West Africa, EU Sovereignty, FemTech, Pensions and More... ESSEC in the Media

From economics and entrepreneurship to commitment and culture... In France and abroad, ESSEC alumni are making headlines in all fields! Press review.

Leadership

Le Figaro profiled Sébastien Picot (E04), former head of EssilorLuxottica and now at the helm of home automation company Somfy. “When I was younger, one of my superiors asked me which performance indicator I thought was crucial. I said, the number of people on the dance floor at the Christmas party. I still think so.”
Read the article (in French). 

CIO Views gave its cover to Minayegnan Coulibaly (EXEC MBA 18), Managing Director of the Interbank Electronic Banking Group of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (IMB WAEMU), as one of 10 leaders to watch in 2025. “From telecom engineer to fintech visionary, he is making secure, accessible, and inclusive financial services a reality for millions across the region. He is not just building systems—he's building a better future for Africa.” 
Read the article (in French).

Commitment

Les Echos published a major interview with Sabine Roux de Bézieux (E86), President of the Fondation de la Mer, coinciding with the United Nations Ocean Conference. She warns: “Every minute, 11 tonnes of plastic are dumped into the ocean. That’s the equivalent of a rubbish truck. There is also wastewater, PFAS, nitrates and phosphates from agriculture, and endocrine disruptors, which impact marine biodiversity. And fisheries are exerting a great deal of pressure: if the trend continues, fish stocks will collapse.
Read the article (in French).

In Le Monde, Fanny Picard (E92), CEO and founder of the pioneering impact investing company Alter Equity, calls for European finance to take a leap forward and combine economic sovereignty and environmental sustainability. “We can be the embodiment of a shared destiny in the face of the cynicism of unbridled individualism.”
Read the article (in French).

On Arte, lawyer Benoît Huet (E07) expresses his concerns about the freedom and independence of the press in France - and in particular, the manoeuvres of Vincent Bolloré. “He is not the first businessman to buy up media outlets on a massive scale in our country. But he is doing so with unprecedented aggressiveness, imposing a very marked ideological line for political ends and playing with the rules and certain, sometimes obsolete aspects of laws.”
Watch the documentary (in French).

Expertise

In Le Grand Continent, Jean-Noël Tronc (E93) analyses the causes and consequences of Europe's digital lag. “This holdup is all the more worrying because it is massive and structural. It presents a civilisational risk for the future of Europe, its sovereignty and its cultural model, because with the omnipresence of platforms, social media and now the total disruption introduced by generative AI in many areas, starting with knowledge and education, health and security, but also information and therefore power, Europe's ability to preserve its own societal model is directly challenged by its loss of digital sovereignty.”
Read the article (in French).

On BFM TV, Alexis de La Tour du Pin (E06), Director of the Ecological Transition Chair and the MSc in Sustainability Transformation at ESSEC, talks about the major changes in higher education in the face of climate-related challenges: broad roll-out of courses on this topic, co-construction with businesses, research on key themes such as the robustness of models, making value chains circular, energy sovereignty, etc.
Watch the programme  (in French).

On France Info, Camille Derveaux Ringot (E13), co-founder of the women's health start-up Gyneika and expert endometriosis patient, expresses her doubts about the concept of menstrual leave. “For me, it's a band-aid on a wooden leg. A short-term solution that doesn't solve the real problem. We need to think about a broader policy to better include chronic illnesses and invisible disabilities in the world of work. And above all, make GPs aware of the need to put people experiencing a flare-up on medical leave.”
Read the interview (in French).

In La Grande Conversation, consultant Éric Weil (E21) sets out his vision of the funded pension system. “There are two major limitations to such a reform. Firstly, although funded schemes offers higher returns on average than pay-as-you-go, they are not entirely capable of addressing the effects of demographic ageing, which is likely to reduce the return on capital in France over the coming decades. Secondly, there are huge costs in switching from pay-as-you-go to funded schemes. To reach even 10-15% of pension costs for private-sector employees, we would need to inject around €20 billion more into the system each year. This additional cost would only diminish after 30-40 years.”
Read the article. (in French).

On The Conversation, researcher Denis Monneuse (E05) retraces the lives of 56,000 survivors of concentration camps who returned to France. “There is an overrepresentation of people-oriented professions, such as medicine and teaching. The same is true of prestigious professions (art, research, journalism, etc.) or those linked to honour (the army, for example), which can be seen as a search for revenge. Craftspeople and shopkeepers are also overrepresented. This wish for independence stems from certain people’s desire to escape the hierarchy and orders that remind them of bad memories.”
Read the article (in French).

Entrepreneurship

In Les Echos, Léa Fleury (E19) talks about raising €1.8 million for her start-up Ordalie, which specialises in artificial intelligence in legal contexts. “With six employees, the young start-up supports 170 clients and 41,000 users, including TotalEnergies, Ifop and Radio France. It automates repetitive legal tasks and analyses official legal sources (codes, case law, doctrine) in real time. Another advantage is that the data, which is hosted in France, is not reused to train the models.”
Read the article (in French).  

Forbes traces the “360° switch” of Shams Radjabaly (E19), a Franco-Madagascan former consultant at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) who has become a successful entrepreneur with Moneco, a neobank designed for the diasporas of 11 French-speaking African countries in Europe. “Behind the smile and seeming naiveté of this young valedictorian hides a profound determination, driven by a quest for impact rather than validation.”
Read the article (in French). 

The Guardian devoted a double-page spread to Sandrine Zhang Ferron (E07) and Vinterior, the e-commerce platform for second-hand furniture that she launched in London. “Annual sales via the site hit more than £16.5m in the last year – up 15% in a tough market. Vinterior now has just over half a million pieces listed on it, the vast majority of which come from 2,600 professional dealers. More than 100,000 customers are signed up after the company invested in its first TV ads.”
Read the article (in French). 

On BFM TV, Octave Bory (E13) explains how and why his start-up Eukonomy is making employee saving plans accessible to VSEs and SMEs. “Beyond the new legal obligation under the Value Sharing Act, employee saving plans are one of the most powerful levers for both tax and management purposes. It's an essential tool for motivating your teams and optimising your finances.” 
Watch the programme (in French). 

On Europe 1, Orsane Ribault (BBA 22 & M23) presents his brand Sacre Paris, which has created the first dance leotards that are eco-designed, customisable and designed for all body shapes. “A project at the intersection of design, performance and inclusion.”
Listen to the programme (in French).

On Maddyness, Vincent Farines (M18), co-founder of Jool, explains the advantages of his electric car-sharing solution: “Maintenance costs reduced threefold, a lifespan twice as long and connectivity that makes your driving experience as personal as if you owned the vehicle.”
Read the article (in French).

Culture

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