A depiction of the English End-of-Week March intake, as painted by participant Audrey Chapuis.

Online and In-Person, March 2022 EMBA Track is Underway

The English End-of-Week track from this year’s HEC Paris EMBA March intake got their start amid the French government’s lockdown measures, but participants, faculty, and staff gamely adapted to new circumstances. Now, they take stock of where they are–and where they're headed.

When the HEC Paris EMBA March intake convened on Zoom for their first module, they were given a preview of what to expect by Professor Pierre Dussauge in his first-day opening remarks.

“In an EMBA program, the people in the program have a fairly significant career already behind them,” he began, offering characteristically scalpel-like precision when dissecting the sometimes opaque expectations for EMBA origins and outcomes. “This plays into how you want to see what you are doing in the program and what you seek to achieve.”

HEC EMBA Participants

Masked up and socially distanced, participants confer during a coffee break.

Adaptability and versatility

Last-minute restrictions nixed the anticipated in-person first days of class, but thanks to the professionalism and dogged adaptability of HEC Paris operational staff, English End-of-Week 2 completed their second module via a hybrid of remote participants and socially-distant, in-person attendees.

The group’s individuals were quick to register the uniqueness of their collective positions.

“I can already sense that I find myself amongst some of the brightest minds who are going to shape the future of business in a global context,” commented Emma Kearney, Head of Clinical Innovation at L’Orèal, on her impressions after the earliest days of her EMBA journey. “I am looking forward to learning from and contributing to enriching our collective thought processes, to gain rapidly diverse viewpoints for helping me with my own challenges and problem solving.”

“Everyone is highly ambitious and eager to learn from one another.”

Manufacturing and tech are the top two industries represented, at 30% of the intake combined. That figure belies the group’s richness, however, which boasts a constellation of high-achieving professionals from an array of professions.

 

HEC EMBA English ENd of Week 2

The top two industries represented in the class are technology and manufacturing.

“HEC did an amazing job putting together a group from many different sectors and backgrounds,” waxed Audrey Chapuis, Director of the American Library in Paris. “Everyone is highly ambitious and eager to learn from one another. Even before we met formally, we had an active WhatsApp group.”

A deeper dive

Capitalizing on the combined intellectual and professional capital of the intake was a common refrain among participants, but so was accessing the prestige of HEC Paris’ world-class business training.

“The HEC EMBA provides the training I need to impact strategic business decisions,” said Laurent Turpault, France Public Affairs Director at the Coca-Cola Company. “Thanks to the EMBA, I’ll get the knowledge and perspective to take a new role more focused on global strategy, decision making and resource planning for sustainable business.”

Mouhamed Lamine Loume, a Senegalese national working as Senior Data and Business Analyst at Galeries Lafayette, echoed Laurent’s sentiments about getting an inside track to realizing his ambitions – both in France and overseas.

“I have chosen HEC for my Executive MBA because of the reputation of HEC Paris: it is known as one of the best business schools in the world. I firmly believe that HEC will be a great place for me to acquire knowledge while having an extensive international exposure,” he said. “The program will help me acquire the expanded skillset and technical knowledge necessary to excel in the business and management world, to take my career to the next level and to fulfil my desire to become an entrepreneur.”

Why HEC?

HEC Paris EMBA Participants Catherine Mushi and Aurélie Lemaire

HEC Paris EMBA Participants Catherine Mushi and Aurélie Lemaire

Mouhamed’s interest in entrepreneurial pursuits will necessarily require a textured understanding of the cutting edge. His new EMBA colleague, Kirti Kumar, an Indian working in the Netherlands, was quick to note that  mastery of today’s challenges—and those that tomorrow will bring— are among the strongest traits at HEC Paris.

“I chose HEC because of its hands-on, interactive teaching methods, which are very much focused on the most recent advancements. HEC has a very interesting way of using past examples to help you understand the present and the future, this way I strongly believe that HEC will prepare us to lead in this world of accelerated changes,” she said.

Kirti, at 34, finds herself on the younger end of an intake that averages 37 years of age. She noted that while other business schools she spoke with were, at times, dismissive about the idea of younger professionals breaking into EMBA ranks, HEC Paris interviewers were receptive.

“…I loved how HEC truly walked the talk of diversity and inclusivity.”

“HEC on saw that as a positive,” she says of her relative youth. “They saw that I had the required experience despite my age. One thing that one of the interviewers mentioned to me that stuck with me was that HEC strives to shape and build leaders of tomorrow; ‘what better way than to start with the younger generation?’, he said. I loved how HEC truly walked the talk of diversity and inclusivity.”

On their marks

The participants’ 16-month journey—at times a sprint, and others, a marathon—includes 500 teaching hours, 2 weeks of specialization study 30-plus assignments and exams, and one all-important Capstone project.

Professor Dussauge summarized these figures with apt big-picture appeal.

“I’m willing to bet that in 16 months’ time, you’ll see the world of business and of management in a radically different way,” he said. “I really think that you should view this program as a life-transforming experience based on my own experience of seeing many EMBA’s going through the program.”


More CEOs of Fortune Global 500 companies have graduated from HEC Paris than any other university in Europe, and nearly 4,000 graduates are currently CEOs, CFOs, or have founded their own companies. According to the Financial Times, the HEC Paris Executive MBA is ranked #1 in Europe and #3 in the world; click here to learn more.

If you’re ready to take the next step in your EMBA journey, introduce yourself here