Marie Mercier Briand, NEOMA graduate: “Combining technology with the human dimension”

Doubly rewarded by NEOMA Business School with the Digital Trophy as well as the title of “Manager of the Year”, Marie Mercier Briand, a TEMA graduate, is now Global Chief Marketing & Digital Experience Officer at La Redoute. She represents a whole generation of leaders who combine data knowledge, collaborative working and intuition. Here is her career to date. 

From La Rochelle to NEOMA, she learned to set herself goals 

“My parents taught me the importance of work, the desire to give the best of yourself, while at the same time being competitive and never losing sight of the goal you have set.” Marie Mercier Briand grew up in La Rochelle. Her childhood was full of the sea, travel and a spirit of curiosity: “At the tiller of an Optimist, I loved coping with the weather conditions, and sometimes with adverse winds… That taught me perseverance.” Her parents never doubted her ability to succeed in life.

NEOMA: the revelation that was TEMA (TEch & MAnagement)

After a science-based baccalaureate and a preparatory course at INSA Lyon, she realised that a role that was 100% engineering did not suit her. Attracted by languages and business, she discovered NEOMA and the brand new TEMA (Tech & Management) course. “We were in the very early stages of e-commerce. I guessed that this innovative approach would be exciting and become a winning phenomenon. I wasn’t wrong about that.” At NEOMA, she found a ‘second family’, providing her with kindness, a chance to dare and the right to make mistakes. “We were allowed to try things out, be brave, and experiment, and we were also allowed to fail.

First steps in consultancy

At the start of her career, Marie chose consultancy, a fast and stimulating training ground. At Abiléo and then Novedia, she discovered the worlds of marketing, retail and luxury. In 2015, she joined PwC France to take part in creating the PwC Experience Center, after their acquisition of the design thinking agency, Nealite. “I was able to support retail actors and major luxury brands, helping them implement their digital strategy. We helped transform the salespeople into real consultants, capable of offering an ultra-personalised service because of their mastery of data and digital tools.”

La Redoute: the renaissance of an iconic brand

In 2017, she decided to leave Paris for Roubaix, in search of a better quality of life “After nearly fifteen years in consultancy, I wanted to combine strategy and the operational side, to see the impact of my decisions in action.” She was contacted by La Redoute, whose headquarters is in Roubaix. The company was undergoing a total transformation. It had been struggling since the 2000s, changed hands in 2014 and wanted to reinvent its model. She was impressed by their values: humility, collaboration and modernity. She became Director of the Digital Experience, then of Innovation, before becoming Director of Customer Experience in 2019. Since 2024, she has occupied the post of Global Chief Marketing & Digital Experience Officer.

A vision of always starting with the customer

The mission of La Redoute since its origins has always been to simplify and beautify family life as regards textiles and homewares. “To achieve this, it is essential to start with knowledge of the customers, and of their needs and aspirations,” she explains. Thanks to solutions such as Dotaki, based on the emotional or rational profile of the customers, the brand adapted the content of their site. “Together, collectively, we improved digital performance and customer satisfaction, something I am very proud of.” Despite a trickier consumer climate, La Redoute showed positive profitability in 2024. 

These extracts were put together by Patrice Theillout. The full interview can be found in the NEOMA Alumni mag of March 2025. Click on this link to take a look.