Mercedes Erra is executive president of Euro RSCG Worldwide, managing director of Havas, and founder of France’s leading advertising agency BETC Euro RSCG. She is also honorary president of the HEC Association (France’s most prestigious business school). Mercedes is a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur and was recently promoted to Officier of the Légion d'honneur—and she's a recipient of the French National Order of Merit. She has five children.

Mercedes was born in Catalonia and came to France at the age of six. She is a graduate from HEC and the Sorbonne (she has a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in literature), Mercedes teaches a postgraduate course (marketing and corporate communication) at the Paris II University (Assas).  She is often consulted on subjects relating to consumer issues and on all subjects relating to brand strategy.  

Mercedes is a branding expert: she builds and manages global brands. As a result, she has created 2 divisions focusing on consumer and brand expertise: BETC Consulting and BETC Consumer Intelligence. She has contributed to brands’ major strategic shifts (health for Danone, youth for Evian, vision for Air France ("Making the sky the best place on earth"). BETC Euro RSCG, the agency that she has been managing since 1995, was named "second most creative agency in the world" by the Gunn Report in January 2011 and “best creative agency” in France by CB News in 2010, for the 13th time in 16 years. BETC was also the most awarded French agency at Cannes Lions in 2010.

Mercedes is personally committed to the Elle Foundation and the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society, which she has been supporting since the beginning as a founding member. She is also a member of Human Rights Watch French Committee and a permanent member of the French Commission on the Image of Women in the Media. Since January 2010, Mercedes has been appointed as president of the board of the Cité nationale de l’histoire de l’immigration (museum of immigration history), located in Paris. In 2011, she was also appointed to the Board of Directors of Havas, Accor, France Télévisions and la Société de la Tour Eiffel in 2011.