EDHEC Alumni UK: discover the activities of the largest EDHEC community outside France

The United Kingdom is home to our largest community of EDHEC alumni outside France. This community is strategic both for the School and for the EDHEC Alumni network. It is led on a daily basis by a team made up of volunteer ambassadors and a country manager working for EDHEC.
Today we meet two of its members: Elizabeth Beroud, EDHEC Master 1989, Chair of the EDHEC UK Board of Trustees, Co-Founder of Beroud Consulting and Strengths Coach , and Audrey Haverkamp, EDHEC Master 2012, International Country Manager UK & Ireland for EDHEC.

The UK Alumni community is the largest abroad with over 1,000 people, ranging from the youngest who come straight from School to the most senior who have superb, well-established careers in finance, consulting, media or luxury. How is it structured?

Audrey: We have two separate Boards in order to live up to a double challenge – on the one hand engage the community with various events to meet a diversity of needs, on the other mobilise the community to support the mission of our School’s Foundation. The Board of Alumni was set up in 2019 and renewed last September. There are 14 members, including a President, Cedric Petitpas, who have signed up for a 2-year term. The Board’s aim is to organize one event per month on the different aspects Share, Care and Dare

Elizabeth: The Foundation’s UK Board was set up in 2013 as a "registered charity" to raise funds tax-effectively, in particular to support the Foundation’s student scholarship objectives. Every year, we organise a dinner for our biggest potential donors which elicits a generous response. We now have 9 trustees with well-distributed roles. I'm happy to say we hit a record high in 2022 with £80,000 raised in the UK.

Can you explain your roles in more detail?

Audrey: I am an Alumni myself (EDHEC 2012) and had the pleasure of participating in the first UK board. Now as an EDHEC employee and Country Manager for the UK and Ireland, my role within the Alumni Board is to support our communication programme and the delivery of events, including emblematic ones such as the Welcome Party and our EDHEC RDV. There are a further two key aspects of my role as Country Manager: corporate relations to contribute to the placement of our students in the UK and support for the Admissions teams to recruit UK students for our programs.

Elizabeth: As President of the UK Foundation, I coordinate our activities and in particular liaise with the Foundation team in Paris led by Anne Guillon. Our vision is to become the most generous Alumni community of all French Grandes Ecoles in the UK by 2026. Our mission is to support our School’s ambition to "make an impact" by promoting the fundraising strategy of the EDHEC Foundation within the entire UK Alumni community.

In practice, how do you lead the “Share” pillar events?

Audrey: We have several types of “Share” events around conviviality, culture, sport, and art. If I had to pick one from 2022, it would be the launch of London guided tours which are open to both Alumni and exchange students. We also organise events within the “Care” and “Dare” pillars, including career workshops, and conferences on innovation topics such as FinTech and blockchain.

Elizabeth: The “Share” pillar is particularly important for us because these networking events allow us to raise awareness about donations in a more informal way. Two events especially stand out: the Welcome Party at the start of the year and the EDHEC RDV in June.

Find all the information on events in the United Kingdom as well as the contacts of British ambassadors, on the UK London club page.

Visit the UK London club page