'We Support ESSEC Communities in 90 Countries Around the World'

Veary Ngy is the head of ESSEC Alumni's International Office. Her mission is to support ESSEC communities in 90 countries around the world at a time when 20% of graduates live outside France and nearly 40% of students come from outside the country. 

ESSEC Alumni: What led you to ESSEC Alumni? 

Veary Ngy: I have mainly worked in events and communication for associations. For seven years, I helped bring together members of the Union of the French Electricity Industry around the conviction that the sector's players have a role to play in efforts to address climate change. I also broadened my horizons internationally, firstly by joining the Alliance Française in Beijing to organise tours of artists and speakers throughout China, and then by working for two seasons at the Paris Chinese Film Festival. These experiences helped rekindle my taste for other cultures that I had developed during my studies, when I cofounded an association to host students on university exchanges and spent part of my studies in China. 

EA: What is your role at ESSEC Alumni? 

V. Ngy: I am responsible for mobilising ESSEC's international communities to expand the network beyond France's borders, to encourage mutual support and solidarity between alumni abroad and to contribute to the school's efforts to increase its influence throughout the world, both in business and academia. 

EA: How extensive is the international ESSEC community? 

V. Ngy: More than 20% of graduates are based abroad, with particularly large communities in the United Kingdom, China, the United States, Morocco and India. And given the makeup of recent ESSEC cohorts, this proportion is likely to increase as nearly 40% of students now come from outside France. 

EA: What ecosystem do you offer these communities? 

V. Ngy: We coordinate more than 90 chapters around the world. Each chapter has a graduate volunteer president, often supported by a board of other volunteers, who may be graduates or students. Also, all ESSEC Alumni services are available online and in English, wherever you are in the world. Finally, the Maison des ESSEC in Paris is a place open to all things international: it can serve as a base for those who are passing through the city and who need a place to set up their meetings, work remotely or just meet up with their peers, and is equipped with the necessary hardware for live, online broadcasts of its hosted events, including professional clubs.  

EA: What have you been doing these past few months?

V. Ngy: Other than our usual work, recently some of our initiatives have targeted the five countries with our largest communities with regular meetups and large events, in collaboration with the school and in alignment with its Transcend strategy. The aim is to increase our local impact and support local chapters' volunteers in professionalising their projects. 

EA: You also travelled to China with ESSEC Alumni Managing Director Marie-Pierre Schickel (E95) and ESSEC Group Managing Director Vincenzo Esposito Vinzi…  

V. Ngy: Our goal was to (re)connect alumni with each other and with the school, present the new Transcend strategy and involve the community in promoting the ESSEC brand in China. We try to organise this type of trip on a regular basis – before China, we ran a similar operation in India. 

EA: What was on the agenda for this trip?

V. Ngy: We held three events in three cities: an evening at Galeries Lafayette in Beijing (where we have around 500 Chinese and French alumni), an afterwork reception at Bulgari in Shanghai (750) and a 'hike and lunch' in Hong Kong (200). In all, the three events attracted almost 200 participants. In addition, we conducted interviews with two BBA students studying for a dual degree in Guanghua as well as a number of graduates to consider our future activities in the region: Cyrille Berliat (M11), Treasurer, French Tech Shanghai; Fabrice Bonnifait (E00), Chief Financial Officer, Dior China; Weiming Cao (E90), President, Hermès China; Olivier Chaudet (E93), Chief Executive Officer, Legrand China; Louis de Montmarin (E97), Vice-President of Human Resources, Renault China; Guillaume Douin (E00), Managing Director and APAC Head of Financial Sponsors at BNP Paribas; Jonathan Ly (E16), Global Head of Corporate Projects at Qeelin; Christian Tambouras (EXEC MBA 11), Chief Financial Officer at Valeo China; and Michael Wu (M11), Director at CBRE China... A huge thank you to all of them! 

EA: How do you plan to follow up this trip?

V. Ngy: Our next step is the 6^th Sino-France Business Forum, co-organised by the ESSEC China student association, Club China in France, Beijing Chapter, Shanghai Chapter and Shenzhen Chapter, with the support of Vincenzo Vinzi. Every year, this event brings together companies operating in China and France to discuss opportunities for economic cooperation between our two countries. Date to be confirmed! We will also be expanding our presence on Chinese communication channels, especially WeChat.  

EA: Apart from China, what other initiatives have you taken on behalf of our communities around the world in recent months? 

V. Ngy: By 2024, we have already counted nearly 300 international events, compared with 250 in 2023. We also welcomed 10 new chapter presidents in Malaysia, Denmark, Indonesia, Munich (Germany), Ukraine, Algeria, Thailand, the Czech Republic, Vietnam and Bangalore (India). We have also undertaken a number of initiatives internally to optimise our offering: sharing and standardising our volunteers' best practices, individual interviews with alumni abroad to better understand their expectations and how these evolve over the course of their stay, and more. 

EA: What are your projects for the coming months?  

V. Ngy: Over the next two years, we will continue to ramp up our activities in our priority countries while maintaining good momentum in the other chapters. We also want to seize the opportunities created by the recent opening of the ESSEC hub in New York and the forthcoming opening of an ESSEC hub in London to strengthen our ties with alumni in these cities, in synergy with the school.  

EA: Who are the members of your team? 

V. Ngy: I'm fortunate in that I can count on two men and two women who work with me, and I'd like to thank them for their support.Laure Bianchinimanages our database and zones and our meetings with volunteers around the world.Matthieu Coletmanages the Latin America, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions, helps to produce the international newsletter and assists with updating our database.Anita Maksymchuklooks after North America, Africa, the Middle East, India, the UK and Ukraine, and coordinates the international agenda newsletter published on Sundays. Last but not least,Ian Ongis in charge of student-graduate relations on the Singapore campus, organising events and study trips as part of ESSEC APAC's Career Services.

Discover our 90 Chapters

Interview by Louis Armengaud Wurmser  (E10), Content Manager at ESSEC Alumni 

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