Once upon a spreadsheet, Marina Bykova was the kind of senior banking executive who could navigate mergers, acquisitions, and market chaos with one hand while translating financial statements in four languages with the other. A graduate of Duke’s Fuqua School of Business with two master’s degrees in economics and finance, she led high-level financial operations for Citigroup in New York, served as CFO for Citibank Russia during both boom years and crises, and played a central role in Sberbank’s expansion across Europe. She founded two companies in Austria. She had titles like “Managing Director” and “Global Strategy Leader.” She wore excellent shoes. And then, somewhere between Zurich and Vienna, something unexpected happened. She moved to France. She became a citizen. And she began writing picture books. Under the nom de plume Marine Leboeuf, Marina is now the author of Henri le Curieux, a critically acclaimed children’s series starring an inquisitive Parisian Yorkie and his unlikely best friend—an AI robot named Emma. Together, they explore what it means to stay curious, kind, and unmistakably human in a world growing more digital by the day. Set in Paris—the global capital of lights and learning—Henri le Curieux is both a love letter to lifelong wonder and a philosophical playground for young minds living in an AI-native world. Marine lives in Paris full-time and writes from a sunlit desk near the Seine. She still balances numbers beautifully, but these days, they’re page counts. With more Henri adventures on the way, she’s just getting started.Yuli Sam (a.k.a. Yulia Samorukova) is a globe-hopping illustrator originally from Russia, now happily nestled in France—where she spends her days bringing curious creatures (and curious Yorkies) to life. For the past five years, she’s been cooking up stories in watercolor, pixels, and dreams—creating children’s books, visual essays, and educational projects that charm both hearts and headmistresses. Her signature style is a delicious blend of stylized characters, ornamental details, and a color palette as soft as Henri’s ears. Her Ma Mongolie series has been exhibited in France, while her illustrations brighten Russian language textbooks for bilingual children in the UK’s Znanie School—because why shouldn’t conjugation be cute? Beyond the brush, Yuli’s website is a treasure trove of essays on creativity, freedom, and feeling deeply—all written with the same gentle soul she brings to every page. To her, illustration isn’t about copying the world. It’s about whispering its secret magic into the hearts of the next generation.