TEAM SPOTLIGHT: CECILIA FRANCHI

Allison Eckhart • December 11, 2019

Introducing a new blog series by NetExpat. Get to know some of the individuals who work diligently to provide the very best for our clients and partners. Our first spotlight focuses on Cecilia Franchi, Senior Director Global Advisory Services for the Americas.

Cecilia is originally from Brazil but has also lived in Austria, France, the UK and currently resides in the US. So we wanted to know, where does she call home?

I was born in Brazil and my entire family is still there except my parents and brothers and sisters who live in the US. I was lucky in that my parents were very curious about the world and they loved to travel. When I was very young we lived in London and Vienna before my parents made the decision to move to the US from Brazil.

I studied at the American University in Paris. I later moved to the south of France where I worked for Dow Chemical Company for 13 years before I came back to the US. Today, I would say I call Connecticut home.

Before joining NetExpat, Cecilia worked in several areas of the mobility industry. We asked her to tell us how she got started in the field.

I was always very globally focused and knew I wanted an international career so I studied international economics at University. My first foray into global mobility was when I worked for Dow Chemical Company in France. Dow had a very large expatriate population in France so I ended up moving into the international mobility department which is where I learned a lot about the mechanics of international mobility from a tactical perspective.

Later, when I moved back to the US, I started working at Deloitte in their internal mobility department for the Americas. I had several roles during my time there with responsiblity for diminishing barriers and challenges between member firms so we could have seamless engagements globally for large multinationals.

Based on both her personal and professional experiences, we wanted to know what she enjoys the most about working in the global mobility/talent management space.

Hands down, I believe it is the fact that I truly understand what individuals moving globally are going through because I have been through it myself several times. It sounds great to move from New York to Brazil to France but it’s really hard. Helping identify the challenges of moving people globally and coming up with solutions to help corporations solve those problems for their own organizations is very rewarding for me.

Cecilia has worked at NetExpat for over 2 years. We asked her what made NetExpat stand out as a good fit based on her background and career path.

What really stood out to me the most is that NetExpat is truly global. It’s a lean and mean organization, but it is very very global. We have leaders with a truly global mindset and for me it was very refreshing.

Based on Cecilia's background and current work for NetExpat, we wanted to know what she sees as current industry trends in the Americas.

We are really seeing companies seek out the best of the best when it comes to their suppliers and the perfect fit for their individual company culture. Because Employee Experience is top of mind, corporations are no longer relying on a centralized organization to make all the decisions for them, they want to be able to filter through the different services they offer and make the decision themselves.

What I think is the most important takeaway for corporations today is to go directly to the source. Don’t make assumptions about what your employees want or need. It is important to survey and be in touch with employees directly. In order to have a truly positive employee experience, the employee needs to be put at the forefront.

Contact us to schedule a call with one of our experts in your region to learn more about best practices in intercultural solutions, partner assistance and talent management.

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