THIBAULT DE SAINT VINCENT, THE ENTREPRENEURIAL CHALLENGE
It was after a spell of work experience at the Banque de France during his studies that Thibault de Saint Vincent was struck by his first certainty : he would never be a salaried employee in a company. Very early on, this born entrepreneur pursued his fondness for challenges...
A Masters in Management at Paris Dauphine, work experience at the Banque de France, a well-plotted career in finance… Such was the life that could have been led by Thibault de Saint Vincent. “Knowing exactly what I would be 30 years later was unthinkable !”
Aged 21, he took his first steps in entrepreneurship, creating with a friend an association bringing students together to propose various services (chauffeurs, couriers). “The slogan of our “Universal Service’’ association was “When possible within 1 hour, when impossible give us 24 hours”, he smiles. It soon became a success and the association mutated into an SARL, changing its name to “Connexion’’.
Specializing in real estate, by the year 2000, it consisted of 15 agencies with a team of 70 in Paris. In 1995, Thibault de Saint Vincent met Heïdi Barnes, his future wife, and helped her to set up her firm, an agency for furnished apartment rentals, dedicated to an ex-pat clientele wanting to live in Paris or London. In the early 2000’s, when Connexion was sold, they set off as a family to settle in Florida while keeping Barnes Paris and London. “From 2002, Barnes was active in Miami, Paris and London.”
In 2004, they returned to France where they re-installed the French head office of Barnes in a large corporate mansion, facing the Town Hall in Neuilly-sur-Seine. “In the space of a year, we recruited almost 40 team members, and two years later we were the leaders for prestige properties in Neuilly. We continued to develop Barnes in France and internationally, not as a real estate brand, but a luxury brand, now operating in 70 destinations in about 20 countries, and based on five values : trust, vision, elegance, global assistance and excellence.”
