Professors Michael Loy and Tomasz Obloj, Winners of the Vernimmen Teaching Awards 2015
For its 18th edition, the BNP Paribas and HEC Paris’ Vernimmen Teaching Prize has awarded Tomasz Obloj, Professor of Strategy and Business Policy and Michael Loy, Affiliate Professor of Law. The Vernimmen Prize rewards the best HEC Paris professors who achieved the highest performance in teaching during the year.
In the presence of Mrs Vernimmen; Alain Papiasse, CEO of BNP Paribas; Sophie Javary, EMEA Corporate Finance Manager; Jean-Paul Vermès, First Vice-President of the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Bernard Ramanantsoa, Dean of HEC Paris, the award ceremony took place on June 22nd, 2015 at BNP Paribas offices in Paris. Paying homage to Pierre Vernimmen, prominent professor at HEC Paris (1968 alumnus), author of the reference textbook Finance d'Entreprise and member of the executive committee of BNP Paribas, this prize underlines the importance of the links between the academic and business worlds. Historical partner of HEC, BNP Paribas is the first employee of the school. It participates to finance internships, education and the corporate finance Chair with Prof. Pascal Quiry. It shows the excellent relationship between the two institutions besides many personal donations of the BNP executives to the HEC Foundation.
It rewards the excellence of HEC Paris faculty and the teaching methods implemented in its programs (Master’s programs, MBA, EMBA, TRIUM and Ph.D) in the following categories: professors-researchers, lecturers, visiting professors, and affiliate professors.
By looking at evaluations carried out by students, the jury - composed of representatives from HEC Paris and BNP Paribas - awarded the 2015 prize to:
Prof. Tomasz Obloj, in the "Research Faculty" category.
Tomasz has been an assistant professor at HEC Paris since 2011. Graduate of the Warsaw School of Economics and Warsaw University, he obtained his Ph.D. at INSEAD. For his thesis, he received the Academy of Management BPS Wiley Blackwell Outstanding Dissertation Award and was a finalist of the INFORMS Dissertation Competition. His research focuses on organizational design, value-based models of strategy, organizational and individual learning, and the dynamics of incentive systems. He teaches at the Grande Ecole (M.S.), Ph.D, and Executive M.B.A. programs.
Prof. Michael Loy, in the "Affiliate Faculty" category.
Michael was admitted to the Paris Bar (Avocat à la Cour) in 1993, has been an Affiliate Professor at HEC Paris since 2008 and the Executive Director of the Law and International Management HEC Paris Specialized Master’s Program since 2013. He teaches business law and in particular corporate law/mergers & acquisitions. After having worked for various law firms and, inter alia, at Allen & Overy’s Paris and London offices from 2000 until 2011, he set up his own practice in 2012. His areas of work cover the incorporation of companies, carrying-out their legal corporate obligations, drafting shareholders’ agreements, setting-up joint-ventures and handling mergers and acquisitions (M&A), initial public offerings (IPOs) and takeover offers transactions. In addition, he has developed expertise relating to the disclosure by listed companies of their regulated information (such as drafting their reference document in collaboration with the French stock exchange authority or in compliance with their social and environmental duties) or corporate governance issues (for example, in connection with French corporate governance codes or the “comply or explain” principle).
Pierre Vernimmen A graduate of HEC (1968) and of ITP Harvard, Pierre Vernimmen started teaching at HEC Paris in 1968. He began working for Paribas – where he would stay all his life – in 1973, first in its private equity arm, then in the mergers and acquisitions department, which he created in 1993 and directed from then until his untimely death in 1996. As a result, Pierre Vernimmen participated in the merger of numerous companies (LVMH Louis Vuitton/Moët Hennessy), in financing rounds (M6, Virgin Megastores), and in the financing of several famous French movies (Les Nuits Fauves, Cyrano de Bergerac). At the same time, Pierre Vernimmen wrote Finance d’Entreprise, the best selling French language reference textbook of which tens of thousands of copies were sold over the years. The twelve editions published since it was first released in 1975 showcase Pierre Vernimmen’s book’s appeal as well as its author’s constant efforts to remain at the leading edge of financial developments. |