Our newest members, Nadège and Michel Stretz, were inducted into the Society on Sunday, April 28. Both French-American, they met in New York City in 2000 and moved to Teaneck in 2003. They have three children: André, 20, who studies engineering in France, Lara, 18, who is at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Amelia, 12, who attends Benjamin Franklin Middle School in Teaneck.
While Michel and Nadège’s paths were very different, they both came to the United States from France because of their parents. Michel’s parents immigrated to the US by accident in the Eighties after their business partner died while in the process of creating a French gourmet food-import business. After college, Michel worked as a financial manager in Paris, and then followed in his parents’ footsteps in the late Nineties. He finally took over management of the company during the pandemic.
Nadège, who was born in the US but raised in Iran and then France, lost her American father when she was 16. She came to the US in 1989 in search of her roots. After studying in Albuquerque, Lyon in France, Siena College in upstate New York, and SUNY Albany, she finally found a sense of belonging in New York City. She worked in software development consulting, and then as a high school business teacher. She currently manages financials for the family business.
Nadège’s interests include hiking, cooking, music, history, and education. She loves classical music and is an alto with the Teaneck Community Chorus, where she currently serves as treasurer. She is particularly interested in issues related to the environment, nutrition, and food waste.
Michel is an avid cyclist, a foodie, and a traveler.
Both Nadège and Michel are looking for opportunities to meet people from different backgrounds who think critically and have wide interests and to be better version of themselves.