New grads for the Management Development Programme in Lille and Nice

 The graduation ceremony, the highlight of a year of study and discussion, gave managers the chance to talk about their experience and about the convictions that drive them.

 Friday, 18 October, 150 people attended the degree ceremony for the 2012/2013 graduating class of EDHEC’s Management Development Programme.

Welcomed by Olivier Oger, dean of the EDHEC Business School, and Martine Caffiaux, director of the programme, the participants had the opportunity to talk with Jean Duforest, CEO of ÏDGroup.

Jean Duforest, cofounder in 1996 of Okaïdi, heads ÏDGroup, which owns the brands Okaïdi, Obaïbi, Jacadi, Oxybul Eveil & Jeux, Véronique Delachaux and Vibel.

The company was built around a shared vision: To start businesses that would help the world advance without leaving children behind. This vision illustrates the strongly held convictions that drive Duforest, an entrepreneur from the north of  France, who has a deep need to create connections between people and who values a culture of service and commitment that was fostered by his own experiences in Scouts.

But Duforest told the graduates that what is most essential to success in entrepreneurship, innovation and leadership is passion.

The graduating participants were then called to the stage in groups (depending on the consulting project they had completed together) to receive their diplomas from Benoit Arnaud, director of EDHEC Management—Executive Education.

The evening came to a close with a cocktail party that was enjoyed by all.

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Thursday, 17 October, was a big day for the 2012 class of the Management Development Programme (e-learning). The members of the class, after all, were brought together for a graduation ceremony in one of the new lecture halls on EDHEC’s Nice campus.

After a warm welcome from Stéfan Crisan, director of the programme, and the screening of a film on EDHEC’s alumni network, Martin Peronnet, CEO of Monaco Telecom and class sponsor, and H. E. Henri Fissore, ambassador to the prime minister of the Principality of Monaco, spoke to the new graduates.

At that point, one after the other, the participants received their diplomas from Stéfan Crisan, and then, with their family members and other guests, they got together for a relaxed and cheerful cocktail.

‘The Management Development Programme is meant for experienced professionals and it is built around business management. As a result of its effective teaching methods, including coaching and supervising consulting projects, and its schedule compatible with professional activity, the programme is getting bigger by the year’, says Stéfan Crisan.