A NEW LIFE/LORNA SIGGINS:Laurent Billiet was on track to be a CEO in the medical industry, but a part-time interior design course changed his career path completely
IT MAY have been that "Sunday evening feeling" that finally did it for Laurent Billiet. The French-born Irish-based executive was on a six-figure salary, leaping up the corporate ladder and familiar with the finest hotels in the world.
"I wanted for nothing, I had the most wonderful life - but I wasn't really living. The weekends had barely started when suddenly it was late Sunday afternoon, and I was packing my bag again for an early flight on Monday morning," he recalls.
There's a palpable shiver, as he pauses and remembers. "I don't think that is something I will ever miss."
Billiet was working with Bio- Medical Research Ltd (BMR) in Parkmore, Galway, and had become its European managing director. He was commuting between the west of Ireland and offices in France, Italy and Spain, when he decided to step out.
"I suppose my career path was fairly obvious. The next stage would have been managing director in this or another company. From there, the route would normally progress to chief executive officer [ CEO] of a division, and then CEO overall. I suppose I would have been headhunted for a few boards, I would have fitted in very well to that corporate world, I would have had a lot of financial security - but looking at the people 15 and 20 years older, I knew that this was not for me
"My average day was 8am to 11pm, because that is how you succeed at that level. My job latterly involved being able to recruit the right people with the right skills, and manage them properly. So it was very enriching in ways. But 90 per cent of it was also networking, protecting your job and working to secure your next move.
"The more successful I became, the more I wanted day-to-day action, because I felt that I was losing touch with reality. You do at that level, I believe. Yet I had always thought at some point that I would set up my own business."
Born near Lille in France, Billiet's background is in human resources and international marketing, and he holds an MBA. After graduation, he worked with the French equivalent of the Industrial Development Authority in Boston, US.
Sopexa, the French state promotional board for food and wine, drew him to Ireland, to stay. "I spent two years in Dublin and really enjoyed it, but was happy to leave when the post in Galway came up," he says.
His commute for BMR involved spending several weeks of each month in Paris. During the fragile free time in the evenings, he took those first steps, unwittingly, that led to a change in career.
The course was in interior design. "I've always been interested in architecture and art. When we were young, my parents ran a building company and we lived in a castle near Lille.
"Everyone thought we were rich, but we shopped in the equivalent of Lidl and spent any money we had on heating bills. At the same time, I absorbed that atmosphere of wood panelling, marble columns, marquetry, and the work of the most amazing craftspeople.
"I loved the feeling of space in those big rooms."
The interior design course was just a hobby at first. It ran over 18 months, led to a professional qualification, and he found himself accepting design work on people's apartments in Paris at weekends.
"So this began to grow. There were no free weekends. I left my job, having given lots of notice, and so it was very amicable.
"I focused first on work in Paris, building up contacts there, but Galway was always home. So three years ago, I decided to base myself in Ireland full-time."
It couldn't have been a better period, given the pace of economic growth. "In the beginning, I did make the mistake of taking any business because I felt I had to, though.
"My customers must trust me, they must feel I am the right person for what they want, but it also works the other way," Billiet explains.
"Because you spend so much time with people when you are designing their home, you really do have to get on. So once we agree to work together, I tend to sit with my clients for a few hours - and if it is a couple, I try to get both sitting together to talk to me at least once."
Billiet's company, La Maison Chic, offers a complete interior fit-out, down to the last details, including artwork, candle-holders and ash-trays, for example. Construction companies such as O'Malley and McInerney are among his commercial customers, and he has also fitted out coffee shops, salons and hotels. His residential clients tend to be in Dublin and Galway.
Materials - fabrics, wallpaper, tiles, fittings - are imported, and he is careful to ensure that there is sufficient "mileage" between certain patterns and designs. "It wouldn't help if two acquaintances in the same social circle were to find that their choice of curtains was somewhat similar."
He is also careful with craftsmanship, and so La Maison Chic provides carpenters, painters and tilers that he knows. "People can choose to employ their own, but there is no point in buying really expensive wallpaper if it is badly hung." He also tries to steer customers away from material and colour selections that may date.
Ideally, interiors should match the cycle of people's lives. "About seven years, at least," he says. "If a customer is not happy or wants a change after three or four years, and they have taken my advice all the way through, then it is my fault. That's my philosophy."
Billiet's show house is in Oranmore, overlooking the south-east sweep of Galway Bay, and he holds a party for customers here every year.
He also keeps in touch after a project is finished, inviting clients to lunch to ensure that there are no lingering problems. "A lot of people see this job as very glamorous, and yes, you do step inside some of the most amazing houses.
"But I have to carry tiles, rolls of wallpaper, do accounts, roll up my sleeves . . ." As if to prove the point, there's a hard yellow hat on the rear window shelf of his car.