Featured
Juliette Nicault will manage the cafe, located on the second floor of the EXP research complex, which will open on Wednesday, Sept. 4.
Juliette Nicault, a third-year international business student at Northeastern University, grew up in a multicultural family with four siblings.
That experience, Nicault says, has helped her in her position as the inaugural student CEO of the new Saxbys Café on the Boston campus.
The cafe, located between the makerspace and the robotics lab on the second floor of the EXP research complex, will open on Wednesday, Sept. 4.
For six months, Nicault will be in charge of managing the cafe’s finances, hiring staff and creating a strong work culture.
“Growing up with so many sisters, you learn how to manage conflict and support one another,” Nicault says. “You learn the importance of figuring things out with your team members and just not letting them go.”
Established in 2015, Saxbys is a network of more than three dozen cafes located on college and university campuses in five states.
All of the cafes are student-run, which aligns with Northeastern’s experiential learning model, according to Chris Abayasinghe, the university’s associate vice president of finance and business operations.
“This immersion prepares our students to become future leaders in an accelerated manner,” Abayasinghe says.
After being hired for the position, Nicault attended CEO training at Saxbys’ headquarters in Philadelphia. Back in Boston, she conducted final interviews and onboarded all 46 team members.
When Nicault first learned about the CEO position in January, it immediately caught her attention, she says, because it incorporates her passion for finance, entrepreneurship and personal development.
“It combines all my interests into one unique role where I get to see the growth of a cafe from the very start while working on my own personal time management, organizational skills and team development,” she says.
Saxbys’ Northeastern location is the result of collaboration between the company and the university — and adds yet another dining option on the Boston campus, Abayasinghe says.
“The cafe is a welcoming space for students, faculty and staff to gather, enjoy great conversation and explore the endless possibilities to collaborate together,” he says.
The cafe serves hot and cold drinks, including a vanilla bean cold brew, lattes and matcha, as well as a wide selection of all-day grilled cheeses — the buffalo chicken is one of their most popular items — breakfast burritos, muffins and vegan options.
“Our unique offering is really in our hospitality,” Nicault says. “Our hope is that people come into our cafe and leave feeling even better than they came in.”
Originally from Boulder, Colorado, Nicault grew up in a household with a French father and an American mother, both of whom are airline pilots. She attended high school in Switzerland for two years.
That school’s diverse student body — 65 nationalities represented in a class of about 80 students — attracted Nicault to Northeastern where she has studied in South Africa, Egypt and Turkey as part of the university’s Dialogue of Civilizations program.
After earning her degree in international business, Nicault hopes to combine her interests in entrepreneurship and financial management with her love for traveling and meeting new people.
“I hope to one day be able to start my own business and use the skills that I am learning now,” she says.