, have always been my way of being offered new, exciting roles. My current position is in one of the fastest evolving industries in the biggest markets, and I have the opportunity to complete challenges and adapt the organization at a cadence never experienced before – using technology more than ever.
What is one of your guiding leadership principles?
Be honest with your team and your leadership team.
What is the greatest challenge CFOs face today, and how are you addressing it?
Making work process and automation be the heart of priorities for other services and divisions poses the greatest challenge today. We are trying to overcome this by sharing best practices through demos and KPI measurements of related achievements.
What is the key to success for someone just starting out as a CFO?
Your C-level peers and leadership team should be priority #1, even over your own team. Not only because this is more efficient for the organization, but because this is what your team expects from any C-level in the company
How do you measure success as a leader?
Have a meaningful impact on clients, employees and society. For that, you need to take the lead (embrace challenges, fix issues), have a point and view (because this is what we expect from you as a C-level) and show you care (emotional intelligence is key).
What is the value of being a member of the Evanta community?
I value how we share best practices, learn from other industries, innovate together, have fun and make friends by the same token.
Evanta Governing Body members share their insights and leadership perspectives to shape the agendas and topics that address the top priorities impacting business leaders today.
by CFOs, for CFOs
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