An eventful fall for new students

September is always a particularly intense month on the HEC Campus, with the return of students. This year, the back-to-school period has been long awaited by everyone, both staff and students, after months of online classes. Scholarship students have had the opportunity to meet some key figures and members of the HEC community at inaugural lectures for programs and the Foundation’s scholarship award ceremonies.

For the HEC Foundation, the September ceremonies also represent a chance to meet new PhD, MBA and Master’s students who have received scholarships from the Foundation. This year, MBA and Msc students were able to meet special guests Denis Duverne (H.74), Chairman of the AXA Board of Directors and Grand Donor of the Foundation, and Eric Souêtre (MBA.90), Founder of Careventures.

These two former graduates shared their careers and professional experiences after leaving HEC with the keen students. They each expressed their connection to the school that shaped them, as well as their perspective on current challenges and topics that are particularly important for them today.
Denis Duverne, who has always placed social issues at the center of his career, expressed how encouraged he felt to see that the importance of inclusion, diversity, and equal opportunity is being recognized nowadays. As someone who is very involved in promoting research, particularly through HEC’s Society and Organizations research and teaching center (S&O), his message focused on social and environmental challenges and the opportunity that younger generations have to take action.

As a HEC Paris graduate, I was lucky enough to receive many things, and so I think it’s up to us, if we can, to give back to the school what it gave to us.

Eric Souêtre looked back on his remarkable career as an entrepreneur and shared some advice with the MBA students, taking the time to also help them better understand the adventure they are embarking upon and their future careers.

1. Listen to your gut. 2. Learn from your mistakes. 3. Act like an artist.

Thanks to the generosity of donors and partner companies, we were able to award 327 scholarships in September – 12 to PhD students, 65 to MBA students and 225 to Master in Management students!

Three other inaugural lectures took place, shining a light on the Foundation’s donors. Campus students had the chance to meet other key members of the HEC community, including Jean-Dominique Senard (H.76), Chairman of Renault Group & the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, Joseph Oughourlian (H.94), Founder of the Amber Capital fund, and Jean-Francois Palus (H.84), Managing Director of Kering.

Joseph Oughourlian shared his experience and perspective on finance at the inaugural lecture for the Msc in International Finance (best international Master in Finance program, according to the Financial Times).

As for the talks from Jean-Dominique Senard and Jean-François Palus, they were aimed at Master in Management students in the “Purpose & Sustainability"pathway, following their seminar in Chamonix. The Kering Managing Director insisted on the importance of people in the development and success of a group like Kering. And the Renault Chairman was also very committed in this area, sharing his opinion with the students that, “there is no business strategy without a solid purpose. It’s an important challenge, a harmonization with your values. And that means offering everyone the best way to move forward!”