5 Questions with Publicis Groupe CEE Lioness: Joana Andrade

As part of Publicis Groupe Central & Eastern Europe (CEE)’s 'Embrace Gender Equity' initiative that was launched during this year’s International Women’s Day on March 8th, the company created a special series 'Publicis Groupe CEE Lioness' designed to showcase and spotlight its many female talent and leaders across the CEE region, celebrating their experiences and important roles they play within the company. Get to know the Publicis Groupe CEE Lionesses through their stories in this series.

Joana Andrade is the chief financial officer at Publicis Groupe CEE.

1. Can you share your story with us, how have you gotten to where you are today in your profession? 

Joana> My journey began on the client side with Renault in Portugal.

After a few years, I moved into a consulting company where I spent 10 years across Portugal, Brazil, Spain, and France. While in Lisbon, I was appointed to take over finance operation for the Portuguese operation. Around the same time, the company was also launching operations in Brazil through acquisitions, hence the next step for me was to change continent. (I’m Portuguese by the way.) It was an amazing experience working across two countries with the same language but with much difference in culture and more. (I had no winter for one whole year! 😊) I was then appointed financial director for Spain and later moved to Paris to take on the role as controlling lead for the consulting and information systems pillar.

Advertising and Publicis came as a recommendation to a head hunter from a former colleague in Spain who was contacted for a role in Latin America. This was a game changer for me. I went back to Brazil and went from supporting the chief financial officer (CFO) for Publicis Worldwide Latin America  to becoming one of the Publicis Brazil’s CFOs, to finally returning to Paris with the launch of Publicis One in 2016. In 2021, I found my crowd with Tomas Lauko, Maria Tudor, and Veronika Borbas when I was appointed CFO for Publicis Groupe Central & Eastern Europe.

2. What has been your most memorable experience in your career so far? 

Joana> I don’t really look back at my journey - I never did as I realise that I prefer to live the present.

Having said that, I would say that my most memorable experiences have been the ones that when changing country or role or team, I realised that all the following were aligned: ambition, ethics, trust, respect, and transparency. This is when magic happened and those experiences were memorable. 

3. Similarly, what was the most challenging moment and how did you overcome it?

Joana> At a time in my career, I thought that I could manage everything, be everywhere at the same time and deliver almost alone without help - just working more and more would do it. That almost cost me my health. I got across with the support of my manager and understanding that you need to know your limits, pick your battles as you cannot fight them all at the same time, you need to manage your energy and reach for help before it’s too late. 

4. What are your most important tips on achieving success?

Joana> Know that nothing will be great all the time, accept that there will be things you will not be able to influence or control and may frustrate you.

Understand that within this journey, you always have someone from whom you can learn and get inspiration from.

Listen and learn. You work in an organisation that has brilliant people and has great learning tools, use these. Find your crowd, create your circle of trust as this will energize you massively.

Be thankful to all the people that made your path possible as there is no one-woman-show, but endless hours spent on working with your teams and colleagues. 

5. What are your tips for younger female talent embarking on the journey you’re already on?

Joana> Further to what I said in the earlier question, I would just build on with work hard, be ambitious, be bold, the future is yours.