Elaine Héry | 40 Outstanding Global Women 2025

Elaine Hery, managing partner at Eres Relocation: From corporate fast track to global mobility pioneer

Elaine Hery, managing partner at Eres Relocation, never intended to start her own business. In fact, if life had gone to plan, she would probably be a marketing executive or in a senior leadership role at ICI, the British multinational chemical giant where she started her career. But life—and love—had other ideas.

“I wasn’t supposed to stay in Spain,” she says, remembering how a temporary assignment in Barcelona in her twenties turned into a permanent relocation. “I was standing in for someone who was ill, and my assignment was meant to be a month, then it became a year, and by then I had met my husband, who is Spanish, and I didn’t want to return to the UK. I loved living in Spain and so I began looking for jobs there instead.”

That unexpected twist marked the beginning of a journey that would take Elaine from the structured corporate environment to the unpredictable world of entrepreneurship, ultimately leading her to establish a hugely successful relocation businesses.

Together with business partner José Antonio de Ros, Elaine oversees International Marketing, Global Communication and Personal Development and Training for Eres’ teams in Europe, where the company has eight offices in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and The Netherlands.

The corporate training ground

Elaine was a hard worker at school, passing her exams with flair and completing a History degree at Manchester University.

“My degree had nothing to do with business,” she says, “but ICI had a fast-track career programme for graduates and I was successful in applying for a place. That training gave me exposure to every department—distribution, purchasing, and finally marketing and sales.”

It was there that Elaine discovered her strengths. “At first, I wasn´t really interested in the ‘business side of business,’” she says. “I cared about relationships, communication, and marketing. ICI was where I learned how to set goals and go after them.”

It was ICI who sponsored Elaine´s masters degree in International Business & Communication at INSEAD, and helped her to develop her business & commercial marketing skills.

ICI also planted the seed of international work. “They realized that while 90 per cent of their employees were British, 75 per cent of their sales were outside the UK,” she says. So they needed to develop a more global mindset.”

For many years ICI was the largest manufacturer in Britain, and it was based at Millbank in London. It was a major British business and employer and was a constituent of the FT 30 and later the FTSE 100 indices. It was taken over by AkzoNobel in January 2008 and Elaine’s division of ICI became Astra Zeneca when the remainder of the business was sold to Akzo Chemicals.

Culture shock and career dilemmas

After 14 years at ICI, Elaine was living in Barcelona, fluent in Spanish but suddenly out of a job, having decided not to return to the UK after her assignment.

“When I was sent out on the original posting, it was really serendipity thing, because I stood in for someone who was ill,” she explains. “After that year, I was supposed to go back to the UK, and I didn’t want to go back.”

After 14 years with ICI, this marked the end of her long-standing relationship with the company. When asked if ICI had tried to keep her on board, Elaine recalls, “Yes they tried very hard, and they offered me options in other countries. Frankfurt was one, but my decision was no longer purely professional.

“I had met the person who was going to be my husband, and I decided that really, I wanted to stay in Spain,” she says “I was really sad to leave, but in those days the office in Spain was really small and there was not an option for me to stay.”

That decision, though difficult, set in motion a chain of events that eventually led her into the world of global relocation—a field where she would go on to make her mark.

Now in Barcelona without a job, she applied for marketing roles, securing interviews with major brands like Levi’s, but the opportunities that emerged were in small, family-run Spanish businesses.

“It was a disaster,” she says bluntly. “I was failing. And that was something I’d never experienced before.”

Elaine had thrived in ICI’s structured, results-driven environment, but in Spanish family businesses, success wasn’t just about performance—it was about relationships, hierarchy, and politics.

“I was used to being direct, to saying what I thought,” she explains. “But in these companies, that was treading on toes. I was upsetting people without even realising it. I always spoke Spanish, not Catalan, which is widely spoken in Barcelona, which might also have been a factor.”

She struggled, financially and professionally. “I had no salary. Every job I took felt like a step backwards. It was a painful time.”

Years later, during a cross-cultural training session, Elaine had a revelation.

“I finally understood—different cultures have different rules. What works in one country can completely backfire in another, and although I thought I was helping and doing my best, the approach that I took was the one I had learned from ICI’s British corporate culture, which was much more results driven and direct. I realised that family businesses, and especially small Spanish family businesses, operate in a completely different way.”

That lesson would become a cornerstone of her future business.

An accidental entrepreneur

The turning point came from a failed job interview, when Elaine applied for a role at General Electric, didn’t get it, but during the interview, learned they were relocating employees from the US to Barcelona.

Sensing an opportunity, Elaine approached their HR team. “I said, ‘I can help these people—find them houses, set up utilities, get their kids into schools.’ And they said, ‘Yes, please.’

“At first, it was just me, trying to do everything—selling the service, providing it, and explaining what relocation even was, because at that time, no one knew.” It was exhausting and, at times, demoralising, not helped by the fact that at the time there was no internet, so everything had to be done by phone, letter or in person.

“There were so many moments where I thought, ‘This isn’t working. I need a proper job,’” she says. Elaine persevered, however, because she could see that she was providing a service that no one else was, and that it was making a real difference to assignees lives.

The business really started to take off when she won Hewlett-Packard as a new customer.

“Hewlett-Packard was moving a large number of employees to Barcelona. Unlike General Electric, which was a short-term project, this was long-term.”

Elaine’s small, one-woman operation suddenly had a major corporate contract. “I had no idea how I was going to do it. But I said, ‘Yes, absolutely, we can handle it.’”

And then, she set about building a team and providing a first class service on the ground in Barcelona.

Building an international business, pre-Google and the internet

This was the mid-90s and there were no mobile phones, no internet. Home-finding meant getting a newspaper on Sunday, circling listings, and calling estate agents on a landline.

“If plans changed, you’d find a phone box and hope you had the right coins.”

It was tough and time-consuming, but she got results. As the business grew, she built a team and began to specialise in helping families as well as individuals to move continents.

“My husband was crucial—my Spanish was fluent, but not perfect for contracts and official paperwork,” she explains. We set to work to writing guides for everything —neighbourhoods, schools, amenities—laying the foundation for what would become one of Spain’s leading relocation companies.

Elaine had also learned that moving internationally was about families as well as logistics. “I always had a strong focus on the children,” she says. “They are the ones with no say in the move, yet it affects their futures the most. That’s something I’ve never lost sight of.”

Looking back, Elaine sees the struggle as necessary. “If I hadn’t experienced failure—real, painful failure—I wouldn’t have learned what I did. I wouldn’t have built what I did.”

Her advice to women navigating global careers is to be bold and believe in your ability to deliver.

“Say yes first. Figure it out later. Be open to different ways of working. And if you fail—good. That means you’re learning.”

Elaine didn’t plan to become an entrepreneur, but her business has now helped thousands of people move their possessions and their families and Eres Relocation has been with them through each step of the relocation process.

From solo entrepreneur to industry leader

When Elaine first started in the relocation industry, she handled everything on her own—from dealing with the electricity department to negotiating with telephone companies. Looking back, she describes those early years as an invaluable learning experience.

“It was a fantastic apprenticeship in understanding what service really means,” she explains. “Going through it myself helped me truly grasp what it takes to provide a great service.”

She also recognised that customer service was essential because moving for an assignment was often stressful for the employees and their families.

That mindset proved to be a game-changer in the early 1990s, when she observed a significant gap in customer service in Spain.

“They were really very inexperienced at delivering good customer service,” she recalls. “At first I used to hear comments from the team like, ‘These assignees are so pesado’—which means demanding in Spanish. I would tell them, ‘But it’s our job to meet those demands. That’s what we do.’”

Over time, she and José learned from each other—a partnership that would later transform both of their careers, but their meeting was also serendipitous. Elaine and José didn’t meet directly at first. By the mid-1990s, she had already founded Executive Relocations España, but the pivotal introduction came through a mutual connection.

“We had an accountant, Gisela, who became a good friend of mine,” Elaine says. “Her sister happened to be very close friends with José. It was at the sister’s birthday party that José met Gisela, and she told him, ‘You need to talk to Elaine.’ He had no idea who I was, but she explained, ‘She’s the relocation person in Barcelona. If you don’t know her, you should.’”

The next day, José called. At that point, he had left his corporate job and was setting up an estate agency with some relocation services. Meanwhile, he had been working with Unilever, but when they decided to outsource their relocation needs to an RMC (Relocation Management Company), he found himself losing his direct clients.

“He wasn’t familiar with RMCs at the time,” Elaine explains. “But he realised that his business was being affected.”

Elaine, on the other hand, had already built strong relationships with RMCs, knowing that securing direct clients in Spain was a challenge. When José approached her, her business was growing, and she was beginning to feel the strain of handling everything herself.

“I loved the creative side—the marketing, the relationships—but I found the legal and administrative side tedious. José, being a lawyer, was great at all the things I didn’t enjoy,” she says.

At first, she was reluctant to join forces. “I said, ‘No, no, not interested.’ But he was persistent, and persuasive.” Eventually, she saw the potential in their complementary skills.

“Together, we ticked all the boxes,” she says. “And looking back, that was the best professional decision we ever made.”

A growing business across borders

Today, Elaine and José’s company has expanded across seven countries. “We have just announced our latest country—eres Czech Republic,” she says. “That brings us to 102 employees.”

One of the biggest shifts in recent years has been the adoption of remote teams. “We realized after COVID that you don’t always need to be physically present to provide great service,” she says. “Of course, we still have local field consultants on the ground, but our core teams can work remotely. In fact, in Barcelona, it’s actually easier to find Italian or German speakers than in Milan or Berlin.”

For Elaine, recruitment is at the heart of their success. “We are a service company, and that means we are our people. Finding and developing the right talent is one of the most important things we do,” she explains.

A leadership philosophy rooted in trust and support

Elaine describes her leadership style as intuitive and supportive. “I like to give people space to do their work independently while knowing they can always turn to me,” she says. “I set clear goals, explain the context, and then let them take off and find their own way.”

She believes in fostering an environment where employees feel confident, happy, and engaged. “Yes, we face tough challenges, but we should also enjoy what we do,” she says. “I want to create a culture where kindness, openness, and respect are at the core of our business.”

She also acknowledges the cultural differences she has encountered in her leadership journey. “One thing I learned after moving to Spain is that humour doesn’t always translate the same way,” she says. “In the UK, we often poke fun at each other as a sign of closeness and respect. But in Spain, that can sometimes be taken personally. You have to navigate those differences carefully.”

For young women starting their careers, Elaine’s message is clear: don’t overthink being a woman in the workplace—just focus on your strengths.

“I think we’ve gained a lot of ground, and women today don’t need to worry as much about being taken seriously,” she says. “My advice is simple: know yourself, understand your strengths, and go for it.”

She emphasises that leadership comes in many forms. “You don’t have to be loud or extroverted to be a great leader. You can be quiet, analytical, and still lead effectively,” she says. “The key is knowing what you’re good at and surrounding yourself with people who complement your skills. That’s how you build a strong team.”

Having spent 35 years in the industry, Elaine values the lessons learned from experience. “This business is all about experience. You need to have made mistakes, faced challenges, and found solutions,” she says.

One way she ensures continuous improvement at Eres is through regular learning sessions. “Every month, we hold short, sharp training sessions—just 20 minutes—for the whole company,” she says. “It’s a way to share lessons learned and refine our service.”

She recalls a recent example where a client expressed concerns about sharing medical information for an insurance process. “The mother asked if we could limit who saw that data. Of course, we could—but ideally, that reassurance should have come from us first,” she says. “Now, we proactively let families know that medical information will be handled with the strictest confidentiality.”

For Elaine, it’s these small but crucial details that set apart a good service provider from a brilliant one. With a thriving company spanning multiple countries and a leadership philosophy built on trust, adaptability, and continuous learning, she has built exactly that.