Marie-Charlotte Pezé

Expatica

I spent 8 years as the Editor in Chief at Expatica, the online expat relocation Bible.

I managed the staff + freelance editorial team, devised SEO, content, IT, and even sales strategies, and thoroughly annoyed the developers.

One of my proudest accomplishments is writing our mission statement and defining our higher goals with director Mark Welling, to use our platform to promote human rights and sustainability.

Souffrance & Travail

I am the Editor in Chief of Souffrance et Travail, the authority on burnout and workplace harassment in France. This adventure started in 2009, when I coded V1 in notepad and called myself a webmaster.

It is now technically way beyond my comprehension, but I am still responsible for writing, editing, and publishing most of its static content.

As a member of the board of directors I also get to explain SEO practices to a bunch of doctors who have no idea what I’m talking about.

The telenovella version

It’s funny to see how much we are a continuation of our childhood selves. I wrote my first short story back when I believed my cat could read; and my Fisher Price camera died of abuse when I was 10.

I studied history and political sciences, but I had an itch for wider horizons (I blame our family holidays spent roaming the world in a beat-up van), so I dropped out of university when I was 20 and moved to New York where I dedicated 10 happy years to filmmaking.

After returning to Europe, I felt ready for my lifelong aspirations to either inform people or help effect change. I knew that journalism is slowly agonizing, lying on the sidewalk with its arms in a cross; and that the non-profit world is more nepotic and incestuous than Game of Thrones. But it is what I love, and I am terribly stubborn.

I sharpened my pen on piles of websites, newspapers, and magazines, where I contributed as a writer, editor, and photographer before growing into my Editor in Chief pants.

But we can’t escape ourselves, and the truth is, my greatest skill is probably keeping stuff organized and moving forward. More than an editor in chief or project manager, I feel like an engineer, who lovingly designs and assembles all the moving parts, and won’t rest until they run perfectly.