Françoise Lavertu Stevens

Worth knowing

She has taken products into new markets for Tesla, Louis Vuitton and L'Oréal, launching the Model X, Model 3 and Tesla's energy products in the territories she ran, and she advises private equity funds and angel-invests in consumer brands. Founders heading into Mexico and Latin America, and anyone selling into supply chain or logistics, should write.

Story

A business graduate of McGill with a master's in statistics from HEC, Françoise spent more than 25 years building brands and teams at Walmart, Palacio de Hierro, L'Oréal and Louis Vuitton before Tesla handed her a general manager role covering strategy, sales, policy, operations and communications. She then went out on her own, co-founding the brand-building firm South View Studio and running Utelias as an operating partner to private equity funds. In 2023 she started Auba with Diego Solorzano and Austin Poore, raising $3.5 million in pre-seed to build AI tools for supply chain management. Now called Desteia, it is where she spends her time. Canadian-Mexican, she has also judged the Clean Energy Challenge for its Mexican selection committee and international jury.

Highlights

• Co-founder, Desteia (formerly Auba), $11.5M raised to date
• Independent director, Logistic Properties of the Americas (NYSE American: LPA), 2024
• Former General Manager, Tesla, Latin America and southeast US
• Advisor to Endeavor, AT&T, CiBanco, Solfium; angel investor in consumer brands
• BCom, McGill University; MSc Statistics, HEC