Is it the proximity to the Mediterranean? In any case, the sea has always fascinated this 32-year-old Marseillais. And even if he leaves it for a moment, Clément Pourtal always comes back to it, for his greatest professional happiness. “Since I was little, the sea has been my thing”, he smiled. A passion that led him to training as a merchant navy officer or skipper? Not really. Out of personal or parental caution? Still, his baccalaureate in his pocket, he enters the business school Kedge, still in Marseille for a three-year course. He must do internships from the second year, and investigate travel. Particularly in Malaysia, where the sea caught up with him and where he became aware of the need to protect the marine environment.
Food jobs: from Royal Canin to community management
The problem and the spray run through his head, but he has to return to Marseille to graduate. “Except that I realized that my Bac +3 was a bit light for working life”. So he returned, still in Marseille, still at Kedge, and headed for a Masters 2. But he also headed for China, for a new internship. “I found myself in an open space of 500 people at Royal Canin, to try to sell pet food to the Chinese”. Another experience, far, very far from the world of the sea.
Back in France, he is 24 years old and his diploma in hand, Clément starts looking for a job. The protection of marine environments? We’ll see later. We are in 2015, and a new function is just emerging: that of Community Manager. It is the one that he will exercise, in a local communication agency.
An attempt to start a business
But the sea, which he has somewhat neglected, comes back in surf. The booster shot? “A client, who manufactures nautical equipment”. And while he’s creating content for this company, he’s brainstorming. What if he launched his own content agency, specializing this time in the protection of the marine environment? Its objective is simple: to provide NGOs with texts, but also films to raise public awareness of the damage caused by fishing, urbanization and mass tourism. End of 2016, The Blue Quest was born, and a first project was set up. With a videographer friend, Clément leaves for Mozambique to bring back a film. The documentary has a success of esteem, but its founder realizes that NGOs do not really have a budget to devote to their communication.
A new food job that brings him closer to his passion
A year later, Clément returns to the path of… the big firm. And his little business stays in standby. “But this time, my new employer is linked to the sea”. It is in Barcelona that he puts down his suitcase, for a job of brokerwithin a pleasure boat brokerage firm.
A film for honor
The ghost of The Blue Quest pulls him by the sleeve, and after a few months to regain his financial health, he relaunches his small business, always in the company of his videographer acolyte Jérôme Brousse. Here they are off to Mexico, to Baja California to be precise. For weeks, they film and interview NGOs, communities and other goodwill who fight for the preservation of the Sea of Cortez, “this aquarium of the world”. They make a 38-minute documentary out of it. “Luckily, we are selected in several festivals”. The two friends even won the trophy for Deauville Green Awardsthe responsible film festival.
Honors are good, but turnover, to run a small business like The Blue Questit’s better.
He comes to sell a service and leaves with an employment contract
So Clément continues to canvass customers to sell them content. This is how he met the leaders of the Pure Ocean Foundation, which was fairly well endowed by a hundred corporate sponsors.
His mission ? “Support projects around ocean knowledge, preserve marine biodiversity, and restore fragile marine ecosystems”. This is exactly what Clément’s ambitions are. Especially since the foundation’s headquarters are in Marseille. All the more reason to become its provider.
But the date doesn’t go exactly as planned. The boss of The Blue Quest does not come out with a purchase order, but a job offer for a permanent project manager position.
Clément did not hesitate for long because Pure Ocean brought together everything he could wish for: putting into practice his desire to fight for the protection of the seas and oceans without asking himself every day, and every night, the question of the survival of its structure.
He signs and here he is again embedded in a collective. For two years, Clément Pourtal has been Project Manager in the small structure of 8 employees and he is satisfied. “My mission is to develop the Race for Pure Ocean: sporting exploits whose goal is to raise awareness of the need to protect the oceans and raise funds for ocean research.”
No more meaningless jobs, finally a job with an impact
However, he did not give up. The Blue Quest, which has become an association and which he continues to animate. He is also returning from a second trip to Baja California, his Eldorado, where he shot a second film.
But this activity is now voluntary and he no longer considers it necessary to transform it into a job, because he feels perfectly at ease with his convictions in the one he exercises every morning. And since he no longer has to flee an open space dedicated to pet-food, or a broker’s office with a view of the Barcelona marina.
