Inflation, Green Industry, Women & Tech, the Water Plan and Paris 2024… ESSEC in the Media

Leaders, experts, entrepreneurs and a mentalist; ESSEC is making the headlines in all fields! Press review

Leaders

Forbes pays tribute to ESSEC alumni! Firstly, the magazine selected three graduates to feature in its Women of the Year: Amélie Oudéa-Castéra (E02), Minister for Sports and the Olympic & Para-Olympic Games and ex-French tennis champion; Natacha Hochet-Raab (E95), Managing Director Europe, Middle East, Africa and Japan for the jewellery brand Fred (LVMH Group) and member of the ESSEC Alumni Administrative Board; and Vanessa Diriart (M99), President of Galileo Global Education in France, the country’s leading private education group, which includes Le Cours Florent and ESG. Secondly, three ESSEC members feature in its 2023 30 under 30 list: Valentine d’Harcourt (E21), co-founder of Anga (see our article in French), which transforms plastic waste into materials for interior decoration; Léa Philippot (E19), co-founder of Mindology, a brand of 100% natural anti-stress CBD oils made in France; and Tristan Maurel (E20), co-founder of the start-up Umiami, incubated by ESSEC Ventures and 2021 winner of the ESSEC Founders Day competition, which produces a ‘plant-based meat’ providing the same nutritional and taste properties as animal meat, but with far fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

In Les Échos, Vincent Warnery (E91), CEO of the German cosmetics and care giant Beiersdorf, admits: ‘Everyone wants sustainable products, but no-one wants to pay more.’  His strategy in the context of rising inflation is to target new acquisitions and innovation.
Read an extract (in French).

In Le Figaro, Cécile Béliot-Zind (E97), the new Managing Director of the Bel group is delighted to announce: ‘In a context marked by inflation, the war in Ukraine and its impacts, the year has served as a life-sized “stress test” for our transformation strategy. This strategy has stayed the course, which validates our decisions to expand geographically, our acceleration towards plant and fruit-based products, our innovation policy and our drive to maintain long-term investments in CSR.’ 
Read an extract (in French).

On BFM Business, parliamentary deputy Guillaume Kasbarian (E10) presented his proposals for the Green Industry bill, which he is coordinating. ‘I’m emphasising the importance of boosting reshoring of industrial activities to our regions and decarbonising industry.’
See the video (in French).

In Madame Figaro, Nathalie Collin (E88), Managing Director of the general public and digital branch of the La Poste group, announced the launch of a data and artificial intelligence school to train some fifty students, with an equal gender ratio ‘I don’t want to hear that there are no women; finding 50% of the population is not that difficult.’ 
Read the article (in French).

The Stratégies website named Nicolas Pécourt (E92) France’s most influential communication director. He works for the Korian group, a company which manages nursing homes for the elderly and boasts 1,000 establishments and 90,000 beds in 7 European countries, with a turnover of €4.3 billion for 57,000 employees.
Read an extract (in French).

Entrepreneurs

The Sunday Times explained how the e-shop Vinterior, co-founded by Sandrine Zhang Ferron (E07) and Leslie Fournier (E07), became the UK’s biggest second-hand furniture platform in just a few years. The next step in the firm’s development will be the opening of a corner in Selfridges.
Read an extract (for subscribers only).

On TF1, David Harari (E16) took viewers behind the scenes of the new escape game venue he is opening with Emmanuel Teboul (E17) via their company Dama Dreams: 3000 square metres to immerse players in a life-sized city inspired by Batman’s Gotham City.
See the video (from 1 min 08 - in French).

On BFM TV, Harold Guillemin (M19) described the 2024 Olympic games as an opportunity to promote the technological innovations led by France in the sports field, including his start-up FinX, which develops biomimetic nautical propeller systems that could revolutionise maritime transport.
See the video (From 6 min - in French).

In Les Échos, Marion Carrette (E96) revealed her strategy to re-launch Anny Blatt,  ‘the iconic knitting brand of the Mitterrand years’, with the development of online sales and the targeting of under-40s.
Read an  extract (in French).

On BFM TV, Richard Roll (E88) presented Anabasis, a software suite he created to facilitate the use of data in companies. ‘This solution enables users to bring together data from various systems and to visualise it via a single-entry point. It thus allows us to transmit information according to highly-specific sector rules or regulations, which are integrated directly in the software system.’ 
See the video (in French).

On TF1, Martin Herbelin (BBA 14) presented his Food Trip, a pass which rides on the current trend for gastronomy tours and allows users to sample the fare of Paris’ finest purveyors, at their own pace and at an affordable price.
See the video (in French).

Maddyness retraced the career of  Joan Burkovic (E11), the fintech multi-entrepreneur who ‘has been shaking up banks for 12 years’ with his fund management solutions for individuals (Bankin) and professionals (Bridge). Some traditional institutions have even gone as far as to open call centres to discourage their customers from using his services…
Read the article (in French).

Experts

On TV5, Tristan Mathieu (E91), Director of Public Affairs, CSR & Sustainable Development at Veolia Eau, and Esther Crauser-Delbourg (E09), environmental economist, presented their analysis of the French Government’s new Water Plan. Among their key messages: huge investment must be put into wastewater recycling, reducing leakage rates, creating dual networks to limit drinking water use and developing more sustainable farming practices.
See the video (in French).

On France 3, Antoine Fabry (E12) explained why he launched Tremplin (see our article in French), a training body specialised in guiding elected representatives. ‘They are required to manage local action which is increasingly complex, both from a legal and financial point of view. At the same time, they receive less and less State aid.’  Could this help to reverse the growing number of mayors who resign?
See the video

In Le Monde, Cédric Baecher (E00), co-founder with Nicolas Dutreix (E00) of the CSR consultancy Nomadéis (see our article in French), responded to the newspaper’s description of the Forum for Freedom of Movement which he organised for the Stellantis automobile group as ‘an anti-lobbying operation’. ‘We’re addressing a subject which is a lot more political than sustainable mobility. We want to find out if we need to prepare for the idea of limited freedom of movement, a freedom reserved to an elite, in order to reach emission reduction goals.’ 
Read an extract (in French).

On the Décision Achats website, Romaric Servajean-Hilst (E99), Academic Director of MAI Executive Education at Kedge and researcher at Ecole Polytechnique, examined the role procurement plays in company innovation. His view is that ‘CPOs would do well to foster a value-creating approach rather than focussing solely on compliance.’ 
Read an extract (in French). 

Culture & Entertainment

On the Bonbon website, Benoît Auzou (E99) explained how he ‘dropped everything’ to become a mentalist (under the stage name Benoît Loizeau). ‘This form of magic consists in giving people the impression you have entered their mind.’ 
See the video (in French).
See also our profile feature (in French). 

Did you spot other alumni in the news recently? Let us know!  

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