Mickaël’s story: bringing entrepreneurial spirit to a thriving Sodexo career

My advice to anyone starting out in hospitality is simple: work hard, believe in yourself, listen to guidance and dare to be bold and different. It’s how I’ve steered my own career, and it’s taken me to great places professionally.

After finishing my schooling at 16 I signed up for a vocational certificate in hospitality and catering then I completed a specialized qualification in bartending. By 19, I was already working full-time – either in nightlife venues as a bartender, or in hospitality roles. At 21, I moved to the Lyon area and by 23, I was maître d’hôtel, by 25 I had progressed to restaurant manager.

I was gathering experience and had plenty of ambition, so I decided to listen to my entrepreneurial spirit and co-founded my own business with four other maître d’s, running large events in France and abroad, often for heads of state and CEOs. It was high-end catering and that’s what caught Sodexo’s eye and how I ended up working for the business. 

I joined in September 2015, with responsibility for Crédit Agricole’s executive dining and building their catering service from scratch.

A journey full of memories and highlights

The past 10 years at Sodexo have brought lots of milestones and highlights. Opening the Terralumia head office in June 2023 is one of my best memories. It took years of preparation and on the opening day, the General Manager of Crédit Agricole gave a lovely speech thanking everyone involved, saying when he’d visited the site on the Saturday before opening, it was still under heavy construction. Very few people were there working tirelessly all weekend to make sure we could open on Monday at 6am including Sodexo. For me, that’s the spirit of service – mobilizing even in difficult moments.

I am now responsible for hospitality, logistics, events, back office, workplace services and part of the dinning offers at the Terraluimia site as well as managing hospitality at the Bellecour and Mâcon sites.

I also run one of Sodexo France’s five Opex training sites for operational excellence, coaching three cohorts a year on improving site performance by focusing on client perspective and operational feedback. 

With clients, I believe in building partnerships, not just business relationships. We’ve spent 10 years creating a shared journey with Crédit Agricole Centre-est, working together to grow both our organizations.

Creating initiatives that enrich our communities

Sodexo is different from other large companies. It has all the rigor, processes and resources you’d expect from a global player, but it also encourages freedom and entrepreneurial spirit.

I’ve been able to engage socially with others, join internal programs like Stop Hunger* SoTogether**, and lead initiatives like WasteWatch***.

One is called Les Tremplins des Chefs – an initiative that invites local chefs to cook in our corporate restaurants, to help them to gain experience and visibility while enriching our culinary offer and strengthening ties with the community.

The second grew from a market I’d organized six years ago to collect and distribute toys and clothes to vulnerable people who may have nothing for Christmas. In year two we expanded the initiative and partnered with Restos du Cœur, and by year five I had co-created an official association – Suricates Les Sentinelles Solidaires – supported by the Stop Hunger and Crédit Agricole foundations. I’ve chaired this associated since creation.

We have 38 year-round volunteers and around 500 occasional helpers.

^*Stop Hunger is Sodexo’s unique philanthropic cause. 
^*SoTogether is Sodexo’s employee gender network.
^**WasteWatch is Sodexo’s effective food waste prevention solution.