William Bauer

 I encourage students to go to HEC Paris for the opportunity to be challenged by some of the most brilliant minds in the marketing world 

Having been educated in the United States and after receiving an honors degree in economics from McGill University in Montreal, I sought to increase my international consciousness and business acumen by attending a European business school.

A family business

My brother Andrew Royce and I created Royce Leather as a wearable technology subsidiary of my parent’s manufacturing corporation. We empower conventional goods with innovations, including GPS tracking, RFID blocking, anti-radiation, and fingerprint scanning technology, and are distributed in most North American luxury department stores.

Growing up in a China-based family business, I have travelled extensively and from a young age, I recognized the significance of garnering global perspectives. The program was exactly what I had hoped for as it catalyzed a plethora of opportunities to transcend my comfort zone and work alongside brilliant minds from over 20 countries. During my time at HEC, I attended client meetings in Oslo, Brussels, New York and London to name a few and it was with great pride that I leveraged my HEC education due to the impressive worldwide reverence for our school.

Gaining real “hands-on” experience

HEC prides itself on group-based experiential learning that parallels to the realities of the business world. One of the highlights of my experience was the digital innovation for business certificate in which we worked with graphic designers from e-artsup and programmers from Ecole 42 to create a fully functioning app in less than 3 weeks! This epitomized my HEC education, as it was incredibly thrilling, highly demanding and provided a holistic approach to entrepreneurship.  
My HEC experience was a transformative one. I arrived in September with a business concept and after immense mentoring from brand-building thought leader Jean-Noël Kapferer, I graduated with both a highly cultivated personal and professional brand.
My previous education was empirical research based and the immersive group work and public speaking opportunities afforded by HEC prepared me for TV interviews with BBC and Mashable.

Career ambitions  

My HEC education fostered my creativity as a strategic marketer and it provided me with the stamp of approval as an emerging expert in the American entrepreneurial landscape.
Leveraging the HEC Paris degree in interviews with business publications reaffirms my credibility as I was recently featured in Entrepreneur and Harvard Business Review. I look forward to harnessing the knowledge from my HEC professors and drawing upon my experiences with my dynamic peers as I build a multinational presence for Royce Leather.

Embracing opportunities to be challenged by leaders

Yes, HEC Paris consistently is a top business school and its highly lauded alumni network includes multiple presidents. But I encourage students to go to HEC Paris for the opportunity to be challenged by some of the most brilliant minds in the marketing world, including the former CEO of Louis Vuitton. HEC compels you to be an active participant, not a passive audience member, as that enables you to maximize your experience here.