How Monaco’s ‘Microcosm’ Launched A Career In Private Equity & Tech

Author: Marc Ethier, Editor-in-Chief at Poets&Quants

IUM’s newest London chapter leader on the mentor, internship, and network that shaped her path from Monaco to private equity 

Joan Mill was headed to Grenoble to study international finance when a friend – a fellow law graduate who’d just finished his own MBA – told her to look at Monaco instead. Nearly 20 years later, she’s still going back. 

Mill completed her MBA at the International University of Monaco in 2007, after reading law and working in corporate finance law for several years. Today she’s an angel investor and private equity advisor in London, with more than 15 years of experience across private equity, SaaS and technology-enabled services – and, as of this year, she’s IUM’s Alumni Ambassador and Chapter Leader for London. 

A MICROCOSM SMALLER THAN HER LONDON BOROUGH 

What drew Mill to Monaco wasn’t the finance program alone. It was the concentration of nationalities packed into a principality she says is smaller than the London borough she lived in at the time. 

“There was something about Monaco having it so concentrated,” Mill says. “It was quite nice to have that proximity to so many different cultures and see where people had come from and why they had chosen to go down the path of IUM.” 

IUM promotes proximity to roughly 5,000 companies within walking distance of campus. Mill says the number was likely smaller when she was a student, but the density was real – and it shaped how she’d go on to run international teams. She later served as managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa at one private equity-backed business, and as international managing director – covering everything outside the U.S. – at another. 

“Having exposure to various different cultures when I was in Monaco really did help to transfer those into those roles,” she says. 

A MENTOR, A MINISTER, AND A MENSWEAR STARTUP 

IUM paired Mill with a mentor: Jean Castellini, Monaco’s finance minister at the time. The relationship went beyond a formal introduction – Mill says the two still meet at the Metropole Hotel whenever she’s back in Monaco, which is often; she’s visited three times already this year. 

“He introduced me to the Monegasque ambassador to the UK,” Mill says. “I’ve always had a connection with Monaco, and that’s what I really appreciate about IUM. It’s small enough that they can facilitate that for you.” 

Alongside the mentorship, Mill did an internship with a menswear startup during her MBA – hands-on exposure to the mechanics of standing up a company. Years later, she founded her own business, an intellectual property platform called Nova IP, which was ultimately acquired by a Dutch IP law firm. 

“Without realizing it, there are a number of things that I had picked up from that internship,” Mill says. “How to set up a business, how to stand it up, the fact that you wear multiple hats, how do you get people interested in your product.” She traces a “proportion” of her current work as an angel investor back to that early experience. 

FROM KEYNOTE SPEAKER TO CHAPTER LEADER 

Mill’s move into a formal alumni role followed an invitation to deliver the keynote at IUM’s graduation last year. Students told her afterward that they found her relatable – proof, she says, of what their own path might look like a decade out. 

“That just propelled me to say, look, there’s a lot more I can give,” she says. 

As chapter leader, Mill fields questions from current students on breaking into private equity and technology – including from women asking how they fare in industries that remain male-dominated – and from students without a computer science background wondering how to move into tech at all. Her answer leans less on credentials than on relationships. 

“It’s having sponsorships – people within your network who will support you,” Mill says. “I always say you want people to speak well of you when you’re not in the room.” She still leans on her own Monegasque network, including a former IUM classmate now building a startup in Finland, whose pitch deck Mill recently reviewed as an angel investor. 

That philosophy also underpins SheSaaS, the community for women in private equity and software that Mill co-founded with three other executives. “It’s really important to be able to see what you want to become,” she says. “So if you can speak to other females who have been through similar situations, that’s always helpful.” Her guiding principle: “Send the lift down” – open doors for others once you’ve reached the top rather than pulling the ladder up. 

WHERE THEORY MEETS PRACTICE 

The Monaco MBA is structured around applied projects, including a business simulation Mill’s team won during her year. She says the value wasn’t the win itself but the practice of applying classroom theory – organizational structure, managerial accounting – to a live scenario. 

“All the things that we learned in theory, with regards to our books, were put into practice in something like that simulation,” Mill says. “And I have translated those skills, knowingly and unknowingly, into my career since Monaco.” 

That hands-on emphasis now shapes how she evaluates candidates as an advisor to funds and portfolio companies. “Hands-on experience is critical,” she says. “When it’s presented to you in person, you have to be nimble – there are certain things that will come upon your plate that you don’t expect. How do you react to that?” 

Mill also sits on IUM’s International Advisory Board, where artificial intelligence was a recent agenda item. She points to the university’s work on AI for student learning and for faculty research as evidence it’s ahead of many institutions on the topic. 

Her advice for current students hoping to build a career in finance or entrepreneurship out of Monaco comes down to three words: “Network, network, network.” 

“You have a microcosm of London or New York right on your doorstep,” Mill says. “Network internally, network at the university – your peers have probably got great contacts as well. Network with faculty, network with alumni ambassadors. Whatever you’re looking for, I’m pretty sure will be in that microcosm of people around you.”