Testimonials

Over the past 2 decades, consistently at a senior-management level with major multinational companies (IBM, Tyco, ADT Caps, ACN), I have gathered substantial experience of business practices ‘in the real world’. When I decided to return to the world of academia, first to complete my Executive MBA and now my DBA, obviously these experiences were and have been tremendously beneficial to me. However, the opportunity to take a step back and to contextualize my acquired knowledge in the framework of business and management research and applied theory – particularly in the field of Organisational Behaviour – has helped me to diversify my business acumen and quite simply has given me more tools to use in my professional life as a manager, which I have no doubt are now and will continue to be valuable assets.

She did not hesitate for long. Only a month into her four-year long course,Soriana decided to go for a dual degree,amongst the many options available. At the end of her second year, she left the Marseille campus for San Diego University,in California. “I spent three amazing semesters there. I was taking the same courses as American students,was living with them... In nearly two years abroad,you really have the time to soak up the local culture”,says Soriana. A year into her exchange,the 23 year-old started to plan ahead and applied for graduation internship positions. The move paid off and Soriana was able to spend her fourth semester at Airbus UK Helicopter, in Oxford,starting in January 2015. “I was working in events marketing, helping with organising airshows.”So,was the dual degree approach worth it? “Yes,I think it was. I did not necessarily realise it at first but during my internship people were often remarking on it when introducing me.” Having graduating in May 2015, Soriana then opted for a gap year. “I wanted to take a break and take the time to think about what I really wanted to do for my Master”,she says. Living in Australia since August 2015, this kayaking fanatic plans her road trip according to the best spots. She works hard between two kayaking trips,however: “I spent three months in Darwin working on a mango plantation,then a few weeks as a waitress in Brisbane,and I currently work as an au pair in Melbourne.” She is never short of plans and projects, that’s for sure! Soriana wants to work as a project manager in the aviation industry. Looks like she is off to a great start!

I've only wanted to go abroad. I chosed to go to a business school and to have a double degree with a faraway country, a very different language and culture. I joined the IBBA program in Marseille, which gave me the opportunity to go either to India or China, and I chose China. I spent two years in Marseille and then two years in Shanghai in China.

Basically, I have a rather financial profile. I did my end-of-study internship in Finance in Shanghai in a German group ZEISS specialized in optics. I was then offered to go to Germany for a year, where I did a graduate programme. I did two 6-month assignments, the first one in cash management and the second one in financial control.

I didn't want to work in finance, in a big group based in Germany, I wasn't interested, even if I had the opportunity to stay. I looked for what I wanted to do, and what I was interested in was aeronautics, airplanes. I was always interested in that, I took flying lessons and so on. So I told myself that my dream was to join Airbus. So I did a master's degree at ESCP-Europe Paris, in partnership with Airbus, I spent a month with them to be trained in aeronautical project management. We worked on case studies with people who worked at Airbus, it was a diploma programme for them and a specialisation for us. After that, I wanted to do an internship with them. I found an internship at STELIA Aerospace, the Airbus subsidiary that manufactures aircraft seats for airlines. The name is different because we equip both Airbus and Boeing. For 6 months, I assisted the Asia team, which is based in Bangkok, from France, on tenders from different airlines.

Then I got a VIE in Bangkok to take care of business development in order to sell seats in the Asia-Pacific zone, from India through South Korea to Fiji, New Zealand, the Maldives, etc. I was able to work with the Asian team for 6 months. For all this extremely large area, we are 3 people based in Bangkok to manage the airlines. This mainly involves business development, project management, responses to calls for tenders, a lot of prospecting, customer management with airlines such as Thai Airways, Asiana Airlines, Singapore Airlines which are our biggest customers. We also have to liaise with our team in France to be able to offer them additional services and maintenance. It's quite global, it's selling seats but also after-sales service. During two years in China, I really had an appetite for Chinese, Asia, learning Asian culture and languages, especially Chinese. After these episodes in France and Germany, I wanted to go back. I chose Bangkok for the Asian side, to work with Chinese companies. A large part of my time I travel to visit these companies, in China, Singapore, Indonesia who have Chinese interlocutors or people of Chinese origin with whom I speak a little Chinese. When you tell them that you have studied in China, that you can have a little conversation, it helps the relationship a lot, especially as a Sales person.

I started to learn Thai but I don't work much with Thailand, so I haven't made too much progress. In Thailand, people speak English well enough but in China, nobody speaks English, they only speak Chinese, as you could see during your tour in Asia. First of all KEDGE allowed me to live in China for two years, which is not given to everyone. It gave me a huge opening of mind to the world. To work in a group with different nationalities when I was in Marseille. KEDGE allows a real opening on the world through the course.

The training that KEDGE gives you the basics, to understand and learn about different subjects. When you are working, when you are on an internship, you can better understand and perfect by yourself in view of the basics you have had.

What I appreciated was the Pro Act and the associations, which are an important part of the school. I was COBFI's partnership manager in 2011. I was 19 years old and I had to look for sponsors. You have to put yourself in the shoes of a professional, you get slapped in the face. To train for a future job as a salesman was very good.

My training at KEDGE BS allowed me to discover my desire to create my own company through the different courses (entrepreneurship, marketing, communication, accounting) that I followed and to obtain various skills that I could use for the elaboration of this one. But also, as I said above, to lay the first stone of my project by doing my internship in a London startup working in the field of e-commerce. If you too want to get started, I have only one piece of advice: go for it! If you have the desire or the feeling that one day you would like to create your own company, don't hesitate. It will only bring you positive results. Another thing that I realized when I started this adventure is that before you start, you make a lot of excuses for not doing it or delaying the launch. You think a lot about the risks when there are none (and this is also true in other areas). 

I got into Kedge right after I graduated high school. I joined the IBBA program with the double degree option which allowed me to live in Valencia, Spain for half of my schooling. From a very young age, I was attracted by the arts in general and music and photography in particular, which led me to do internships in the field of creative advertising, which allowed me to touch a little on all areas. Going to live abroad thanks to the IBBA course opened new doors for me and allowed me to gradually discover what I wanted to become. At the same time as my studies in Spain, I started training in film directing in Barcelona at the Escac, the biggest film school in Spain, where I was able to shoot my first films. Once I graduated, I went back to France where I produced Jim Chawki's first film France 2000, before setting up my own film production company to be able to finance my own projects. Today, in addition to my film production company in Paris, I have set up another production company in Barcelona where I work mainly in the creation of advertising and digital content with two other partners under the name Trio de Doses. On a daily basis, we work on canvassing clients, producing music videos, commercials and various digital content, but also writing scripts and looking for financing to make our films between France and Spain. Several of our short films have been selected in numerous international festivals in New York, Paris, Madrid and recently at the Centre of Contemporary Culture in Barcelona (CCCB). Kedge has allowed me to meet a lot of people from different backgrounds and walks of life that I would never have got to know if I hadn't taken this course, in addition to acquiring an entrepreneurial vision and becoming bilingual. Thanks to this journey and my encounters, I have opened up to the world and gained self-confidence for the launch of my professional projects which require a very significant personal investment.