Antoine Leurent (EDHEC 1996), ambassador of the Rennes Club

What’s your background? 

I graduated from EDHEC in 1996, and went on to complete my military service as a reserve officer in the Navy.

At the end of 1997, I was looking for work and quickly found something in Internet technology. It really was the beginning of the Internet for the general public. I was hired by Raphaël Richard (EDHEC 1993) in a start-up called Cybion, which offered marketing and technology intelligence services. I stayed with them for 2 ½ years.

Then I decided to join a consultancy firm and joined the consultancy division of Arthur Andersen in 2000. I stayed there for 6 years as a consultant and then senior consultant, mostly working in banking and insurance, and later joined the Marketing-CRM team.

At that stage I wanted to settle in a company and leave behind the world of consultancy. And so in 2006 I joined the Crédit Agricole group, first in its market finance subsidiary (CA Cheuvreux, a brokerage) where I was taken on as a marketing project leader with a strong focus on customer satisfaction measurement.

In 2009, after the sub-prime crisis, I moved on to a position that involved much more management. I joined the Crédit Agricole Leasing subsidiary where I headed up a team of project leaders.

I then decided I needed a change of pace and region and headed to Brittany in 2011, where I joined the regional office in Ille-et-Vilaine in Rennes. I started out in a marketing position at the head office and moved on to more commercial jobs within the network, including consultancy for private clients and wealth management consultancy.

Later I needed a change and found a position in Groupe Crédit Agricole, this time in Paris at the corporate banking division (Crédit Agricole CIB), a supervisory role with once again a strong international focus, as had been the case at Crédit Agricole Cheuvreux: part of my team were in Singapore and the rest in Montrouge. And so since 2015, I have been dividing my time between Paris and Rennes.

Last year I took a sabbatical during which I worked on an entrepreneurship project in Rennes: I’d like to set up a new-generation Wakepark with a restaurant, conference facility, waterpark with inflatables on the water, trampolines, a spa with views over the lake … quite an ambitious project involving various activities that complement one another.

To achieve this, I’m working with Baptiste Mourcel (EDHEC 2012), whom I met at the Rennes Club and who has set up an innovative architecture firm (DUMBO).

What made you decide to join the club?

At first I was a participant, particularly in Paris at the start of my career, in the Finance Club. I enjoyed it, with regular events near Opéra in a pub. What I particularly liked was the atmosphere, the quality of discussions and the diverse profiles of people you’d meet at the events. The networking dimension is attractive and useful, but for me, if I’m honest, that came later.

Another thing I appreciate is that we all kind of have similar DNA and understand one another easily. Discussions quickly become candid and direct, and it also brings back fond memories.

It’s a chance to talk about the old times at EDHEC, wonderful years indeed.

Another reason I decided to join the club is that I had been in Rennes for two years and nothing had happened. Hardly surprising, as it works on a voluntary basis, so I said to myself that I had significantly benefited from my studies at EDHEC, with all the clubs I had taken part in, without ever really contributing much, so why not join?

My decision was confirmed by advice I received from Baptiste Di Rosa (EDHEC 1999), who used to run the club before me. He gave me what I needed to take over from him and put me in contact with Géraldine Simon from the EDHEC Alumni association, who reassured me and told me I would have support, advice and tools from the Association to run the club, including invitations, group emails, setting up events, etc. and I also received the help of other ambassadors in the region.

And then there was Ambassadors Day, which I found really interesting and stimulating. It’s an enriching experience to meet with your peers from France and overseas! So all those factors combined made me decide to join and help run this club.

What does it mean for you to be an ambassador?  

Initially it required a significant investment on my part because I took over a club that had been inactive for two years.

That meant files that were a bit outdated and people whose presence in the region we weren’t sure about. Quite a lot of work had to be done recruiting people and checking addresses for the first event. I contacted a lot of people directly via LinkedIn before sending out invitations. So there was a lot of groundwork before the first event to avoid the risk of only a few people showing up. 

Once the first year was over, it didn’t take up too much of my time, it’s mostly organising events and a bit of “recruitment” with the help of other club members.
It’s really just before the events that you have to think about things and listen to members to choose the right events and launch them.

What it also means for me is the chance to learn new things, on my own, which is stimulating.
For example, I’ve worked a little bit on the social networks: we set up a LinkedIn group which represents the clubs in Nantes, Rennes and Brest. I also created a WhatsApp group for Rennes only, and I post tweets during conferences.
I’m teaching myself to create attractive posts with good visuals on the invitations and follow-up emails, mostly with Canva. It gives me a chance to express my creative side.

Above all, there’s a lot of satisfaction when the events finally come round, when we’ve come up with original ideas, put together fantastic events, and when we get good feedback from members.

For example, we tagged along at a CJD conference in Rennes where the explorer Mike Horn was the star guest. It was a fantastic conference, really appreciated by delegates. We also organised an event all about well-being in the workplace with participation from Juliette Grollimund and Grégoire Larroque, who is one of the ambassadors from Nantes.

And of course the major event that I organised this year, with help from the ambassadors in Nantes and Brest, was the EDHEC Rendez-Vous at a Wake Park. We privately booked the wakeboard section in the morning for an hour and a half and then we all spent the rest of the day together. Alumni from all 3 clubs in western France came, including members from Brest, who had a three-hour drive to attend. It was really satisfying to see that club members were willing to make such a long journey for a shared event.  

More generally, you get to enjoy wonderful discussions that create a sense of solidarity and mutual benefit. Last week we held an after-work session in a bar & restaurant in Rennes, with three new members, including an EDHEC couple who’ve just moved here from Dijon. We’re actually in the process of trying to help Franck find a job in IT.

I’m working on my entrepreneurship project to set up a Wakepark with Baptiste Mourcel. We work together on presentations for town halls and municipal communities. I’m hoping it will lead to something quickly and that we can move on to the design and construction phase together. I also go for massages at Juliette’s place of business (Kerananda). So there are links gradually being built up within the community.

How do you run your club on a daily basis?

The most common task is sending out messages on the Rennes Club WhatsApp group, which includes the most loyal members who contribute on a voluntary basis. There are now close to 30 of us in the group. Before events, I sometimes reach out to members to ask them what they’d like to do, we vote to find dates that suit everyone, and then we agree on how to organise the events themselves, with carpooling and that kind of thing … or discuss any other topics based on our previous experiences at other events.

From time to time, I also post things on the LinkedIn page for all 3 clubs in western France, and when the time comes I use the interface that the association makes available to create events, generate automatic email invitations, manage registrations, etc.

After the events, we handle requests for help, for example when someone is looking for a job or other opportunities, and we chat directly quite a lot via LinkedIn to help each other out. 

More or less every second event addresses a specific topic, either one we’ve chosen ourselves or one organised as part of another conference, and the rest of the time there is no specific topic. I think some people are more attracted by serious events like conferences and theme-specific events and others more by the possibility to hook up, chat and do some networking. I also think it suits the needs of members to address a specific topic at every second event, it works quite well.

What does the EDHEC Alumni network mean to you?

First of all it’s a link with the school. Since I took responsibility for the club, it has allowed me to be much more in touch with what’s happening at the school in terms of teaching innovation, rankings, running the alumni network, etc. There’s also the sense of belonging to a family, I’ve already seen a lot of people help each other out in our professional networks, as well as many friendships formed. For example, at the last Welcome Party, there was one person working at the Conseil Régional, another in the energy sector, and there were also people working in mass retailing, IT, consultants working on well-being in the workplace, an architect, entrepreneurs. So there is a fabulous wealth of backgrounds and different profiles: for me, the EDHEC network is a wonderful symbol of diversity.

Do you want to become an EDHEC ambassador?

Get in touch with Géraldine Simon 
Alumni relations manager
Local & international clubs
geraldine.simon@edhec.edu
+33 (0)3 20 15 39 89