#portrait
Long before the first speaker took the stage on 30 June, conversations were already flowing through the gardens of Lyon’s Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse.
Diplomats, entrepreneurs, lawyers, consultants and executives had gathered for FIBA Lyon’s sold-out Summer Cocktail, the association’s flagship annual event. This year’s discussion, The Impact of Sport on Business, explored what business can learn from the way sport develops leadership, builds teams and creates trust.
Moving quietly between groups was Rachel Maury.
President of FIBA Lyon since 2022 and now midway through her second three-year mandate, she has led the association during a period in which face-to-face business networking has regained momentum after years dominated by remote working. Throughout the evening, she welcomed long-standing members and first-time attendees alike while conversations formed naturally around her.
A network built on relationships
Founded to strengthen Franco-British business links, FIBA Lyon has become one of the region’s longest-established English-speaking business associations. Around one hundred entrepreneurs, consultants, lawyers, accountants, translators and executives now make up a network extending well beyond its original bilateral roots.
Alongside British and French members, professionals from South Africa, the Netherlands, Sweden, North America, China and Australia reflect the international character of the association.
Under Maury’s presidency, FIBA Lyon has diversified its programme while preserving its original purpose.
Business lunches remain central to the calendar, complemented by breakfast meetings, networking evenings and mentoring initiatives for students preparing for international careers.
Current and former committee members interviewed during the event described an organisation where professional relationships develop over time rather than through immediate commercial opportunities.
Several also observed that attendance had strengthened as companies returned to in-person events after the pandemic.
Why sport?
The evening’s panel, titled The Impact of Sport on Business, reflected practical business questions rather than sporting ones. For many of FIBA Lyon’s members, it offered a framework to explore leadership, multicultural teams and recruitment across borders, as well as the challenge of aligning people around shared objectives.
The panel brought together Andrew Dalgleish, HM Deputy Ambassador to France; Vincent Ponsot, Chief Executive Officer of OL Lyonnes; Eric Mérand, Director of Operations for Venue Design and Regional Sites for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games; and sports business consultant Alexandra Boyi.
Drawing on experience from diplomacy, elite sport, major international events and consultancy, they discussed how organisations approach leadership, diversity, teamwork and recruitment.
The discussion also looked ahead to the French Alps Winter Olympic Games in 2030 and other major sporting events scheduled across Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
Participants highlighted the practical cooperation required between businesses, public authorities and sporting organisations as the region prepares to host them.
The discussion also explored how sport can support recruitment and social inclusion. Speakers highlighted the French Stade vers l’emploi initiative, where employers and job seekers first meet through sporting activities before formal interviews take place.
According to figures shared during the discussion, around 70 per cent of long-term unemployed participants subsequently returned to work.
Leading through connections
The themes discussed during the evening echoed the leadership style colleagues most often associate with Maury. One long-standing member described her as « une main de fer dans un gant de velours ».
Others spoke of a president who prefers listening before speaking and who has broadened the association’s activities while preserving its identity.
Alongside her responsibilities at FIBA Lyon, Maury led the branding consultancy Twinfish Design for almost two decades before opening PATATE an independant organic grocery store in 2020, an independent grocery overlooking the Saône.
Although the two activities belong to different sectors, both reflect the same approach: creating places where people meet, ideas circulate and professional relationships develop over time.
Beyond the formal programme
When the panel concluded, the evening continued in the Conservatoire’s gardens. A live jazz quartet accompanied the cocktail reception as discussions moved naturally from the themes raised on stage to recruitment, entrepreneurship, international development and future collaborations.
Small groups formed, dispersed and reassembled while conversations carried on well after the formal programme had ended.
Maury remained among the participants until late in the evening. By the time the last guests began to leave, the panel had finished some time earlier. The conversations it had prompted were still continuing.
