Mélina ABBA

Rochefort & Associés is an investment banking boutique based in Paris, with partner offices in London, Montreal and New York. The company provides corporate advisory services in the areas of strategic advisory, mergers and acquisitions, financial restructuring and capital raising. The bank has an operational team composed of alumni from Messier Maris & Associés, Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, HSBC and Lazard, and has accumulated 60+ years of aggregated professional experience and a closed transaction amount of more than 40 billion euros.

Tasks and responsibilities include:

• Financial modeling and valuation activities (DCF, trading comparables, transaction comparables, etc.)
• Preparation of written materials for clients and internal teams within the framework of marketing and execution of mandates, including pitch books, information memoranda, and teasers
• Market studies and other sectorial analysis
• Research and analysis of potential buyers and targets
• Screening of investment and transaction opportunities

Duties : I was in a division of the group whose clients where enterprises.
I summarized all the trainings sales representatives have had for the past two years for their manager to analyze their performance.
I designed quizzes for sales representatives on the training they just had.
I created a file to keep up with all salespeople's training, and I studied the impact of sales representatives' training on sales.

Contribution: In collaboration with the financial controller and the HR manager, I created a model which allows managers to see if the product trainings sales representatives attended had an impact on turnover. Managers could identify which concepts were not well-assimilated by the sales team and act accordingly to improve their performance.

Skills: Since I had to go through a lot of data and select the most important pieces of information, I improved my analytical skills. I also developed strong problem-solving skills and was able to process information with high levels of accuracy. Collaborating with different departments improved my interpersonal skills.

Duties: In a four-star hotel
Assisted the reception manager in her daily activities.
Observed how the reception, concierge and restaurant teams worked
provided recommendations in order to optimize their performance
Provided guests with concierge services and assessed their satisfaction
Assisted restaurant teams during breakfast and lunch


Contribution: After one month of observation, I suggested my manager to add a greeter at the restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is important that guests feel welcomed and led to their tables. I held that position until my manager hired someone which improved guests’ satisfaction.

Skills: By constantly interacting with Guests and colleagues, I developed strong communication skills.
I also developed problem-solving skills and improved the way to draw conclusions out of a situation: by observing our different teams worked, I could see what went wrong and how to fix it.