Audencia’s iconic alumni
Celebrating the School’s inspirational graduates
It all began back in 2020 when we celebrated Audencia’s 120th anniversary by launching our very first iconic alumni collection. For this second series, we are delighted and proud to showcase 12 new profiles of Audencians from around the globe.
With their dedication and drive to change the world, their diverse origins and unique backgrounds, the portraits that you are about to read embody the School’s values. From those who have already reached the summit to the younger generation of rising stars, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the alumni of this second series – Beauty, Boris, Céline, Didier, Fulgence, Henar, Johan, Marie Françoise, Quang, Sunny, Taghi and Tifenn – who have joined alumni of the first series – Amal, Claude-Michel, Dominique, Estelle, Francois-Xavier, Nicolas, Pascale, Sorachna, Varsha, Vincent – in contributing to the School’s outreach.
Christophe Germain
Dean of Audencia
How did the daughter of a construction contractor with no connections, who grew up in a rural area of south-western France surrounded by cows, ever ...
Read More
Marie Françoise Marie-Nelly
The unwavering optimist
Marie Françoise Marie-Nelly’s life is showered with a series of events that, in hindsight, could be good premonitions.
Read More
When reached out to Henar Cabrera, she was living in Dublin and working as an International Customer Service Representative for Blue Nile, an American online ...
Read More
Beauty Manake
Botswana’s first female minister of agriculture
It took 6 months to pin her down for a promised interview, but given our subject’s status, we knew that we had to be patient ...
Read More
Taghi Taghi-zada
Driven by the desire to learn and to put people first
At 36, Taghi has moved up the professional ladder with remarkable speed. At 21, when he was head of logistics for a firm specialising in ...
Read More
Sun Ping is adamant that setting oneself a strict framework of rules is the key to a successful career and a harmonious life.
Read More
Fulgence Ouedraogo
Captain Courage
Fulgence Ouedraogo is the tireless tackler and captain of the iconic Montpellier Hérault Rugby Club, in the South West of France.
Read More
Didier Gaffinel
A steadfast rise through the ranks
In 2022, Didier Gaffinel celebrates 30 years of service at Crédit Agricole. After 16 years of investment banking and its notoriously strenuous regime, he later ...
Read More
This is the story of how a quiet Vietnamese boy raised in a poor rural village with no electricity and no library, ended up bagging ...
Read More
Tifenn Dano Kwan has led world-class marketing strategies for some of the largest SaaS organisations, and anyone reading her LinkedIn profile will recognise that she ...
Read More
Johan Bonnet
Changing the world one nappy at a time
Les Petits Culottés is the first eco-friendly nappy brand distributed through direct sales and short sales channels in France.
Read More
Boris Couilleau
Pioneering democratic and inclusive business practices
Boris Couilleau’s first years after graduation were not plain sailing: within half a decade, he’d experienced the consequences of a ruinous investment, a series of ...
Read More
Varsha Manjunatha
Breaking the mould without burning bridges
"When I look back at the path I have followed since I left my humble community in Bangalore, it feels nothing less than a miracle”. ...
Read More
Amal AbdulQader
A life story stranger than fiction
Amal hesitated before agreeing to an interview for our iconic alumni series. "I wasn’t sure that my profile would be a good fit because my ...
Read More
François-Xavier Roger
Seizing opportunities as they come along
A truly international executive, Francois Roger has lived on four continents. He learnt the ropes of high finance by joining pharmaceutical company Roussel Uclaf as ...
Read More
Sorachna Honn
Banker and Buddhist
Like all Cambodian boys, Sorachna Honn was been raised to respect his elders and his teachers, to work hard and with integrity, to provide for ...
Read More
Estelle Nze Minko
The gamechanger
What first impresses when we meet Estelle Nze Minko, the centre back for France women's national handball team, is her extrovert, rebellious, and uncompromising nature. ...
Read More
Claude-Michel Schönberg
Music as a raison d'être
When the world-renowned composer welcomes us to his Chelsea home, his frustration is palpable. We meet during a phase of respite between two lockdowns, but ...
Read More
Nicolas de Villiers
Running the show and making history
In 2004, aged 24, just one year after graduating from Audencia, Nicolas received the keys to the Puy du Fou, a historical theme park with ...
Read More
Pascale Quester
A remarkable rise to the top of the university ranks
When we enter Pascale Quester’s living room through the lens of her laptop camera, we find her surrounded by boxes. She has just moved from ...
Read More
Dominique de Font-Réaulx
A contagious passion for culture
Dominique de Font-Réaulx has had a succession of high calibre positions within the most prestigious museums in France. She was curator of the Musée d’Orsay ...
Read More
Vincent Roux
The entrepreneur who pays it forward
Aged six, Vincent was already doing business on his parents’ front door. At 23, he was the first student whose company was incubated at Audencia… ...
Read More