'Many diplomats have come through ESSEC', says Jean-Baptiste Varnat, President of the Diplomacy Club
Automatically generated translation.
Jean-Baptiste Varnat (E24) is taking over as president of the Diplomacy and International Affairs club. The club was only recently founded and already has 309 members. With a committee spread across Paris, Strasbourg, New York and Geneva, he is preparing the club’s launch evening, to be held on 16 November at the Maison des ESSEC.
What is your background? Why did you get involved in setting up the Diplomacy and International Affairs club?
From the moment I joined ESSEC, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in diplomacy. However, I remember that lecturers and some alumni advised me to go to Sciences Po instead. Looking back, that is precisely what made me want to create this club: to show that there is nothing contradictory about being an ESSEC graduate and choosing diplomacy, European affairs or international organisations. An interest in public service should not be set against the wish to attend a business school. I would like someone who joins the school today with the same ambitions as I had to be able to reach out to the right person. In a sense, our goal is simple: to make sure that a student who feels a calling for diplomacy today can say to themselves, “Yes, I can do this after ESSEC”, and knows who to turn to in order to understand how. As a student, after an initial stint in banking, I did my internships with the Quai d’Orsay (the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs): at the French Embassy in Bogotá in 2022, then in Zambia in 2023. These internships led me to sit the Ministry’s competitive entrance examinations. I then spent eighteen months in the European Union Directorate, working in particular on the negotiations for the next EU budget, before joining the Institut National du Service Public (INSP, formerly ENA). I have noticed that wanting to become a diplomat from a business school background has long been seen as unusual. Yet many diplomats are ESSEC alumni. They are scattered around the world and barely know one another. Hence the importance of this club.
How did you get in touch with alumni?
ESSEC Alumni was a great help, putting us in touch with alumni working in diplomacy and international affairs. The ESSEC Institute for Geopolitics & Business, headed by Thomas Friang, also supported us from the outset. Each committee member also drew on their own contacts. As a first step, we invited top alumni to join the club, with the aim of turning these individual career paths into a collective achievement.
Who sits on the committee?
Several of us have followed distinctive career paths, all of them linked to diplomacy and international affairs.
- Frédéric Bernard (E22), a diplomat at the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, works on strategic issues and Asia.
- Pauline Mollard Giboudeau (E16) is an international expert on the social and solidarity economy at the United Nations in Switzerland.
- Miltiade Meireis (BBA21) is an adviser in the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General in New York.
- Paul Bogillot (BBA28) is President of the ESSEC Geopolitics, Defence & International Affairs association (EGDA).
- Sephora Benmira (BBA22) is a strategic intelligence and e-reputation analyst at Paris Saint-Germain and a former analyst at the French Presidency.
The committee is spread across Paris, Strasbourg, New York and Geneva, and covers three spheres: French diplomacy, the European institutions and multilateral organisations.
What events are coming up?
We got started on September in New York, with a gathering organised around a United Nations network. On 29 September, we were at the Maison des ESSEC for the publication of the Geopolitics & Business Barometer from the Institute for Geopolitics & Business, headed by Thomas Friang. Then comes the launch evening on 16 November, again at the Maison des ESSEC.
Open to all students and graduates with an interest in the subject, the club will bring together a wide range of profiles, from students and recent graduates to senior figures: ambassadors, heads of government departments and European Commission officials. They will be the ones to inspire future generations of students.
The next step is to build a regular programme of events (breakfasts, exclusive meetings, visits to institutions, and talks on diplomacy, geopolitics and major international issues) in Paris, and also in diplomatic hubs such as Brussels, New York and Geneva
To join the Diplomacy and International Affairs club, click here.
To build your network and discover inspiring career paths within the alumni community, join the LinkedIn group.
To connect directly with other members and receive network news, you can join the WhatsApp group.
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