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THOMAS

CEO
48 YEARS OLD

Bordeaux, Marseille, Paris,

Shanghai, Suzhou, Toulon

The merger between Marseille and Bordeaux is akin to a successful
cross-pollination. It was conceived with a view to achieve breakthrough
innovations. This original big-bang must be followed through with
new achievements of a similar nature. Our ambition is to translate this
first breakthrough into a wide range of transformative projects. This is
how we will breed real talent, explains Thomas Froehlicher, CEO of
KEDGE Business School. For Thomas, the human factor is at the centre
of everything. When he took office, he made it clear that what matters
is not whether you are from Marseille, Bordeaux, Toulon, Shanghai or
elsewhere; what matters is to be able to leverage our respective strengths
and identify the opportunities for sharing and inventing projects together.
In this view, the new CEO initiated a plan of action, based on the strategic
roadmap, inviting everyone to fully engage in the process and contribute
actively to the fine-tuning of new projects.

He stresses that the future of KEDGE Business School lies in
our ability to conduct projects in an integrated and collaborative fashion.
Meanwhile, the renewed strategic focus on Back to normal initiated
by Thomas pursues a dual objective: On the one hand, we want to enable
our students, who will be shaping tomorrows companies, to fulfil their
personal and professional potential, and be able to move forward and
reinvent themselves throughout their career. On the other hand, we also
want to provide businesses with the opportunity to create wealth in all its
dimensions, and by this I mean economic of course, but also human, social
and more. KEDGE Business was founded with this ambition in mind, he
adds. Thomas Froehlicher advocates a societal approach to management,
which must be backed by adequate investments, as he is sure of one thing:
the happier you are, the more you achieve.

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VANESSA

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
FOR ACADEMIC AND CAMPUS
OPERATIONS
31 YEARS OLD
Bordeaux

The merger brought out a career opportunity for Vanessa.
In my new position, I am now in direct contact with students, says
the former HRexecutive. Now in charge of project management for
Academic and Campus Operations, Vanessa Doiret is galvanised by the
change and excited by her new responsibilities: Its exciting to work
on transversal projects that help to remove organisational silos and open
up new relationships. Her role is to lead multi-departmental teams
put together for customer-centric projects. Her current flagship project
is Student Services: 18 people are mobilised from their respective
departments for this project aimed at supporting students in their daily
life. Students can ask a question, either in person or on the dedicated
platform, and the team will seek out all the necessary info for them,
Vanessa explains. Of course, as with any new initiative, it takes some
time to get the ball rolling.

Another project is the implementation of the Wellness scheme
in Bordeaux. In addition to coordination, we also had to recruit a
team of volunteers to support students experiencing difficulties, deploy
communication tools, organise the Wellness Week... Vanessa is already
seeing the first signs of a renewed proximity with students, as well as
a new post-merger approach focused on simplification: convergence
despite the diversity of our audiences, a common culture despite our
multi-campus operation... There are still growth pains to be tackled and
it can be pretty challenging, but I definitely appreciate the Schools
ability to reinvent itself. And what about the students? Vanessa is full
of admiration and describes them as chock-full of energy and creativity,
eager to explore a world without borders.
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CLINE

HEAD OF LEARNING-BY-DOING
30 YEARS OLD
Marseille

Cline agrees wholeheartedly with the Schools philosophy
which sees learning-by-doing as a key component of the pedagogical
tool kit. It is definitely through experimentation and action that students
learn the most. This allows for a development that is both personal
and professional, says Cline Salle, Head of Learning-by-doing at KEDGE
Business School. In this capacity, she leads the pedagogical teams in
charge of supporting students through their Pro-Act projects. With these
projects, as with most of the Schools programmes, interactivity and
practicality are highly valued. From the initial phase, where they have
to define their project, to the action phase where they implement their
defined strategy, students have to focus on achieving tangible outcomes,
insists the KEDGEBS alumnus. Pro-Act projects enable students to acquire
a quasi-professional experience and thus enhance their employability.
The projects benefit students and businesses alike, everybody wins,
Cline adds.

She is also in charge of coordinating the Kick Start Weekend,
a major event initiated at the time of the merger. It brings together
our student associations and project owners. Workshops are organised
to enable students to build collectively on concepts and ideas born
out of their previous reflections. One year on after the merger, a common
multi-campus culture is already in evidence and the exchange of bestpractices has already become second-nature, she is pleased to report.
This is yet another way to prepare students for the world of tomorrow.

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KATIA

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
ENTREPRENEURSHIP &
NEW BUSINESS MODELS
44 YEARS OLD
Marseille

The key insight, which was to form the core of her research
activities, came at the time of her Master thesis on small businesses, where
the human factor is at the centre of everything, notably with regards to
environmental, social and societal common sense. The challenge, for large
corporations, is to come back to this essential truth, asserts Katia RichommeHuet, associate professor in Marseille, where she combines theoretical
knowledge and the study of practical cases to encourage her students
to reflect and shine a new light on entrepreneurship. I believe business
can also be a facilitator in achieving new environmental and societal models,
so I invite my students to add shades of pink and green to their vision of
entrepreneurship. This is something you have to learn and develop, she
says with great enthusiasm. In fact, this forty-something, in charge of
the Entrepreneurship & New Business Models cluster, demonstrates great
enthusiasm and deep conviction in everything she does. This is someone
who after all did not hesitate to resign, in 2012, from a very safe and
comfortable academic position because of incompatible principles.

She communicates this commitment to personal responsibility
everyday to her students. For an entrepreneur, personal responsibility
means taking ownership of all the consequences and potential risks of your
decisions. Katia is not afraid to tackle serious cases to illustrate her point,
such as the compensation for employees victims of asbestos exposure in the
workplace. One of her trademarks is her collective and collaborative approach
to research. Her past sporting achievements undoubtedly played a part in
this. She enjoys the confrontation of points of view and likes to come out
her comfort zone to move forward. Never one to rest on her laurels, she is
also working on digital development for the e-learning platform that will
benefit the Grande Ecole Programme and the School as whole.
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JAN

LECTURER-RESEARCHER IN
INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT
51 YEARS OLD
Bordeaux

Jan knows all about expatriation. He left his native Holland
for Lebanon at the age of 20, before embarking on a series on prolonged
stays in China and Japan. The simple fact of working abroad changes
the way you look at the world, explains Jan Schaaper, who teaches
International Management in Bordeaux, mainly on the EBP programme.
He is also a researcher, studying the approaches to management of French
multinationals in Asia and those of Chinese and Japanese corporations in
Europe. He feels very passionate about his subject and this passion informs
his whole approach to teaching: The strength of our programme is that
we enable our students to travel and learn to adapt to other cultures, other
languages, other landscapes... This is a skill that you have to learn young,
a bit like cycling! And this will become all the truer in the coming years,
he explains. The time when large corporations struggled to find experienced
executives ready to emigrate to faraway places like Asia is now behind us.
Young executives are now mobile.

How does he view teaching nowadays? We are definitely
heading towards a digital culture. Because anyone can check anything
in a matter of seconds on Google, we are moving towards a more implicit
approach. There is also a renewed focus on action. That is why I strongly
believe in the benefits of learning by doing. This is nothing new of course:
we are simply getting back to basics. Above all, we must remain focused
on behaviour and attitude. The human factor remains at the centre of
everything. A rather reassuring statement coming from an expert in
management!

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MARIE & ELSA

PROGRAMME GRANDE ECOLE

STUDENTS, YEAR 3
23 YEARS OLD
Bordeaux

India, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Peru, South Africa, Zimbabwe
They travelled for a total a six months. Six months during which
Programme Grande Ecole students Marie Aub and Elsa Gehanne went
to meet women entrepreneurs as part of their final year thesis project.
The project was initially sparked by many things: a shared interest
for micro-credit, a friendship forged whilst working at the AIESEC student
association in Bordeaux, a common single-mindedness... We wanted
to dig deeper on the topic of entrepreneurship and explore its concrete
impact on certain communities. We were fascinated by the research
carried out by Professor Yunus on how women invest their income
in health, hygiene and education for their children and thus contribute
to the development of their country. So that was the angle we chose
to explore for our thesis, says Marie, who also points out that KEDGE
Business School offered their full support, both financially and through
validating the project as their final graduation thesis.

Back in Bordeaux, Elsa and Marie pursued their work with their
Acting for Change Tour association, which promotes womens empowerment
through entrepreneurship. One of its key objectives is to raise awareness
and demystify entrepreneurship, especially amongst young people and
the fairer sex, which accounts for only 30 % of new business creation in
France today. The association notably hosted a special evening dedicated
to entrepreneurship in Bordeaux on 21 January. Another key objective
is to contribute to a wider dynamic in support of female entrepreneurial
initiatives. We are in talks with the Solidearth association so that other
students can follow this project through with more work on the ground.
Let us hope their message is heard loud and clear.
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MARVIN

CeseMED STUDENT, YEAR 2

20 YEARS OLD
Marseille

Marvin says he simply has a knack for always being in the right
place at the right time. But surely there is something else at play in his
success story: personal merit. Marvin Mendy grew up in Marseille and has
an atypical background. My lyce was located in a ZEP [Educational Priority
Zone] so I never imagined that I would end up studying in a Grande cole,
he says. He explains this initial lack of ambition by the absence of role
model and low self-confidence. A mental glass ceiling, in other words.
By the time he was 15, however, thanks to the Phoenix Equal Opportunity*
project and to the personal intervention of his schools principal who saw
his potential, Marvin started to dare imagining a very different future for
himself. Thus, after a classe prparatoire IEP, he was awarded a scholarship
grant and joined KEDGE Business School in 2013. Even though his study
fees were paid up in full by the school, Marvin still worked as a waiter at
KFC to make ends meet.

Now in his second year at the CeseMED programme, Marvin
appreciates he has come a long way and it is important for him to give
back. Thus, he was in charge of educational actions at the Phoenix student
association for a whole year. Every Saturday, I hosted debates on current
issues with high school pupils on the campus. The idea was to get them
out of their neighbourhoods, as someone had once done for me, present
them the School and its scholarship scheme, and open their minds up to
possible futures for themselves, Marvin enthuses. He is very proud of this
work. And so should he. And to help more young people overcome those
mental and cultural barriers, KEDGE BS will launch a new scheme in 2015:
KAP. The aim of this new initiative is to engage academically gifted
youngsters, remove financial constraints, offer bespoke coaching... in other
words show them that a higher education institution believes in them.

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JULIE

KEDGE DESIGN SCHOOL STUDENT,

YEAR 2
23 YEARS OLD
Toulon

She wanted to go further. Following a 2-year technical degree
(BTS) in Space design, Julie Favier wanted to stand out professionally
and expand her knowledge in areas such as graphic design, product
design, marketing... She has no regrets from her first two years as a student,
but she could see some gaps that needed to be filled. I felt I needed
to become proficient or improve my skills in certain areas, such as public
speaking, project management, mastering new technologies..., explains
Julie, who is currently completing her second year of the Master1
programme, on the KEDGE Business School campus of Toulon. Another
attraction was the Innovation Lab, which opened in March2014 in
partnership with ISEN, and where students can work on uncovering new
forms of usage thanks to innovative facilities. 3D printing, laser cutting,
latest generation software... Its all there. These workshops, which are
designed in collaboration with large corporations, allow you to familiarise
yourself with the technologies of tomorrow, and work alongside students
from other institutions, she points out.

Julie has also been working part-time at an architect agency
since her first year, and she values this opportunity to gain work
experience in parallel to her studies. This is yet another way to increase
her employability. The move has paid off since Julie has already secured
a permanent employment, starting from next summer, with a local real
estate developer. I am obviously delighted, but I will miss campus life.
Indeed, Julie has forged very close friendships on the campus, a new
family, especially with her involvement with the Student Union (BDE).

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HARVEY

MBA STUDENT
30 YEARS OLD
Shanghai

It was the reputation of the programme that tipped the balance.
Harvey also wanted to see the bigger picture. Truth be told, Harvey Zhao
was starting to feel a little bit frustrated at his Shanghai-based transport
company. After seven years of working in logistics, I decided to join
this MBA based on its strong reputation in China and Europe and on the
top quality of its faculty. Whether in human resources, finance or strategy,
all lecturers really know how to broaden your perspective on international
trade, he says. For more than a year now, Harvey has been spending
two days a week working for his company, and the other three on the
permanent KEDGE Business School campus, located in the prestigious
Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Indian, French, Malaysian... There is
a real cultural mix here. We all share not only our professional experiences,
but also our respective customs and traditions. There is a genuine and
unique human element to this MBA.

Harvey also points out that the KEDGE Business School MBA
has a global alumni network, with more than 1,000graduates all over
the world. And it just keeps progressing in the Financial Times ranking
tables, up 16places this year!. At the end of a very busy semester,
Harvey will have officially completed his MBA. What about future plans?
Travelling, he responds in a flash, starting with Bordeaux for the
graduation ceremony of course!

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RACHEL

ALUMNI, CO-FOUNDER
OF BIME ANALYTICS
35 YEARS OLD
Montpellier

This cheerful thirty-something has built her career through
sheer fearlessness. Dealing with the macho-ness of the high-tech world?
Bring it on! Going international when it all felt too cautious in France?
No problem! For all the talk of gender parity, stereotypes do have a thick
skin but Rachel has just dealt with it. I know how to turn situations
to my advantage in order to stand out. Rachel is now CEO of the company
she co-founded with her husband in 2009. Bime Analytics, a company
which single-handedly rewrote the rulebooks of Business Intelligence,
with services delivered all over the world and a solid partnership with
Google. More recently, the start-up opened a subsidiary in Kansas City,
Missouri. We also have a small office in SanFrancisco, says the young
mother, who lives in Montpellier. The French Ministry of Higher Education
and Research recognised their strong potential very early on, awarding
them its prestigious Innovation award in2009. They have won many
more awards since, most of them international.

This international aspect is important for this KEDGE Business
School graduate, class of 2003: The School opened the doors of large
corporations for me. This enabled me to start my career in an international
context, which was exactly what I wanted. Rachel keeps fond memories
of her student years in Marseille and in Canada. I met my husband
and many of my friends there. This ability to build a fantastic and lasting
personal and professional network is one of the Schools strengths, says
the entrepreneur who was part of the delegation that accompanied
President Franois Hollande during his visit to Silicon Valley in2014.

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MARC

SENIOR CHANNEL
ACCOUNT MANAGER, LENOVO
37 YEARS OLD
Paris

The oral examination was the starting point. They really pushed
to see what I was made of. I felt they were genuinely interested in my
profile and potential. They did not only look at my school results. They even
asked me about my sporting interest, which is rugby, recalls Marc Bringuier,
speaking about the oral examination that led him to join KEDGE Business
School in Bordeaux. He graduated in1999, but the impact of his studies
is still very much felt to this day. Events management, auditing, actuaries,
sales... and today IT. The Schools curriculum enabled me to develop a strong
generalist background and a very open-minded approach, which meant
I was able to pursue an atypical career as nothing was off-limits for me, he
adds. Marc sees international borders not as obstacles, but as opportunities
and motivating factors.

I find it so fascinating to see how differently people can interact
depending on their cultures and backgrounds. Bordeaux taught me not only
how to adapt, but also how to rally a team around a project, regardless
of where its various members are located on the planet. Marcs career has
taken him to Spain, Belgium, Switzerland and, more recently, Paris, where
he now works for a global company: Lenovo. As a senior channel account
manager, in charge of the largest retailers accounts for tablets, Marc deals
not only with the products themselves, but also with the evolution of
their users habits: What interests me, beyond the technology in itself, is to
observe how information is consumed and how this is constantly evolving.
A job that offers fascinating prospects in a field where things can only get
more and more innovative.

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SERGE

CORPORATE OFFICER, HEAD OF

RESOURCES, CAISSE DEPARGNE
PROVENCE-ALPES-CORSE
51 YEARS OLD
Marseille

There are certain things that become self-evident over time, as
relationships mature, affinities emerge and mutual confidence builds up.
The agreement signed with KEDGEBusinessSchool to create the Work
and well-being research chair was basically a natural continuity,
building on an ongoing collaboration in other, perhaps more conventional,
educational areas. This continuity lies, firstly, in the fact that this chair
perfectly fits the spirit of the work we have been doing together since2010,
which is intended to support our commitment to social performance.
Secondly, there is full compatibility between our respective core values,
says Serge Derick, Corporate Officer and Head of Resources for Caisse
dEpargne Provence-Alpes-Corse (CEPAC). When CEPAC says Audacity,
KEDGE Business School says Create; when the bank says Professional
best practice, the school answers Share; and when CEPAC demands
Responsibility, KEDGE BS obliges with Care.

With such a clear compatibility of values, the creation, in
June 2014, of the Work and well-being research chair can only be a mutual
opportunity, with the banks Working and managing together approach
benefiting from our research output, and teaching benefiting from real-world
experience and the ability to train practising executives. The ultimate
ambition of the chair is the emergence of an innovative managerial approach
combining the principles of performance and humanism. Serge Derick
understandably feels very passionate about this opportunity to contribute
daily to the cultural and social transformation of an organisation that has
the means required to meet its ambitions.

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OLIVIER

FOUNDER OF DUVAL & BLANCHET

35 YEARS OLD
Bordeaux

When Olivier needed to find a part-time intern for his wine
trading house, he immediately knew where to ask. For me, it was almost
like a reflex to turn to KEDGE Business School, which I also knew about
from family members, says the founder of Duval & Blanchet. Olivier
Duval knew about the Wines and Spirits Management (MVS) Specialised
Master, like a lot of people in the industry and in my region says the
former auditor, whose father graduated from Sup de Co Bordeaux and
whose grandfather was the manager of Chteau Lafite Rothschild. The
entrepreneur was looking for a postgraduate profile for his intern. Firstly
because this profile matched our business needs, but also because you
tend to get on better with people whose background is similar to yours,
says Olivier who did indeed follow a similar academic path: classe
prparatoire HEC, IEP Strasbourg, Masters in Finance.

In2012, the wine trading house finally recruited a KEDGE
Business School student. He is committed, genuine and passionate. It was
quickly evident we were going to get on well. I also rather liked his atypical
profile, says Olivier. The strength of the MVS programme? It provides a
global view on the wine industry: sales techniques, tasting, marketing...
This is a significant advantage in a complex sector with an ever-increasing
number of actors, many of them highly specialised. Arnaud, who holds
a 2-year technical degree (BTS) and a degree in biology, and who already
had international work experience under his belt -with an internship
in the agri-food sector in San Francisco- was recruited on a permanent
basis as sales manager for Duval & Blanchet, where other KEDGE part-time
interns are now following in his path.
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MIKE

VICE DEAN &

PROFESSOR KOREA UNIVERSITY
BUSINESS SCHOOL
50 YEARS OLD
Seoul

The partnership model is unique. By entering into close alliance
with the famous Korean University Business School, KEDGE Business
School will be the first European school to offer a dual Euro-Asian degree
in International Business Management (MSc and MBA). For the Vice-Dean
of KUBS, who is in charge -amongst other things- of seven of the best
MBAs in Asia, we are the first South Korean university to ever open a
branch in France. From September 2015, our first class of 30 students
will start their year in Bordeaux. They will then go to Seoul -KUBSin January and Shanghai -Jiao Tong University- in May.

These young executives are going to experience a genuine
initiatory tour of Asia, followed by a series of internships in some of the
best Korean corporations, including Hyundai and LG, says Cho Myeong
Hyeon (a.k.a. Mike). The strategy professor talks about the benefits
of this positive culture shock: We will do everything to make them feel
welcome and at home on the KUBS campus.In Seoul, the young executives
will benefit from optimal conditions, with three state-of-the-art buildings
and a wide range of facilities, including a football/volleyball pitch, a
swimming pool... This social dimension is essential since our students
are here not only to learn business the Asian way, but also to get a sense
of our culture. When asked about the career prospects of the future
graduates, Mike Cho has no hesitation: If I was running a company
that wants to expand on Asian markets, I would definitely take them
on as soon as they graduate!

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