PROUDLY EDHEC : Graduation Ceremony on 16th of march

On Saturday, 16 March 2013, at the Palais des congrès de Paris, 914 members of the 2012 EDHEC Grand École and MSc graduating class received their degrees. The graduates, accompanied by their friends and family, celebrated the occasion in a setting at once touching and festive and thus became part of the large community of EDHEC Business School alumni.

Thirty-one percent of these recent graduates have jobs abroad, 17 percent in corporate graduate programmes or internships abroad, and 5 percent are continuing their studies. Twenty percent are working in banking, 17 percent in consulting, 16 percent in marketing, and 14 percent in auditing.

Anne Zuccarelli, associate dean for academic programmes and director of corporate relations and careers at EDHEC Business School, wished the graduates luck in their professional lives, before turning the floor over to Olivier Oger, dean of EDHEC Business School, Richard Simonin, chairman of the Board of Governors, and Bruno de Pampelonne, president of the EDHEC Alumni Association, who spoke to 2,000 guests.

Richard Simonin (GE 1976) stressed that EDHEC is an independent non-profit and that as a result EDHEC’s shareholders, as it were, are its graduates, that it is up to us to contribute to the value of the EDHEC name and thus to that of our diploma by being proud of the School and of our degree. It’s our heritage. He then gave the following advice to the new graduates: Be careful on choosing your first jobs. Be sceptical of certainties. Be flexible. Be daring.

For his part, Bruno, a great fan of Oscar Wilde, pointed out that the graduates were moving on to a new phase in their lives, exciting lives that are worth living. “The most important things in life cannot be taught.” Don’t waste precious time. Be hungry. Don’t let your failures wear you down—they will make you grow. Ask the right questions. Be yourself.

A cocktail followed the traditional tossing of the mortarboard and group photo.