Audencia's Alumni Magazine

Faced with the climate emergency, Jennifer Goodman, CSR (corporate social responsibility) lecturer and professor at Audencia, has come up with a winning formula for increasing awareness among her students with regard to plastic pollution. A specific example of this can be found with the Audencia Plastic Forum, set to take place at the end of October.

“Climate change impacts us all in various different ways”, explains Jennifer Goodman.

In her view, what really counts isn’t merely political announcements but rather action. What’s more, for her, all countries and governments need to be singing from the same hymn sheet.

“Climate change has no borders and requires a global response”, she states whilst declaring herself to be optimistic in light of the growing awareness seen amongst young people in particular. “It is encouraging to witness and this movement needs to carry on but urgent action is still needed when it comes to climate change.”

Time for action!

Therefore, Jennifer has decided to make a stand. The courses she gives at Audencia are a means of raising awareness with regard to the defining societal issues of our time, including climate change, poverty and inequality, by pinpointing business opportunities that could limit environmental impact, coming up with innovative solutions, cross-sector partnerships and new business models, as well as prompting students to examine and challenge their own values. Therefore, during class, these students work on concrete case studies, such as a food truck project in Nantes, which is involved in helping with the integration of migrant women.

“I always urge the students to keep a keen eye on their consumption habits and on how much waste they are generating and so consider ways in which they can make changes to their behaviour.”

The Audencia Plastic Forum represents one of the projects undertaken. The third edition, set to take place this coming 30 and 31 October, will bring together over 100 Masters students from across the various programmes (IMM and more). So, what does it aim to achieve? To provide a fun way of increasing awareness with regard to plastic pollution. These students will be taking on the roles of various stakeholders (companies, NGOs, consumers among others) and working in teams to come up with joint innovative solutions (services, products, business models). The purpose here is also to walk in the shoes of a business leader and take measures to curb and avoid plastic pollution. Following a pitch where they will be selling their ideas, an online vote will be held to select the best initiatives. So, it’s time to get your thinking caps on!

Florence Falvy, Editor

The general public, elected officials, local authorities and business sectors: right across the board, never has our awareness of climate change and its ensuing dangers permeated to such an extent through every layer of society. Spotlight on the building sector which constitutes one of the major greenhouse gas emitters.

Construction accounts for around a quarter of all our national CO2 emissions and is subject to tactical manoeuvrings. Marie Gracia holds a 5-year degree in communications and media from Audencia SciencesCom (class of 2015) and is now in charge of communication and the running of territorial sustainable construction planning networks at the ministries for Ecological & Inclusive Transition and Territorial Cohesion.

“For a long time now, issues relating to environmental impact in the construction trade have been on the political radar”, she notes, “roughly speaking, this came about around the time of the Grenelle agreement on the environment. However, at the time there was more of a focus on the sector’s energy consumption rather than on the amount of greenhouse gases it was emitting.”

Fast-forward a decade and we are all much more switched on to the perils of climate change.  Individuals, politicians and economic stakeholders alike are all becoming more committed to the cause and helping to change the rules of the game.

“We stand at a crossroads regarding energy transition and the fight against global warming”, Marie points out. “People no longer question if we should be doing something. Of course, the debate about how to go about things still continues, and how best to come up with support and funding, but at all levels of society, from the ordinary man on the street to the large CAC 40 groups, we all know there’s no other way out of this. Climate change has been all the more impressive of late.”

France is a trailblazer on the subject and is busy gearing up for its 2020 Environmental Regulations which will take into account the carbon footprints of new constructions throughout their entire life-cycle, as well as considering how much energy they stand to consume. There is also an arguably more pressing issue at stake here: energy retrofits for existing buildings.

“On this topic, we are a long way off hitting our target of having a stock of low-carbon homes by 2050 which are in appliance with the norms”, Marie admits. “However, the rate of growing awareness seen over recent months will encourage stakeholders to get involved and so take us up to the next level, giving massive momentum to the amount of energy renovations taking place. And what goes for the building trade also stands for the transport sector and many other industries too.”

Guy-Pierre Chomette, Editor

Early September, the summer is not yet over but it is already time to head back to school. As the drill goes in every school all over the land, the start of the new academic term at Audencia is full-on! Each course has its own set of events and challenges, in a bid to get everyone well acquainted and help students familiarise themselves with the school.

• Audencia Talents "Dare for good", is the back-to-school seminar for undergraduates following the first year Grande Ecole programme. This two-day event sees around 500 students coming up with their own business concepts. What’s on the programme? Brainstorming and creativity! For 2009, Audencia has decided to put a new CSR spin on this event that never fails to deliver on reflecting the values championed here at the school.

• Career Connection Days: formerly known as Welcome Days, this year the event has taken on a fresh new look. Undergraduates on the Grande Ecole programme at Audencia with academic specialisation in finance, marketing and consulting attend workshops and talks by our corporate partners who come along to speak about their professions together with their HR needs. This indeed constitutes a powerful turbo career boost from the very start of the school year!

• Career KickOff for the Specialised Master and International Master programmes: to welcome the new intake of students on these two courses, the school has joined forces to make it possible for them to immerse themselves in Audencia’s rich ecosystem from their very first day here at the school. Therefore, undergraduates have been interacting with alumni members and learning best practices in terms of their professional networks, as well as taking part in highly inspiring workshops on how to play an active role during training.

• “Knowing Me, Knowing You”: over these five days, the MEDIACAMPUS was buzzing with some 150 students from 14 different nationalities. There was an intensive and imaginative seminar on content production: photos, videos, the making of, Fast and Curious, instareporting and more besides. The new academic year has certainly got off to a flying start for the Audencia SciencesCom students by getting them up to speed with communication tools and bringing everyone’s strengths to the fore!

• There was also quite a buzz over at City Campus, aka Bachelor HQ. A total of 226 students took up the sports challenge and took part in a puzzle-themed Nantes walking trail which enabled them to (re)discover some of the city’s famous landmarks.

A busy schedule getting to know one other, connecting with classmates, learning how to grow one’s professional network, honing one’s creativity skills and lots more to boot. While there may be as many back-to-school activities as there are programmes, they all share the same common goal: to ensure that all our new freshers feel right at home here at Audencia!

Lauranne Heaume, on behalf of the communication team

Audencia’s very first Homecoming Day is fast approaching. This event is taking place on Saturday 12 October here at Audencia, so you only have a few more days left to register! Like Habiba Laraki (IMM 09), come and enjoy all these unforgettable moments happening right at the heart of the school and here in Nantes.

“When I found out that Audencia was putting on its first Homecoming Day, I thought it was a great idea. I knew right away how much fun it would be for us all to get together at Audencia for a huge celebration”, says a rather excited Habiba who will be making the special trip back here from Copenhagen where she works for the Moroccan airline Royal Air Maroc.

“A lot can happen in ten years at Audencia,” Habiba continues. “I’d love to know what has become of the school. For those of us who are all set up in our careers now, it’s always interesting to discover the profiles of the new students graduating from the school, see what they are expecting to do next and find out what kind of job openings are available to them.” 

Will she get to cross paths with some of her classmates from IMM 2009?

“I’ll have to wait and find out when I get there! In any case, it will be a good opportunity to get to know some other alumni members, take a walk down student-memory lane and reconnect with the school via the alumni network. I just can’t wait!”

This event, co-hosted by Christophe Germain, Dean of Audencia, and Flavie Lorre (GE 98) President of Audencia Alumni, promises to be a truly exceptional day. Whilst comfortably seated in the Edit de Nantes auditorium, from the get-go attendees will be plunged into a series of flashbacks. The dominant theme of the afternoon will be the great Audencia adventure, with challenges to help attendees discover or rediscover the School. We’ll be diving into the world of virtual reality, we’ve also laid on oenological entertainment, meetups with student clubs, discussions with iconic former lecturers and lots more besides. The organisers have all bases covered and haven’t forgotten to set aside some free time for you at the end of the day’s proceedings before moving on to the final showstopper: a mouth-watering fine-dining experience, prepared by the Michelin-starred chef Jean-Yves Guého, in a secret prestigious location which is yet to be revealed. All that remains now is for you to help set the dancefloor alight!

Register here

Guy-Pierre Chomette, Editor

Two standout events marked the start of the new school year: our Inter-Alumni evening and a women-only gathering dedicated to oenology.

Back-to-school season for Inter-Alumni

The very first edition of the Pays de la Loire Inter-Alumni was held on 11 September. This inaugural event proved to be a huge success for the Grande Ecole networks. 

The event was already sold out two weeks prior to the gathering and on the day, over 180 alumni from French Grandes Ecoles came together to join in the fun. 

Featuring on the programme of events: a presentation outlining the urban redevelopment taking place on the Ile de Nantes site, an innovative, large-scale undertaking. Then it was time for some fun and games! Alumni from the twelve schools (Audencia, Centrale Nantes, Centrale Paris-Supelec, the Nantes School of Design, EDHEC, Ensam Paris Tech, ESCP Europe, ESSEC, ESTP, HEC, IMT and Sciences Po) were split into teams before going on to compete in some games and tournaments organised by each of the schools. It was all in good fun of course!

This type of gathering already takes place in Bordeaux and abroad and caters for a genuine need: to bring together what the schools do best and strengthen social and professional opportunities.

Given the buzz it has generated among alumni, this initiative will definitely be making a comeback, especially as each of the schools is pledging to open up some of their events to alumni from other schools across the network. This will pave the way for the community to go from strength to strength.

The women-only oenology gathering

At the end of September, an oenology evening took place and was exclusively reserved for women members of the Audencia Pour Elles (Women-Only) Club.

At the very stylish Vernet Hotel in Paris, fifteen alumnae had the honour of sampling some exquisite wines whilst admiring a work of art. This imaginative initiative of pairing together art and wine was initiated by Sophie Roulé (GE 01).  

“When describing a particular wine, one talks about how light or elegant it is and also evokes the sensory dimension. These very same terms are used when describing a painting. It’s all to do with emotion and feelings as opposed to knowledge.”

One of the delights on show for our alumnae members to contemplate was Sandro Botticelli’s work entitled “Allegory of Spring”. This ornate painting is very spring-like and ethereal, as is the wine selected by Sophie Roulé to accompany it. The hostess for the evening opted for the Domaine Lecomte Quincy Tradition, this wine is 100% Sauvignon with herbaceous notes and a light fruity flavour.

What a feast for the eyes and taste buds of all our alumnae members in attendance!

Alumni in London continue the oenology theme as ambassador Tristan Pelloux (GE 15) has organised an inaugural winetasting evening with Chateau de Pommard on Wednesday 9 October (30 places are available at a price of €10 per person).

Register here

Géraldine Lance, Editor

The younger generation is first in line when it comes to suffering the consequences of global warming and therefore is naturally intent on playing an active role in this transition. This is the case for Nicolas Gumy (Audencia Bachelor in Management 18) along with three of his associates who have joined forces to spearhead the Impul’S Tour project, the very first European tour on board an electric car, showcasing sustainable initiatives across Europe. So, what’s it all about? The aim here is to demonstrate that there are solutions out there and to share a few suggestions on how to take action.

“Emergency action is more necessary than ever!” warns 22-year-old Nicolas Gumy.

As of January 2019, this Audencia Bachelor, a 2018 Management programme graduate, has been in charge of developing sales and marketing at LM Innotech, a start-up enterprise which has successfully developed Greenfib, a patented, innovative polymer that is 100% bio-based, sustainable, recyclable and made using short-cycle-time manufacturing. His career choice is all the more relevant as it is in keeping with his own personal convictions. Indeed, in his own words, making small changes to one’s daily routine helps push things forward.

“I’m an optimist as well as a realist. It’s important to come up with a new model if you want to take concrete action.”

Change your habits

As a student, Nicolas decided to take the plunge alongside three of his twenty-something friends who were equally avid nature lovers and so the Impul’S Tour project was born: the very first European tour mapping sustainable initiatives.

“There are so many solutions out there which probably aren’t on people’s radar. We wanted to provide everyone with the necessary keys required to make changes to their daily routines” he explains.

That’s how this adventure, with the four of us on board an electric car, came about and it took several months to prepare for. The starting gun went off on 1 August, 2018.

On the programme: a month spent driving around Europe, clocking up 6,000 kilometres, travelling through 10 different countries and with a total of 40 electric charges. Throughout the expedition a series of accompanying videos were made providing “some top tips and suggestions on how to take action and get involved in the transition”. With anything from a company in Nantes which is endeavouring to revolutionise transport by using sailing boats, to De Ceuvel, in Amsterdam, where old flat-bottomed vessels are being converted into mini start-up incubators, calling in at Sonderborg, a Danish town striving to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by 100% by the year 2029, or Copenhagen where free fruit, vegetables, bread rolls and pastries are given out, or Berlin where coffee dregs are collected from restaurants to be repurposed into plastic.

In Europe, there are plenty of initiatives under way. Yet, it has taken a project like Impul’S Tour to put them on the map and get the message across that what’s going on there can equally be achieved elsewhere too.

Florence Falvy, Editor

For the second year in a row, the Club Audencia des Dirigeants de l’Ouest (CADO), an association bringing together business leaders in western France, and the Audencia Foundation are offering up a voyage of discovery on the west coast of America. Thanks to the fundraiser, which has been set up to finance this adventure, somewhere between six to ten undergraduates from Audencia will be able to take part.

How do you fancy diving headfirst into the very heart of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and Silicon Valley? We are here to make this dream of yours come true. The learning trip, spearheaded by CADO along with the support of the Audencia Foundation, will enable a group of ambitious and deserving undergraduates to immerse themselves in the world capital of digital technology in Las Vegas and to roam the offices of some of the world’s most iconic companies.

The learning trip will start off at the CES de Las Vegas. Guiding them and bringing along his in-depth knowledge of the CES, CADO member Michaël Thoby (Exec MBA 13 – Founder and CEO of Emotic) will be conducting the tour for our Audencia undergraduates, as he has also been doing for around a decade now for various businesses. Once they arrive in San Francisco, their alumni ambassador Lucie Gouanelle (GE 98) will be drawing on her list of contacts to help facilitate business encounters in top cutting-edge companies like Facebook, Intel and Github.

The stakes are high: in an age where AI is reshuffling the digital deck of tomorrow’s economy and where trust in digital breakthroughs is becoming paramount, the key lies in being able to inspire our trainee entrepreneurs, who are passionate about digital technology, by bringing them up close with the very innovations that are revolutionising today’s world.

As was the case for their forerunners, the undergraduates heading off on this 2020 trip will be selected this autumn by a top panel, hand-picking winners on the strength of the applicants’ projects and motivations. Travel, hotel, CES pass and company tours: the overall cost of the learning trip tots up to €2,000 per student.

From A to Z, this trip has been specifically thought up, organised and funded by the alumni network and our corporate partners. A fundraiser, enabling a maximum number of students to get on board the learning trip, has been set up and is currently open until the end of October. You can access this via the foundation’s website.

The target: 20,000 €. Donations made are income tax deductible, 75% wealth tax deductible, and 60% corporation tax deductible. Be part of the adventure!

Make a donation

Guy-Pierre Chomette, Editor

There are many trades operating in the field of energy transition. Join us as we shine a spotlight on one of them, in the company of Emmanuel Legrand (Exec MBA 09) who heads up the Management Department for Ecological and Energy Transition at the Banque des Territoires.

Trained at Supelec (School of Electrical Engineering) in Paris, 52-year-old Emmanuel Legrand, began his career working for telecoms in various departments including sales and marketing. Following this, over the next fifteen years, he witnessed the changes taking place in this sector from the inside, which was starting to open up to competition and also saw the launch of the mobile phone as well as the Internet. Given this, he had a firm conviction that the energy market was likely to undergo a similar transition of its own. What’s more, in 2009, after earning an Executive MBA from Audencia, he noticed that one particular subject was starting to surface: the fight to combat climate deregulation. By now, he was intent on pursuing a meaningful career by getting involved in what he calls “a huge collaborative undertaking”: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address global-warming mitigation and adaptation. He would go on to take part in the setting up of the CDC Climate, subsidiary of the Caisse des Dépôts dedicated to environmental and energy transitions in the economy. He started out as Deputy Director, before being appointed as chief investment officer, funding schemes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and renewable energy projects in developing countries. As the world was witnessing the market demise for carbon, he was busy setting up development activities in order to reduce fossil fuel consumption in industry.

The greatest challenges

His career was to reach a new milestone in 2015, with the creation of the Environmental and Energy Transition Department which he currently steers as part of the investment board at the Banque des Territoires (a brand of the Caisse des dépôts set up in 2018). His role: investment in renewable energy schemes in France, energy efficiency in the realms of building renovation and waste/water treatment.

Another issue at the heart of the energy transition debate is transport. According to Emmanuel Legrand, this sector is undergoing an important transformation and is set to experience a technical shake-up with the emergence of alternative hybrid, electric and hydrogen energies. This brings us to another major challenge but one that is also rather complex: how to improve the energy related performance of our existing building fabric.

Read more about Etienne Reynaud "a custodian of biodiversity"

Florence Falvy, Editor

News of fellow Audencians who have changed post in recent months:

• Laura Abou Khalil (GE 18) has been appointed Customer Success Manager at Panopli
• Dimitri Arrondeau (GE 18) has been appointed Mid Cap & Corporate Consultant / Strategy Consulting at CMI Strategies
• José Baghdad (GE 99) has been appointed Partner and Automotive Industry Director at PwC
• Alexis Barrassin (GE 15) has been appointed Event Development & eSports Manager at AccorHotels Arena
• Julien Bavencoffe (GE 11) has been appointed Recruitment Officer at Pays de La Loire Regional Council
• Lucas Berthuit (GE 18) has been appointed Business Engineer at GATEWATCHER
• Antoine Bourree (GE 18) has been appointed Junior Manager European Graduate at XPO Logistics
• Jacques-Henri Daniel (GE 80) has been appointed Southern Area Manager at PAREDES
• Aline De Snoeck (GE 15) has been appointed Project Manager at Académie du Service
• Eric Dumanchin (Head of Communications 2018) has been appointed Head of Communications and Culture for the town of Thorigné-Fouillard
• Anne-Laure Guermont (GE 10) has been appointed Head of Communications & Development at Publicis Activ
• Charlène Hameau (SCOM 17) has been appointed National Programme Coordinator at Wintegreat
• Béatrice Le Terrec (GE 91) has been appointed Human Resources Director at BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions
• Anne-Lise Olivier (GE 08) has been appointed Network Coordinator at ATD (Actors of Sustainable Tourism)
• Vincent Philippine (GE 07) has been appointed Managing Partner in charge of vertical mobility and industrials at AXIONABLE
• Florence Therond (GE 95) has been appointed Group CFO at PRISMAFLEX INTERNATIONAL
• Camille Winter (GE 14) is Co-founder of Le Fromage de Margot at BEL

Congratulations to each and every one of you on these distinguished appointments!

If you too would like to tell us about your own recent appointment or new start-up, then please drop us a line at audenciaalumni@audencia.com

Emilie Tendron, on behalf of the Audencia Alumni Team