Director of Human Resources at Hutchinson in 2008, making her the first woman to sit on the company’s management committee, Dominique Bellos, born in 1949, opened a management firm at the end of her career in 2019. A career spanning fifty years that she retraces in Once upon a time… a woman in the industry (The Harmattan, 2021).
In “Once upon a time… a woman in the industry”, you retrace fifty years of a journey, not always easy, in a very masculine environment. How did you come to the world of industry?
Dominique Bellos: Originally, in the 1970s, I was a literary person, I headed towards teaching German. To do my thesis, I went to Basel [Suisse], where in parallel with my studies I worked as a secretary in the chemical group Ciba-Geigy. With my master’s degree, I gave some German lessons, but I preferred to risk myself in the industry that attracted me. Then I transformed the pedagogy of teaching into the pedagogy of human resources.
After three years as a secretary, I had the audacity to seek the positions that suited me, taking the risk of a refusal. I then joined the French subsidiary of a small German group, where I rose through the ranks for seventeen years to become commercial director and then general manager of the subsidiary.
What was your experience at Hutchinson, the subsidiary of the TotalEnergies group that you joined afterwards?
After a few lean years between 1992 and 1997, when I experienced the bankruptcies of SMEs, I responded to an advertisement from the Association pour l’emploi des cadres [APEC]. Out of 678 applications, I was the only woman to put myself forward for Hutchinson. The APEC consultant encouraged me to come up with my own signature, the graphologist put my file on top of the pile, and I got the job.
For ten years I managed business units [unités de production] in bicycle tires and window seals, then I became director of human resources, which in 2008 made me the first woman on the management committee of the company. I stayed there until 2016, then I ended my career in 2019, when I opened my management firm. There was a desire from the boss of Total (which has since become TotalEnergies), Christophe de Margerie, to support diversity in the masculine world of Hutchinson.
I checked the content of the post. It’s not enough to be a woman, I wanted to be hired for my skills, but I had a social dialogue with the unions and I knew the field.
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