Propelling business aviation to new heights with Bombardier

Heather Stern: Creativity and craftsmanship. Relentless innovation. A passion for precision. For 80 years, Bombardier has redefined the standards of business aviation, foregoing opulence for purposeful craft, and pushing the boundaries of technology and innovation. Loved by the most influential, the Bombardier experience is second to none, with no detail ever being too big or too small. But at the heart of this Canadian icon are the people behind it, most notably, Ève Laurier, Vice President of Communications, Marketing and Public Affairs at Bombardier.

 

An award-winning visionary with more than 20 years’ experience in corporate marketing and branding, Ève has transformed Bombardier from a manufacturing operator to a best-in-class brand. I’m so excited to sit down with this marketing and PR powerhouse to hear about her inspiring journey, how she’s propelling the brand forward, and to discuss the boldness, influence, and leadership that she’s demonstrated throughout her career. Welcome, Ève.

 

Ève Laurier: Hi.

 

Heather: How are you?

 

Ève: I’m so thrilled to be with you, to be in New York.

 

Heather: Yes.

 

Ève: What a great intro about the company. Thank you for that.

 

Heather: Absolutely. I mean, it’s an incredible brand and you have an incredible career. But we’ll start with this. We’re in a studio, obviously we’re doing a podcast, but I know you studied music and you played guitar or play guitar. So if you had your guitar with us, what would you play for us?

 

Ève: Oh my God, I would love that to come true. I always go to the classics. What gets my heart going is Neil Young, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, those are my ... Bob Dylan.

 

Heather: Oh, wow.

 

Ève: And then maybe a little Janis Joplin. I’m a bit tired of singing that song, but Bobby McGee is like my staple song.

 

Heather: All right, well, we’ll have to do a part two to this, and it’s going to just be to showcase your musical prowess. So, I would love for you to just start talking about your journey. Before you were at Bombardier, you were at Edelman, Richter, and Publicis. Tell us how you got to where you were and where you are now, and your focus today at Bombardier?

 

Ève: Great question. Of course, I started working when I was 20. I’m 47 now, so there’s a 27-year journey there. It started by an amazing woman, her name is Claudine Blondin Bronfman. I say hello to her. And when I was very young, she would see me play with her sister, and she used to tell me, “Man, you have such leadership.” And we looked up to her so much and she always pointed to me saying, “You’re going to go somewhere. You’re going to go far.” And then I remember not graduating yet from university, but being in university, and she called me to say, “I work for Molson Brewery in marketing, and we’re looking for young people that want to start their career in marketing, and I think you should apply and I’ll put your name forward.” And I got my first professional gig, very young. Probably everybody in the province wanted a marketing job at that company.

 

So you know I think it’s important to talk about women empowerment and women sponsorship. So she opened that first door for me and then I just took that and kept going ... yeah. But I think at one point you need to thank the one person that did the first thing you need to start your career.

 

Heather: Absolutely. When she would comment and say you’re a leader, even at a young age, did you feel that way? Did you embrace that? Or is it something, you know, as time has gone on and you’ve continued to climb that mountain and have amazing success, that you’ve now really feel like a leader?

 

Ève: It’s funny because you started the interview with music, and it all started with music for me because I realized that by playing music, I was very comfortable in front of crowds. Like without a problem I could take my guitar and a microphone and start singing and be nervous, but in a very positive way. And then in business, it became the same thing, I realized through her. But when she pointed that out to me that I was very confident in trying and raising my hand, and when people didn’t know really what to do or pondering over things for too long, I would always say, “Well, can I offer a solution?” Even if I wasn’t 100% right, I was always kind of naturally inclined to just, “Okay, let’s take a step forward.” So that’s kind of my fabric, I think. And so she recognized that music made me realize that, and I think I’ve used that skill in my career to kind of, not ... I’ve never pushed people around, but when there’s an opportunity to just jump in, I just go.

 

Heather: Amazing.

 

Ève: Yeah.

 

Heather: And that’s so much of it, right? It is taking risks and  knowing that there isn’t really such a thing as a bad mistake because it’s all learning.

 

Ève: Exactly.

 

Heather: So you’ve said before how people have told you that working in aviation could be a boy’s club, and I would love your reflections on this. Talk to me a little bit about the role and what attracted you to it, and how you’ve navigated being in a business that is dominated by men?

 

Ève: True. It’s an industry dominated by men. I think it’s changing now. It’s fantastic. So let me tell you that I love my experience and my journey at Bombardier. I wake up every morning thinking I’m so lucky and I want to keep on going. It’s fantastic. And a boy’s club ... I mean, I’m getting tired of the expression, although sometimes I use it myself because that’s what people refer to it. I do work with a lot of men, but I never in any way feel like because I’m a woman, there’s even that lens on anything. Really, I don’t. And I am surrounded by men. Right? I think we’re 10 or 11 on the executive committee. For now I’m the only woman. Things are changing and evolving. I never feel at that table that I’m the only woman. It doesn’t transpire in the way we talk to each other, in the way we make decisions.

 

And so I think that’s really important to have that voice heard throughout the company, throughout the industry, it’s about what you make of it. And don’t be scared because you see a lot of men. Like most men. And I talked about Claudine Blondin, so I’ll tell you about JC Gallagher, who’s one of my colleagues. He’s been an advocate throughout my journey at Bombardier. He’s the reason why I’m sitting with you today because he said, “Ève, if you’re going to make a real impact at Bombardier, you’ve got to revisit the brand. And I think I know how you could do that. I know a firm called Lippincott, and I’m going to help you in your journey to convince this executive committee that we need a brand refresh,” and all of that. So, boys club, no boys club, what’s important is to find sponsors, build meaningful relationships with them, go ask for help. Don’t stick alone, don’t see the difference.

 

Diversity and inclusion now is everywhere around us. So if you’re feeling like the only woman in the room, that’s your first block that you’re putting it onto yourself. They don’t see me as the only women in the room when I walk in. So to me, that’s why I’m really ... I don’t think there’s a boy’s club anymore. I think there’s still a lot of things that women have got to do to promote themselves, push themselves forward, build their confidence, learn to prepare for moments that are going to be really impactful in their career, so they show up.

 

Heather: Yes.

 

Ève: But I don’t think that there’s still a voluntary willingness to block people in our industry. It is intimidating.

 

Heather: Yes.

 

Ève: It is still intimidating to me when I walk into some of the aviation industry conferences. I remember this one time in New York, I won’t say which conference, but I was walking with my CEO, Éric Martel, and we were just walking into the ballroom, and you had to take some steps down to go see people. And I had to take a deep breath before I went down the stairs because, literally, all I could see was men. And all they could see was a blonde, energetic, curly-haired woman walking down the stairs. And I remember going, “Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, you got this. You got this.”

 

Heather: You got this.

 

Ève: But it’s still... People think that I don’t go through that. I go through that all the time. But I take a deep breath and I’m like, “Forget the diversity thing. Be you. Do you.” It’s worked so far. And go.

 

Heather: That’s great advice.

 

Ève: Talk to yourself.

 

Heather: Yeah. No, I mean, sometimes even just looking yourself in the mirror and kind of putting your hands above your head and, “I got this.”

 

Ève: Power pose.

 

Heather: So you’ve talked about this journey of the Bombardier brand, and it’s just been such an amazing experience, I know for Lippincott and the broader team partnering with you. It’s a lot to sell in the idea that we need to do this and to convey the notion, which is something we talked about when we were together, brand isn’t about the marketing team, brand is the business to a certain extent. So talk a little bit about what you are setting out to do and how you were able to get the buy-in that you needed.

 

Ève: I think we came to a point that we looked at everything that we’ve accomplished in the past 85 years, but really, in the past three years, the company’s refocused itself on pure play business aviation. The company has opened service centers around the world. So we were already global, but when you start building huge facilities in Singapore, in London, in Miami, you’re telling the world you’re truly global because you’re building huge assets and you’re building a business. We’ve announced to the world our capabilities in defense, which three years ago we were doing defense, but we weren’t talking about it. Now we’re talking about it, and we have such a huge success, and we’re almost 19,000 employees now.

 

Heather: Wow.

 

Ève: So all that in three years. So at one point, even inside the company, people are following the journey because they’re close to it, but as soon as you step outside, it is confusing. So what we did is, we started doing some surveys to see media, governments, future recruits, potential clients, all of that. And people were very confused about who we had become. They hadn’t followed completely the journey. And so it became an opportunity also to say, “Here’s who we’ve become, but here’s where we’re going.” And I think it was the right moment in time. The CEO totally recognized that. He keeps on saying, “Three years ago, we would’ve not been able to do this. Now, not only do we have the right to tell the world who we are, but we have a responsibility to bring the brand up to the level that our employees and our owners of jets feel about the company.”

 

So when we looked at the logo and the visual identity and the brand that we value, it’s a heritage brand, it’s an iconic brand, but we saw a huge potential to step confidently into the world with a new brand. And so I couldn’t have done it without my colleagues. It’s not just the marketing person that brings this to executives in an engineering, manufacturing ... they needed to be convinced too, and I didn’t have to work so hard to convince them. I mean, the facts, the clients, the employees, they all told us it’s time to be bolder out there. And I was just the lucky one to be able to pick up that mandate and run with it.

 

Heather: Yes, absolutely. You’ve mentioned global and being a truly global brand. A lot of executives struggle with consistency versus flexibility, and how do you think about building a brand that at its core is authentic and purposeful and consistent, but has the right nuance and the right flexibility for different markets? How are you experiencing that in your role? And any lessons learned there?

 

Ève: Well, Lippincott’s helping a lot with that because it is a mindset question at the base. The mindset and the vision for it is the DNA of the brand and the brand platform is key and shouldn’t be flexible. It is truly the blood of Bombardier people, the customers. How it gets implemented and activated in different regions should absolutely be flexible. Not only in terms of the creative, but in terms of the tone. We are in every single region of the world. And you know what? The parallel with our jet-making is the same. We are the most customized jet-maker in the world. Our clients literally choose everything that goes into their plane. Every single plane is at the altitude and at the taste of each client. It’s the same thing for the brand.

 

So in the Emirates for example, or in Europe for example, or even in Canada, the brand is going to have to reflect the tastes of our customers in those regions. But it all comes back to the brand platform. And we feel so authentically in tune and in line with that brand platform that I’m very confident I’m not going to have to enforce anything. So the brand is going to be flexible, it’s going to be global, but it’s never going to sway from the true values of its DNA that we’ve built with Lippincott.

 

Heather: Part of that, not having to police or to push, but rather to have people pull, is to bring them along the journey. And I think you’ve talked so much about the culture, the people, the employees, making sure that they could see themselves reflected in the brand. Tell me about what you’ve learned about, in a way, building the brand from the inside out?

 

Ève: Yeah. The thing that I love to do the most, and I say me, but anybody, is walk through the factory. There is something incredibly special about walking through the factories of Bombardier and to just observe people working. You mentioned craftsmanship, passion, precision. The people that work at Bombardier, each and every one that I’ve met so far has such incredible pride in what it is that they do. And it’s because of that pride that the planes that we sell are so incredibly loved and admired. So it really all starts from there. And I tell you, Heather, when you come to Montreal, you’ll do a tour, and you’ll pinch me and you’ll say, “Oh my God, I feel...” I don’t think that that magic is in every company in the world. And I was at Edelman before as a consultant for seven years, so I saw hundreds of companies. I used to go in and out of factories all the time. There is really something incredibly special about this company.

 

Maybe it’s because it’s a family company, really, you feel that vibe as well. So there was no way that the brand would not start with them and attribute to them. It had to be. Because if it doesn’t do that, then whatever we push into the world is going to disconnect with the people that are making this company so iconic. So it was an easy thing when your North Star is so clear. And it’s about the people that are working for the company. Every time that we would look at different logos together, different visual identities, we could look at pictures of some of the employees in the factory and go, “Nah, they wouldn’t like that.” Or not just they wouldn’t like, they wouldn’t feel like it’s …

 

Heather: Reflective.

 

Ève: ... reflective of them.

 

Heather: Yes, absolutely.

 

Ève: And so we needed to find a brand that was reflective of them and at the altitude of the people that have the biggest discernment and the most demanding and precise audience in the world. And so congrats to Lippincott again, because I really am so proud. I feel we got it.

 

Heather: Oh, that’s such an amazing feeling. And then to kind of just see it out there and see it grow and see it embraced. You’ve mentioned “at your altitude” a few times, that’s really the core brand idea. How do you describe what that means and why that is, as you said, the DNA, the blood, the heartbeat of Bombardier?

 

Ève: Well, you know how I just express my gratitude or maybe my ... I am very inspired by our employees. Then you turn to the people that have made it and are leaders who shaped the world that are able to purchase our jets to do what it is that they have to do, which is often build big businesses, travel around the world. These people have a journey as well that need to be respected. I’ve met many of our clients, they’re all so inspirational. They all started from somewhere with a dream and a vision. They’ve worked so hard for that. And they’ve made it to a moment in time that is significant. When you’re able to purchase a business jet, okay, you made it, you’re good. And I think we need to pay tribute to that in a way, right?

 

Heather: Yes.

 

Ève: So that’s the “at your altitude,” is we respect, we value, and we honor who they are and what they’ve built. And we want to make sure that not just the jet, but the entire experience with our company meets them at that level of expectation, even a step ahead. That means always looking at their trajectory and trying to not please them, but just reinforce, “We see you. We got you. We at your altitude.” And that’s a very fast pace, and that’s a very high altitude.

 

Heather: Yes.

 

Ève: So just meeting them at your altitude consistently is a big promise or an engagement that we have towards them. So that’s the “at your altitude,” and that’s why I say it a lot, even with my team. And Éric Martel says it now in front of the leadership team all the time because it is in everything we do, all the choices we make, “is it at their altitude?” And it’s really transforming the company.

 

Heather: It’s so exciting.

 

Ève: It’s really useful.

 

Heather: Yeah.

 

Ève: Yeah.

 

Heather: Well, I think that that’s the promise of what the best brands do. It’s not the words on the page, but it’s the direction that you’re setting for the company. It’s the engaging and empowering and inspiring your people and your clients. And it’s having everybody in their own way, but kind of speak from the same talk track and know where you’re going. Pivoting a little bit, but still focusing on the brand both personally and in the role that you have. Sustainability is very much a priority, and it’s thought of as something very core to who you are. Tell me about this and the demands on continuing to be more sustainable ... are increasing. What are you doing, what are you excited about, and where to next?

 

Ève: So interestingly, the company, Bombardier, when I joined three years ago, the reason why I wanted this job so much is that there are so many stories to tell. Because it’s a manufacturing company, it’s an engineering technologically based, but not a communications marketing, external stakeholder engagement at all, right? They did the best planes in the world and they did everything they could, but they didn’t boast. Can you say that?

 

Heather: Yeah.

 

Ève: They didn’t talk about it so much. When I look at the world of sustainability, there’s a lot of criticism, there’s a lot of pressure, and I find that a lot of companies are just trying to communicate tactical little things here and there as a reaction to something?

 

Heather: Yes.

 

Ève: That’s not the world I live in. The world I live in is, “Oh my God, we are doing all of this and we’re not talking about it?”

 

Heather: Yeah.

 

Ève: Okay, where do I start? So first of all, being a Quebec-based company, we have the fortune of powering our plants with hydroelectricity. This is the most sustainable way of having energy, and we have it in Quebec. So that makes our facilities the most sustainable out of pretty much all the OEMs, just because this is how we power our plants.

 

Heather: Right.

 

Ève: Being from Quebec and using hydroelectricity, we do have that mindset of sustainability. It runs in our culture and in our blood. When I started looking at everything we did, an example, there’s something called EPD: Environmental Product Declaration. Engineers love acronyms more than marketers. So what it is, is basically they looked at the plane, let’s say they look at the Global. They started with the Global, we just did the Challenger, and they looked at the supply chain. So who’s supplying parts to build this plane? And are they best in class in terms of sustainability? Can we help them? Can we collaborate? How do we make the supply chain more local? All of that.

 

Then how you build a plane. So the resources that you’re using inside the facility to power the plane, then how you build the interior of the plane. So we have a ton of sustainable options. People don’t have to choose leather. They can choose vegan leather, they can choose leather made out of cactus. They can choose eucalyptus wood instead of... Because eucalyptus wood regrows easily, so it’s a more sustainable option. And it’s okay to fly with eucalyptus. It’s not hazardous. So that’s the other thing, right? You’re flying, so you can’t put anything ... any material. So the inside of the plane, how we build a plane, then the fuel. So the fuel, in the world of aviation, the biggest thing we can do right now is to use sustainable aviation fuel. It’s the number one thing that’s going to really drop the footprint.

 

And so last year Bombardier announced that in all of our planes that we use, all of our demos, every time we make a plane, we have to fly it around for hundreds, if it’s not thousands of hours, just to make sure the plane is okay, we fill it as much as the law will allow us to with sustainable aviation fuel, which is a huge cost for a company.

 

Heather: Yeah.

 

Ève: We don’t have to do that. There’s no rule by the governments enforcing that. But we looked at it and we said, “Well, what about if we did that, then our footprint would decrease by, I don’t know, 5, 10%, say?” Which is huge, like in one shot. It’s going to cost us a lot. “Let’s do it.” The decision was literally taken, Heather, in a month.

 

Heather: Wow.

 

Ève: With the CEO bringing everybody and saying, “Do you agree that we’re going to spend this money for sustainable aviation fuel?” And then, of course, as the communications person, I was like, “Can I tell the world we’re about to do this?” But truly, that’s not their priority. The priority is not tell the world. For them, it’s the right thing to do, but I’m sitting at that table going, “We need to tell the world.”

 

Heather: Yes.

 

Ève: Because people that want to come to work at our company, they need to know that this is part of our values. Our customer needs to know it’s part of our values. The pilots need to know that we feel like sustainable aviation fuel is safe. So we need to lead that. So we, honestly, with EPDs, Environmental Declaration Product, and then sustainable aviation fuel, plus everything else that we’re doing as a company, I’m super proud. And sustainability is at every single management meeting. It’s on our dashboard. We talk about it all the time. We promote sustainable aviation fuel. So we’re really leading the industry.

 

Heather: That’s fantastic. There’s so much to talk about as it relates to the art and science of branding, but the brand itself is a pretty sexy brand. I’m just going to say it, right? So very few people, I think, have ever been on a private jet before. So can you give us a little bit of a sneak peek? One that you’ve been on, one that is being built, something that just blew your mind? I would love to give our listeners a little bit of a peek into that.

 

Ève: It’s about the experience and it’s about the plane. So for me... And I’ll tell you, when I fly with our CEO, who’s toured the world so many times with a jet, every single time he walks into one, he’s amazed like it’s the first time. So we don’t take that for granted. We are really humbled to have the experience to be able to fly on those products. So the best thing about flying private is that you drive your car to what’s called an FBO, which it’s a private airport right, for people that own private jets. So let’s say you’re leaving at 8:00 PM, you need to show up at 7:45, 15 minutes before. You park your car, they take your keys, they take your luggage, they take your passport, you walk through the FBO, directly they bring you inside the plane. Often there’s a red carpet. Why not?

 

Heather: Why not?

 

Ève: They may as well. They say hello. They know your name. And then you’re inside this gorgeous plane. You buckle up. Honestly, in the Global, I have to say in the Challenger as well, you’re going to be in the sky so fast you don’t even have time to have a glass of water or a little bit of coffee, or specifically not red wine because it’s just going to fall on you. You sit down, you buckle up, and in literally five minutes you’re climbing towards 41,000, 42,000 feet of altitude. So you’re in the sky 20 minutes after driving to the FBO, and you’re on your way.

 

Heather: Wow.

 

Ève: Right there you’ve saved two or three hours. And then all the stress.

 

Heather: Yes.

 

Ève: You don’t have to go. I was at LaGuardia yesterday and I was so stressed out.

 

Heather: It’s a stressful experience, yes.

 

Ève: So then you’re in the jet. So in the jet, let’s say you’re in a Global, I travel a lot with the executives, and so we do very long distance, and sometimes we travel around the world in a week.

 

Heather: Wow.

 

Ève: So there’s four zones. The zone in the back is reserved for the owner of the plane or the CEO. Private bathroom, beautiful lounge chair. It’s called a Nuage seat that turns into a divan, TV, and then an amazing bed. You’ve not slept in a bed like that in your home. Sometimes we have Hermes or Missoni. All the beddings is just amazing. It smells great. Each place on the plane has its own lighting system. So you can dim the lights, you can change the colors. You have an amazing sound system, and so you can go rest there. My favorite zone is the third zone. So right before, if you start from the back of the plane, so often there’s a divan that turns into a bed. There’s a huge screen TV. So I don’t know, I think it’s like 55 inch. I don’t watch TV a lot. So sorry for my engineering friends if I’m saying the wrong thing. But I think it’s that.

 

So you watch TV, you read a book. And then I can close my own door. And often I’m the only girl in the plane. We talked about that. So I travel with men, so I like to have my little suite. And then in the front, there are many seats that turn into amazing beds and they put kind of a duvet over it, and you don’t even realize that you’re not in a real bed. And then it feels like you’re getting nestled in your mom’s arms because the wings on a Global, it’s called Flĕx Wings, they flex like a bird wing.

 

Heather: Wow.

 

Ève: It’s incredible. It really takes all the shock of any turbulence. So if there’s turbulence... Honestly, I never feel the turbulence. You’re just feeling like you are getting rocked by mommy, and you just pass out, and then that’s it. And then you land and it’s just like you go to work because you are completely rested. And the altitude that you feel inside of the cabin... So let’s say you’re at 41, 42, up to 44,000 feet, the feeling in the cabin is like 3,000, 3,500 feet. It’s not like in a real airplane that we’re used to taking where you’re actually feeling the altitude that you’re at and your skin is super dry. You leave the Global and you’re completely refreshed. You slept well. The oxygen, the air quality, is HEPA-filtered. So it changes almost, I think, every three minute completely. So it’s completely new air. So it’s amazing.

 

Heather: Wow.

 

Ève: So you land... Let’s say you did Montreal, Singapore, you land and you go to work. You don’t have to go to the hotel and you’re not like... You’re fine. You’re better than fine. You’re better than when I wake up in Montreal and I had two Nespressos.

 

Heather: Wow. Well, I think that both inspired and depressed our listeners because that is not what …

 

Ève: No.

 

Heather: ... most of us experience. But again, this is the business and it’s pretty incredible. Is there something that one of your clients had requested... You said everything is really custom. “We’re meeting them at their altitude.” Have you ever heard stories or know of something that was, “Wow, they asked for this on their private jet, and it was wild, but we did it.”

 

Ève: Yeah, I think there’s a lot of wild things, but what I really like is the stories about people that have pets. Because pets in a lot of families are family members, right?

 

Heather: Yes.

 

Ève: And pets do have anxiety when they’re flying. And so there’s a lot of ways to configure the plane so that the pet has its area, his pee-pad, his play thing. So we customize our jets a lot to acknowledge that pets have a huge place in our owners’ hearts, and they travel so much, they want to travel with their pets.

 

Heather: Yes.

 

Ève: So that’s something that I find really cute. There’s people that want karaoke machines. So that talks to me a lot. I can’t wait to take a Global and karaoke with my colleagues. And then there’s crazy things, but... People like crazy colors. I’ve seen Kylie Jenner’s plane on Instagram and it’s pink. So the other day I saw a plane completely black.

 

Heather: Wow.

 

Ève: ... like no stripes. Super, super cool. So people do exactly what they want with it. I don’t find anything crazy. That’s the art of customization.

 

Heather: Yeah, absolutely. As a leader in this company and as someone who touches so many aspects, not to mention actually doing a brand transformation, you must get pulled in so many directions. How do you prioritize? How do you orient, “Here’s how I’m going to spend my time. Here’s not how I’m going to spend my time?”

 

Ève: My biggest learning for the past three years at Bombardier has been, what is so evident when you read business book, but build a great team. And when you don’t have that team, then you don’t know what to prioritize, and you are getting pulled everywhere. When you have a great team, that means they’re not only great people individually, but they’re great collaborators with one another. They speak to one another. They have relationships with one another. So as a leader, I’m not as much as I used to be stuck in having to choose and prioritizing. They’re a super amazing, functioning, collaborative, respectful team, and that changes everything. So we’re able to talk about strategy, to reorient things, and I feel like we’re less in the fire, and panicking and chaos, just because I think we finally got it right. We’ve rebuilt the team. We’ve changed the structure of the team.

 

So very funny, because you’re in an agency, I walked into Bombardier and of course, Mintzberg, who’s the management teacher, would say it’s a machine organization. So traditional, very hierarchy-based ... it’s normal, it’s engineering, it’s manufacturing. But agencies don’t work like that, right?

 

Heather: Right.

 

Ève: Agencies, the model is called adhocracy, or it’s just an agency model. People have projects. They get to the project. They collaborate on the project. The project’s finished. Team dissembles. And then some members will see each other on other projects, some other... And so it’s a lot more fluid. So we’ve rebuilt my organization, it’s about 80 people, to be an agency model with a pool of resources in the middle. So now people are not stuck doing one thing. They can be pulled in very different projects, stimulate their creativity, innovation. So that’s also great team leaders, but also the right structure. And when you’re in internal marketing for a big company, you need to look at your structure and say, “Is it following the corporate model? And is that the right thing to be able to support the stakeholders?” So we are an internal agency.

 

Heather: Yes.

 

Ève: ... so I’ve completely rebuilt it. Even physically, the space that we’re using looks like an agency now. Everybody can just... It’s hoteling. They can sit wherever they want. There’s areas of collaboration everywhere on the floor. Before it was just like those ... what do you call? The separating people in little…

 

Heather: Cubicles.

 

Ève: Yes, cubicles.

 

Heather: Yeah.

 

Ève: It’s not a bad thing, cubicles, but when you’re marketers and you need to talk communications and PR and marketing, it doesn’t work.

 

Heather: Right.

 

Ève: So we destroyed our floor and we remade it. And so that’s really working.

 

Heather: That’s amazing. Let’s say we sit down a year from now, you’re going to have your guitar and we’re going to do a little jam session, but then we talk about where you are now and where the brand is. What do you want to be able to say in terms of impact?

 

Ève: First of all, employees first again. So feeling like it’s trickling in the DNA without having to push it, but people grabbing it and having fun with it and feeling like it’s theirs, that would be really satisfying my heart. What would be satisfying my mind would be for clients of any big brands, to say to the question, “What are top leading, inspirational, sophisticated global brands?” And to have people to start to say “Bombardier?” So to actually have our name... It’s an iconic name in the aviation industry, but it’s much more than the aviation industry. We have AI professionals, we have people that are woodworkers. We have the best financial people. So I want our brand to be on that dashboard of great, strong, influential, positive brands. That’s what I want.

 

Heather: And I think you are setting that up because it’s that, but then it’s also speaking about the brand, not just in the context of the product, or the product is king or queen, It’s about the clients and the clients who are shaping the world. And that allows you to exist on a, no pun intended, but higher plane than others. And so I think that’s really exciting.

 

Ève: Good pun, by the way.

 

Heather: Yeah, good pun. So we had talked about Bombardier being iconic. It’s also an iconic Canadian brand.

 

Ève: Yes.

 

Heather: How would you describe the ethos of an iconic Canadian brand?

 

Ève: Yeah, it’s so funny because it’s almost contrast, conflicting …

 

Heather: Yes.

 

Ève: ... because I’m talking about my vision and my team’s vision of having people say “Bombardier” when you talk about a big, gorgeous, sophisticated... But truly, the ethos of the brand is we’re super humble. Canadians are super humble. So it’s a tough ... it’s a very …

 

Heather: Fine line.

 

Ève: It’s a fine line. It’s soft and hard, because although we’re humble and we don’t want to be so boastful, we’re also so proud of our company and we want the world to see it. So it’s how we’re showing it to the world that’s important. And it’s also, for me, making sure that everybody feels comfortable with the pace of taking our brand, that we’ve kept kind of quiet, to the global stage, and not being so shy about being such a great brand. And I think everybody will give me a tap on the back and say, “Keep on going,” as long as I’m portraying it with the brand platform that we did, which is like family, right? That’s important.

 

Heather: Yes.

 

Ève: So it’s always keeping that humbleness Canadian brand. And when I was at Edelman, they did the trust barometer, the Edelman Trust Barometer, which I think is fantastic. I read it every year. And Canada is always in the top three of most trusted countries in the world in terms of a brand. And I find we under-utilize that sometimes.

 

Heather: Yes.

 

Ève: The U.S. is a powerful brand. There’s a lot of countries that are very powerful in terms of brand. I wouldn’t say Canada is a powerful brand. But on the trust index of the Edelman Trust Barometer, which has been there for 25 years, it’s consistently in the top three with Sweden, and I forget the other one. So let’s be proud of that Canadian heritage because clearly Canada’s a trusted brand, and we’re Canadian.

 

Heather: Yeah. So we are talking a lot about icons. You as an icon, Bombardier as an icon. When you think about people in your life or those that you just have admired, do you have an icon, someone you can talk to or speak about?

 

Ève: I’m very inspired by a lot of people, so I don’t have one in particular. If I had a chance to speak to the Obamas ... or not even speak, be invited to listen to them speak in a [an] intimate context... I’m very impressed by them. And it’s not about policies and politics and none of that, it’s about their strength, their humbleness, their value. He’s such a great communicator. As communicators, we’ve all learned to communicate better watching Barack Obama speak. Whether you’re agreeing with his policies or not, I don’t think anybody can say that Barack Obama is not a best-in-class communicator.

 

Heather: Yes.

 

Ève: So I’m very impressed by people that have that skill. I did meet... So my icon since I was so young... I didn’t even speak English, and I used to watch the Oprah Winfrey Show. I didn’t even know what she was saying, but I just loved her energy. And I have to tell you, about 15 years ago, I was having lunch with a lot of my friends at The Plaza, and my friend had just sold this company. He was 30 years old, so it was a big deal. He flew us to New York, bought a champagne, took us to The Plaza. We were super out of our comfort zone, but we were having an amazing time, laughing and laughing. And then at one point ... guys, this is a true story ... at one point I got a tap on my shoulder and I turned around and it was Oprah. She had been having breakfast at The Plaza by herself. She had her two bodyguards.

 

And the waiter told me she was watching you guys and she was laughing and she was so inspired by your happiness, and she just walked over. And I turned around and I was shocked. She was all wearing her sports clothes. She had just been to the gym. And she just said, “Hi, honey.” And I was like, “Oh my God. Hi, Oprah.” And she said, “I’ve been watching your energy and you guys are fabulous, so keep on enjoying life so much, and the next bottle of champagne is on me.”

 

Heather: Wow.

 

Ève: And so we just froze. And she exited The Plaza. And of course, I decided to do what I say I do at the beginning of the interview, which is dive in.

 

Heather: Yes.

 

Ève: So I got up, I went outside, and I just screamed, “Oprah!” And she turned around and she’s like, “Yeah, baby, what can I do?” And I’m like, “I don’t know. I don’t know what to say to you. I learned English because I needed to understand what you were saying on TV. I decided to start reading books because you talk about reading books, and the Oprah Book Club. And I decided to go into communications because I just love the influence, and how you communicate with people and you get emotions out of them.” And she just gave me the biggest hug.

 

Heather: Oh, wow.

 

Ève: Biggest hug. We took a picture. And she said, “Keep on going, honey. You’re doing great.” And I was like, “Bye.” She just left. So I met one of my icons. And there’s a phrase I think you use in English that says, “Never meet your idol,” or something like that?

 

Heather: Yes.

 

Ève: But sometimes it’s good to meet your idol because they actually show you that they actually are the real thing.

 

Heather: That is an amazing story. And on so many levels, it’s ... again, I think the idea of happiness, and finding happiness. And life is hard, and work is hard, and running these businesses is hard, but if you can find some joy and you can celebrate the happiness ... I’m thinking I should just have a red carpet going up to my stairs of my house now.

 

Ève: Do it.

 

Heather: ... because why not?

 

Ève: Why not?

 

Heather: And what you’re doing in this role and beyond for the industry, and for marketers at large, is really inspiring and amazing. So in the words of Oprah, keep going, girl. And thank you so much for being not only an amazing guest, but an amazing partner and collaborator, believing in us. 

 

Ève: You guys, honestly, Lippincott, I’m not doing a sponsorship here, I’m telling you, it’s been the best journey, the best partnership, the best people. Never felt like it was an agency, contract thing. It’s a real team. They push back. Sometimes I make really bad decisions, they push back on me. Lizzie, I listen to her because I know she’s a rose. I mean, the entire team of Lippincott. And so it was the magic of our company’s meeting, and we did it together. So truly, it’s been ... I’ve learned so much. Still learning. And for me to be in New York today as a Canadian sitting with you, Heather, I’m super happy to be here. Thank you.

 

Heather: Thank you so much, Ève.