Photo © Valeur Plus

Some careers are not built to impress. They take shape gradually, through substance. Johanne Ciccarone’s belongs to that rare category: a path forged over the long term through hard work, persistence and commitment. As Managing Director of Valeur Plus, she embodies a deeply grounded style of leadership, shaped by experience in the field and guided by a simple conviction: a company’s performance is determined, first and foremost, by the quality of its human relationships.

Born and raised in Montreux, in a family where hard work was not an abstract value but a way of life, Johanne Ciccarone grew up in a stable, structured environment in which simplicity was a virtue in itself. Her father worked in construction; her mother devoted herself entirely to her daughter’s upbringing. An only child, she spent her early years in the constant company of adults. “I was almost always surrounded by adults, and I felt I grew up too fast,” she says today, without bitterness, but with the clarity of someone who learned early to observe, to understand and to find her place. That early maturity also forged a determined, independent personality with a strong appetite for autonomy. At twelve, she had no clear calling. Teaching was one possibility among many. Yet the traits that drive her today were already visible: an ability to absorb knowledge in order to pass it on, to open people’s eyes and to help them grow. There was no childhood dream of a uniform, no career mapped out in the margins of a school exercise book. What she carried within her was more diffuse, and perhaps more profound: a desire to bring others along, to build connections and to elevate whatever she touched. Leadership in the making, before she had the vocabulary to name it.

Learning as a revelation

As a teenager, at an age when she might have followed a conventional academic route, Johanne Ciccarone chose an apprenticeship instead. It proved decisive. After a first year at upper secondary school that she describes as something close to a “failure”, she joined Hotela, the social insurance provider in Montreux, in 2006, entering the world of work through the front door. There, in the demanding world of hospitality and services, she discovered something that would never leave her: the satisfaction of being useful.

She has a clear desire to leave a mark. Not a dazzling mark, but one that is useful, human and lasting.

She would stay at Hotela for thirteen years: thirteen years of steady progression, growing responsibility and increasing influence. By 25, Johanne Ciccarone was already leading a team that included colleagues who had known her as an apprentice. The challenge was as much personal as hierarchical. How do you go from young colleague to legitimate manager? How do you find the right footing without sacrificing your personality or the carefree energy of youth? She learned on the job, with the tensions typical of those who rise quickly: quiet self-doubt, constant self-questioning and the need to prove herself more than others. At the same time, she earned a degree in business administration at the HEG while working full time. Four years of relentless effort, long days and discipline. That choice says a great deal about her: she did not simply want to climb within an organisation; she wanted to understand how it worked, master its levers and connect the numbers to the human dynamics behind them. Her perspective sharpened. Management, for her, was no longer a supervisory function but a lever for transformation. It was here that the next chapter of her story began to take shape.

In 2015, for her bachelor’s thesis, Johanne carried out a study on employee satisfaction and motivation. Her conclusion was clear: a company’s performance depends first and foremost on its values, its culture and its ability to rally people around a shared purpose. She presented her findings to senior management. The response was positive, but the timing was not yet right. Three years later, Hotela brought in an external firm to work on precisely these issues. That firm was Valeur Plus. For Johanne, the encounter felt almost inevitable. It confirmed what she had long sensed: the most lasting transformations do not come from redrawing organisational charts alone, but from in-depth work on behaviours, managerial stance and the meaning given to collective effort.

In 2019, Johanne Ciccarone left Hotela to join Valeur Plus. It was a decisive, almost foundational choice: that of a woman who had finally decided to align her career with her own vision of the profession.

For a long time, Johanne sought to meet expectations, to please, to reassure and to prove herself. Today, she speaks of emancipation, of a journey through which she learned to free herself from the judgement of others and to define success on her own terms. “Don’t be afraid, keep moving forward and trust yourself,” she would tell her younger self. And above all: “Free yourself from what others think.” At the helm of Valeur Plus, Johanne Ciccarone practises a style of leadership that is understated yet substantial. She enjoys connecting people, building bridges and bringing teams to life. She speaks of management as a driver of performance, but also of motivation and fulfilment. For her, rigour never precludes listening. High standards are never mistaken for harshness. And ambition is never theatrical: it is measured by its impact.

She finds balance in simple, essential things. Nature, first of all: a legacy of her childhood in Montreux and of time spent in alpine chalets, where picking mushrooms was her favourite pastime. Then running, which offers both breathing space and a way to refocus. And motherhood, which she describes as another way of being in the world, just as demanding, but a powerful source of added motivation. “I know why I do it,” she says. That sentence captures much of what drives her forward.

Johanne Ciccarone is not a performative leader. She is a leader of consistency. Hers is less a story of spectacular ascent than of patient, demanding and wholly deliberate construction. There is a certain restraint in her success, but also a clear determination to leave a mark. Not a dazzling mark, but one that is useful, human and lasting.

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