People

Agnes Carlier

Born in France, Agnes studied languages in Paris in the late 1960s. After university she went on a graduate exchange program to the University of Portland in Oregon. She briefly trained to be a translator but did not like the job and so switched to law instead. In the late 1960s the French law schools were highly political and Carlier got to know some of the younger politicians of the day.

When she finished her law degree in 1974 she found a job as public relations officer with the new French Secretary of State for the Universities, Jean-Pierre Soisson, and she followed the rising Republican star to the Ministry of Youth and Sport in 1976. In the late 1970s Carlier was approached by a French sports journalist called Renaud de Laborderie, who wanted to interview Soisson for a German magazine. She arranged the interview and not long afterwards married the interviewer!

As a result she started to visit Grands Prix on a regular basis and eventually was asked by Marlboro if she would like to represent its interests. Although Soisson was not keen to lose her, she started working for Marlboro in the Swiss city of Lausanne, traveling back to Paris each weekend to see her husband.

Initially Agnes worked with many of the great drivers of the 1980s including Niki Lauda, Keke Rosberg, John Watson, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger. As Marlboro increased its commitment to Ferrari she also worked with the likes of Michele Alboreto, Nigel Mansell and Jean Alesi. At the end of 1997 Carlier left Marlboro and went to work for the Edelman public relations agency, which looked after British American Racing. That was short-lived and she soon established her own PR agency and began working with Heinz-Harald Frentzen. In 2000 she began working with Sauber, while also being involved in the Malaysian GP, the General Motors Cadillac Le Mans program and as a journalist with a Japanese news agency.