ESCP ALUMNI magazine - Special Issue 2022 - 34

Career ❙ Big Interview
By Arthur Jeanne
C'est la vie!
With its iconic spots in France, Paris Society has created a new style of event-hosting; so chic, so cool,
so French! The company now wants to take it abroad. We met deputy managing director Sébastien
PACAULT (07) in Girafe, one of the group's jewels, a restaurant with a view on the Eiffel Tower.
a €10 M turnover, which is great for such
a place. Gigi is a brand and a concept we
really want to invest in.
Sébastien PACAULT (07)
deputy managing director of Paris Society
Good morning Sébastien. Can you
tell us a bit about Paris Society?
Paris Society boasts about fifty assets
in catering, partying, event hosting and
hotel trade. We have about 1,000 full-time
employees and hire up to 4,000 extras per
month. The group keeps expanding; we are
going to open 25 new sites over the next
two years to reach 75 assets. Most of them
will be in Paris, but we will also be in SaintTropez,
Val d'Isère, Courchevel, Megève,
London and Los Angeles. We also want to
boost our international expansion.
Let's talk about the place you have
just opened.
It is called Gigi. It is amazing; it is based
in Ramatuelle, on the Pampelonne beach.
It should help us make a huge leap on
an international scale. Gigi is an Italian
aesthete's holiday home, some super chic
and pretty beach club which is full of details.
There is a kids club, a restaurant, a nice pool,
3 massage rooms, ping-pong tables, and a
petanque strip. We opened last June and
immediately got great feedback from our
clients. We should end our first year with
34 ❙
ESCP Alumni Magazine Special issue ❙ 2022
The first years of your career had
nothing to do with hospitality...
No, after I graduated from ESCP, I worked
in finance. I was an intern in hedge funds in
London, and in a big corporate law firm in
Paris. But I realised I wanted to be in charge
and start my own business. So, I created
Artsetter, an online art business website that
did not work as well as I hoped. Then, as I
was starting a new wine concierge service, I
met someone who changed my life.
That's when Paris Society was
born?
Yes. I met my business partner, Laurent
de Gourcuff, a bit by chance 8 years ago.
Back then, he owned 7 nightclubs. He
in Ramatuelle
had no connection with the hospitality
world, but I felt his group, Noctis, had a big
potential. He asked me to help him raise
funds. An investment fund helped us, so
we could plan our future development. We
completely changed the group's strategy.
Our nightclubs gave us a festive DNA,
which we wanted to keep. But we decided
to invest in corporate event hosting, concert
venues and, above all, catering. We made a
shift and changed the group.
How do you split the tasks?
To sum things up, Laurent oversees the
development, the communication, and the
management of some of the jobs, while I
oversee the strategy, the structuring, the
shareholders, and the M&A. We don't
like the same things and we don't do the
same things. We complement each other
perfectly; it is a true strength.

ESCP ALUMNI magazine - Special Issue 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ESCP ALUMNI magazine - Special Issue 2022