Agnès Touraine holds a degree in Law and
graduated from the Paris Institut d'Etudes Politiques
in 1978. She obtained an MBA from Columbia University
Business School, New York, in 1980.
She joined McKinsey in 1981 and spent five years
with the firm. From 1985 to 1995, she pursued
her career at Hachette (Lagardère group)
where she was successively Sr Vice President of
Strategy for the Lagardère group and Head
of Hachette's Consumer Publishing division.
In 1995, Agnès joined CEP Communication
to launch Liris Interactive as Chairman and CEO.
Liris Interactive, one of France's first start-ups
in multimedia, became Havas Interactive at the
end of 1997.
In 1998, Havas Interactive significantly expanded
its scope with the acquisition of Cendant Software,
the US leader in edutainment and interactive games.
As a result, Agnès became Executive Vice
President in charge of the Consumer division of
Havas.
In 2000, within the context of the merger between
Vivendi and Universal, she was appointed Vice
Chairman and CEO of Havas, which became Vivendi
Universal Publishing. Immediately afterwards,
Agnès Touraine was appointed Chairman and
CEO of Vivendi Universal Publishing.
VUP, third-largest consumer publisher world-wide,
generated revenues of €4.7 billion in 2001
and EBITDA of €827 million. In its five business
sectors—education (no. 2 world-wide), reference
(no. 1 world-wide), literature (no. 1 in France),
games (no. 2 world-wide in PC), edutainment (no.
1 world-wide), and consumer magazines—VUP
reinforced its market share, international presence,
and profitability.
At the end of 2003, further to Vivendi Universal’s
decision to sell most of the Vivendi Universal
Publishing activities, Agnès Touraine left
the Group and created Act III Consultants, a management
consulting firm. |
