Coralie de Fontenay and Marie Berthelon are reinventing sustainable jewelry with Rouvenat
The “Au Féminin by SGPB” club highlights inspiring women who stand out in their ecosystems. Created four years ago, it demonstrates the ambition of a responsible private bank supporting women who wish to take an active role in their wealth and financial decisions.
This series of interviews opens a window onto shared journeys. A duo — sometimes a collective — advancing together and turning intuition into a project. A woman always plays a central role: through her vision, her determination, her way of acting. Together, they create a unique dynamic built on trust, discipline and momentum. Their story reveals the strength of doing things together, the richness of paths that converge and the power of values that unite us — entrepreneurship, innovation, excellence, teamwork and transmission.
Marceline Try, Head of Network and Partnership Development at Societe Generale Private Banking, spoke with Coralie de Fontenay, co‑founder of LuxImpact and Rouvenat, and Marie Berthelon, co‑founder of Rouvenat.
The jewelry house Rouvenat
In a sector where expectations are shifting, where traditional luxury models are being questioned and where environmental responsibility is essential, certain leading figures are opening new paths1.
In 2022, after 22 years at Hermès, LVMH, Cartier and De Beers, Marie Berthelon revived Rouvenat, a Second Empire jewelry house that had fallen into oblivion. She draws on an extraordinary heritage: more than 3,000 gouache designs by its founder, Léon Rouvenat, a 19th century visionary. Her mission: to reinvent circular jewelry built on what already exists — rarity, ethics and heritage.
By her side stands Coralie de Fontenay, former Managing Director of Cartier France and co‑founder of LuxImpact, who supports the revival of historical luxury brands with strong creative and narrative potential. Her goal: to awaken these “sleeping beauties” through a model based on eco‑design, circularity and transmission.
Their partnership combines strategic discipline, transmission of savoir‑faire, creative intuition and responsibility — a form of leadership that resonates with today’s and tomorrow’s leaders.
Please introduce the project you are building together and how it began.
Coralie de Fontenay and Marie Berthelon: Léon Rouvenat’s story is fascinating. A visionary, he revolutionized 19th‑century jewelry, modernized the craft and transformed its industry. We admire how he opened jewelry professions to women, implemented unprecedented social protections and maintained a profound curiosity for the world. His approach still inspires us: as a mission‑driven company, we are committed to honoring this heritage and bringing the jewelry house back to life.
Coralie: The brand had completely disappeared, but we were convinced it deserved a new lease of life. I often quote Lavoisier: “Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything changes.” Rouvenat embodies this perfectly.
Marie: Our core purpose — eco‑jewelry — is both aligned with our time and faithful to Rouvenat, who founded the world’s first jewelry manufacturing firm and opened the craft to a new era. This timelessness is part of the jewelry house’s DNA.
How would you describe your partnership?
Coralie: We met at Cartier and truly enjoyed working together. When LuxImpact was looking for a future partner and leader who would relaunch and embody Rouvenat, I immediately thought of Marie. I deeply admire her courage, entrepreneurial spirit and contagious energy.
Marie: Meeting Coralie twenty years ago was decisive. I discovered a true manager‑coach, a mentor who helped me grow and trace my own path. We knew our roads would cross again. Our shared managerial journey has strengthened our duo.
Has your partnership changed your relationship?
Coralie and Marie: Our partnership is built on strong complementarity — in leadership, skills, sensibilities, and our knowledge of luxury and jewelry. Entrepreneurship reinforces this bond. We often say we form a kind of “professional family”. The capital partnership has not changed our relationship; it has simply increased our interactions. A clear definition of each person’s responsibilities is the foundation of the healthy relationship that unites us. We favor an operational, test‑and‑learn approach.
Coralie: Our duo is a major asset: each day involves working on varied subjects — HR, finance, creation, production. We divide up our roles by recognizing our respective strengths.
Marie: Our partnership perfectly reflects our talents. This is not pretentiousness— it’s a fact. Our strength comes from this balance between rationality and intuition, nurtured by years of experience. Entrepreneurship has intensified the bond between us: we have become true sparring partners, with a strong sense of mutual support and complementarity.
Your project is built on recycling, eco‑design, modularity and reuse. How does this shape your vision?
Coralie and Marie: We have strong ambitions for Rouvenat. Its success rests on a virtuous tripod: recycling, eco‑design and the use of antique stones. These choices meet contemporary expectations — and were already part of Rouvenat’s philosophy 140 years ago. This “already‑there” heritage feeds our creativity. Responsible luxury requires aligning creativity, economic model and ethical standards. We work to reconcile 19th‑century heritage with 21st‑century ecological innovation.
Marie: We are a “mission‑driven jewelry house”, in a sector that remains only partly sensitized. The central idea is to revalorize human and natural resources throughout the entire value chain — to create the new from the old, with meaning and soul.
Coralie: We meet this challenge with our partners, our teams and our investors, who share our convictions. It is the strength of the collective.
What advice would you give to those who wish to build an ambitious project in a highly established sector?
Marie: Transforming a highly codified sector requires courage and vision. Our firm combines conviction, humility and patience. One must accept being challenged, listen to one’s intuition and experience… while being willing to question one’s initial idea.
Coralie: I would speak of respect — respect for what has already been done. I am always moved when creators take over a firm and say they draw inspiration from its history and DNA. At Rouvenat, this is essential: we innovate while keeping the Rouvenat spirit at the forefront. We are proud and honored to be guardians of this French heritage and savoir‑faire.
Transmission is key for you. How do you imagine passing on your vision to future generations?
Coralie and Marie: Our collaboration embodies what we aim to transmit: elevating standards through bold leadership, anchored in excellence, future‑oriented and capable of turning heritage into future. We restore jewelry’s emotional dimension as much as its financial value. This vision inspires our shareholders, and we are building with them the path toward transmission to future generations.
CORALIE DE FONTENAY
Spending 22 years at Cartier in senior positions, Coralie has been Marketing & Development Director for Leather Goods & Accessories and Global Managing Director of Cartier Fragrances, repositioning these 2 categories and doubling sales. In her last role as Managing Director of Cartier France in 2013, she strengthened desirability & gained market shares.
In a fast-moving world, she then decided to support disruptive start-ups & DNVBs2 committed to and driven by new patterns of consumption that offer sustainable and ethical alternatives in Luxury. She was named one of “the 20 most active female business angels of 2020”.
Coralie is President of the HEC Luxury Alumni network.
She is now determined to make a difference by adopting a leadership role in sustainable jewelry.
MARIE BERTHELON
With more than 20 years of experience in the luxury industry, Marie Berthelon has held senior positions in some of the world’s most prestigious luxury goods firms: Hermès in New York, Cartier in Paris and De Beers Jewellers in London. She built in-depth expertise in jewelry and developed an influential global network. As a member of executive committees, she sat on the boards of Richemont and LVMH alongside leaders such as Johann Rupert, Alain‑Dominique Perrin and Bernard Arnault.
A strong advocate of corporate responsibility, she contributed to sustainability initiatives at LVMH and Cartier, and played an active role in the creation of De Beers’ blockchain. A recognized reference in the world of jewelry and driven by a desire to share knowledge, she has contributed to numerous publications and regularly speaks to students in top preparatory classes and Parisian universities.
Marie Berthelon is now co‑founder and CEO of Rouvenat, a historic French jewelry house founded in 1852 and relaunched in 2022 with an ambitious mission: to redefine luxury jewelry around modern sustainable values and a pioneering circular vision built on antique stones. Under her leadership, Rouvenat is now exhibited in major museums and acknowledged as a new model of sustainable luxury celebrating uniqueness, rarity and meaning.
Sources
1. The elements relating to sustainable development are based on the statements of the individuals interviewed. Société Générale Private Banking makes no judgment or guarantee regarding the non‑financial performance of the companies mentioned.
2. DNVB (Digital Native Vertical Brand) refers to a brand born online, vertically integrated, that sells directly to the customer while controlling its entire value chain.
3. Blockchain is a shared, immutable digital ledger, enabling the recording of transactions and the tracking of assets within a business network.
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