Purposeful Leadership

Hubert Joly (H.81), Former CEO of Best Buy and Major Donor of HEC’s Foundation, created in July 2018, along with HEC Paris and the HEC Foundation, the Joly Family Chair in Purposeful Leadership.

Thanks to this chair through academic research and teaching, HEC Paris and Hubert Joly Family highlight their commitment in placing the search of meaning as an essential quest for each individual, manager, and organization. This philosophy of purposeful leadership has profound implications on how leaders should lead, and their role and responsibility for business and the society as a whole.

Hubert Joly noted the inexhaustible nature of the work on purposeful leadership. “This touches so many aspects of the business world: how to choose leaders, how to turnaround a business, how to grow a company, how to go about defining a strategy, how to approach people development, the role of diversity, the place of corporate social responsibility. Every management field is touched by the question of purpose.”

Hubert Joly's exceptional gift and the commitment of several HEC Foundation donors - Marie-Anne Aymerich (H.87), Laure Fau (H.93), Nicolas Giauque (H.93), Vincent Laurencin (H.99), Sylvia METAYER (H.86), Jean-Francois Palus (H.84), Céline Piquemal-Prade (H.00), Pascal Stefani (H.88) and Valérie Valentin (H.90) -  on this topic made it possible to set up a path on purposeful leadership for all the students of HEC throughout their studies.

In parallel, through its research, the Chair demonstrates that the Purposeful Leadership can create value both at the individual level and at the company level. Thank you to all those donors who make it possible to place this major challenge at the heart of our School’s mission.