Digital & Technology Club: "We Help Entrepreneurs and Managers to Adopt Tech in a Fair and Ethical Way"

The ESSEC Alumni Digital & Technology Club rallies graduates and students with an interest in the sector and promotes new technologies which could help humanity to solve its key issues. We find out more with its voluntary leader Luca Rotoni (EXEC MBA 16).

ESSEC Alumni: What role does the ESSEC community play in the tech sector?
Luca Rotoni: ESSEC trains entrepreneurs and managers who adopt and use new technologies to support and optimise their actions. Our community thus boasts numerous experts and leaders in this business sector. This is also one reason behind the School’s recent launch of the Metalab, a teaching and influence centre which represents a pillar of its RISE strategy and which is aimed at helping businesses and society to understand and use artificial intelligence and data fairly and ethically. Our club forms part of and even broadens this same aim, as it addresses all technologies.

EA: What actions does your club lead?
L. Rotoni: We offer three types of events, often in partnership with other ESSEC Alumni clubs: Quarterly conferences firstly, open to the general public and based on topical issues with high-profile speakers such as Luc Julia, the inventor of Apple’s Siri. Secondly, we hold quarterly masterclasses, called ‘Digital & Technology Club Thursdays’ for the ESSEC community, which take place at the  Maison des ESSEC (11 avenue de Friedland Paris 8^e). Lastly, we organise twice-yearly seminars with ESSEC students on the Cergy campus. 

EA: Do you have any other ongoing projects? 
L. Rotoni: We’re primarily seeking to develop synergies with the School and the business world. For example, right now we’re working on partnership projects between major groups and the Metalab, with a view to creating new chairs around technological issues. We’re also boosting our communication tools. We’ve just launched our public LinkedIn page and we’re revamping our group on the ESSEC Alumni website to rally the 2,400 graduate and student members of our club online. Finally, we hope to expand internationally, which is why we already hold some of our events in English and joined the European think tank Institut G9+.  

EA: Who are the members of your team? 
L. Rotoni: We have 17 members in the board: Pierre Guimard (E93), Cloud Consulting Lead - EMEA Retail at Google and Honorary Club President; Thomas Amiot (EXEC M22), Director of Numerical & Digital Transformation at Managers en Mission; Denis Conaut (E91), Managing Director of Infopro Digital Marketplaces; Andréa Dih Kahn (EXEC MBA 22), IT Transformation & Change Manager at Axa; Charles Doxuan (E90), CMO & Chief Evangelist at Alcméon; Sébastien Fresneau (E91), Director of International Operations for the Auzou Éditions group;  Benoît Joly (E99), Chief Commercial Officer at Wejo; Rami Karam (E06), Managing Director of La Centrale de Financement; Miryam Le Madec (EXEC M22), Public Sector & Services Director at Capgemini Invent; François Mare (EXEC MBA 03), Chief Marketing & Digital Officer at onefinestay (Accor Group); Christophe Parcot (E90), Senior Advisor with McKinsey; Mehdi Sebti (EXEC MBA 16), Digital Transformation & Value Advisory Leader EMEA at ServiceNow, and Laura Terriou (BBA 14), Product Manager Web3 at Block Castle, in addition to students Cem Isik (E23) and Valentin Vandekerchove (M23). Our thanks to all of them for their involvement!

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