Annual report

In November, HEC Paris and the HEC Foundation unveiled new objectives in the field of equal opportunity. Starting in September 2026, students receiving CROUS scholarships from level 4 upwards (whether newly admitted or already enrolled at HEC) will have 100% of their tuition fees covered; support for other scholarship levels will gradually increase. Each scholarship student will also benefit from personalised mentoring, designed to strengthen their confidence and enable them to thrive fully throughout their time at HEC.

Brieuc (H.28)

Originally from Brittany and the eldest of four children, I joined HEC last year. I spent part of my life being raised by my mother alone, whose limited financial resources could easily have restricted my academic choices. Drawn to excellence, I nevertheless applied to the best preparatory classes in France and did everything I could to get in. The HEC Foundation provided invaluable support thanks to "HEC for ALL" scholarship to help me prepare for the HEC entrance exam under the best possible conditions, and continues to support me today with tuition fees, as my mother finances my studies on her own. I will never be able to thank enough all those who gave me this chance; their generosity changed the course of my journey. I am deeply grateful to them.

I discovered HEC in 2021 during my participation in the "Eloquentia@HEC" Summer Camp, when I was in my second year of high school in Lyon. That immersion was a true springboard: it opened new horizons for me, at a time when my knowledge of Parisian grandes écoles was limited to the Sorbonne and Sciences Po. I later joined a preparatory class in Lyon, where the "Prép Étoile" programme helped me gain confidence. The HEC Foundation scholarship allowed me to begin my studies with peace of mind, without having to take out a bank loan. Today, as a dual‑degree student at HEC, studying here is a real source of pride. A huge thank you to the donors for their generosity — thanks to you, I was able to believe that HEC was possible! 
 

Learm more about the programs HEC for ALL, Eloquentia@HEC and Prep Etoile *

Scholarships recipients meeting Pascal de Jenlis (H.73), 
Major Donor of the HEC Foundation

Beyond their financial support, donors also commit their time to the students they accompany, whether individually or through an affiliated foundation.
Throughout the year, dedicated moments of exchange are organised — in person or via videoconference — to accommodate geographical constraints.

In 2025, 190 students and 43 donors had the opportunity to meet and connect in this way. We extend our sincere thanks to all donors for their commitment, availability, kindness and the quality of the guidance they provide to students.

Based in the United States and supporting HEC since 2019, Jean-Marie Eveillard (H.62) is continuing its commitment to the School through this new initiative.

After creating an endowed Chair in Value Investing dedicated to teaching and research, he wished to go further by supporting students directly.

 Thanks to a perpetually endowed fund ensuring long‑term financing, this initiative will award two scholarships each year to French students whose parents did not pursue higher education. It sends a strong signal in favour of equal opportunity and access to pathways of excellence, driven by a desire for transmission and lasting impact.

PACT recipients meeting Hassanein Hiridjee 
and Nadia Terfous (H.00)

For the year 2025, the programme received 750 applications from four countries — a 25% increase compared with 2024, which was already a particularly dynamic year.
In total, 110 students were selected to join the PACT training programme, and 10 were admitted to the Master in Management: 6 students from Côte d’Ivoire, 3 of Cameroonian origin and 1 student from Senegal.

A meeting was also organised in December 2025 between PACT students and Hassanein Hiridjee, CEO of Axian, joined by Nadia Terfous (H.00), the group’s Chief of Staff. We thank them sincerely for taking the time to engage with the students.
 

Our thanks also go to Isabelle (H.87) et Bertrand Schwab (H.87) who initiated this programme, as well as to Nadia Affri, Serge Ekué (E.11), Jean-Philippe Gohia (H.12), Sophie Kanga (H.12), Yannick Kouam Kamdem (H.11), Julien Lacaze (H.09), Vincent Le Guennou (H.89), Hassanein Hiridjee and Fondation Axian, the companies Schneider Electric and L’Oréal for their support.
We are grateful to Marie-Alexandra Allidjinou (H.23), JeanMartial Munkapé Bla (H.23), Jean-Laurent Aiouo (H.23), Kiyalie Kemien (H.23), Lohouess Kokora (H.24), Sarah Kouamév (H.24), Amon Axel Dylan N’Zi (H.23), PACT Africa alumni, who chose to support the programme as soon as they graduated from HEC.
 

Learn more about the PACT Afrique program.
 

The support from the Foundation has been invaluable: it allowed us to prepare for the HEC entrance exams in the best conditions and with peace of mind. This experience has been extraordinary! In fact, without this support, getting into HEC Paris would have been much more difficult, and I feel immense gratitude towards the donors and those involved in the PACT Afrique program. In turn, I want to follow this example and reach out to other young people who dream of joining an excellent school like HEC Paris.

In early October, the HEC Foundation honoured 153 international talents from HEC Paris’ pre‑experience programmes, representing 38 countries.
Each student received a merit‑based scholarship for the academic year 2025/2026 funded through the generosity of donors and the support of corporate partners such as CMA CGM, XTX Markets and Volkswagen.

The ceremony was highlighted by the inspiring testimony of Kevin Guenegan (H.03), a Major Donor of the Foundation, and by the awarding of the very first Stan Schwab Scholarship for academic and athletic merit — created in tribute to Stan Schwab (H.09) and presented in the presence of his family and loved ones.
A powerful moment celebrating excellence, generosity and commitment.
 

Receiving the very first Stan Schwab Scholarship is far more than an honour. It is a responsibility, a privilege — the privilege of carrying forward his spirit, his values and his energy. I will do my best to honour the memory embodied in this scholarship, with commitment, humility and gratitude. From the bottom of my heart, I thank all those who brought this beautiful initiative to life, and all the donors for their incredible generosity. 

Emilie Gobin Mignot (H.09) 
and Timothée Garçon (H.09),
friends and classmates 
of Stan Schwab

What an emotional moment to award this first scholarship to Jennifer, whose athletic and academic journey so perfectly reflects the values that inspired our friend Stan: a love of effort, ambition, humility and kindness. We were deeply moved by the strength of the collective and the solidarity that transformed our grief into something meaningful and beautiful. Thanks to the mobilisation of more than 80 donors and friends, the funds raised will finance one scholarship per year for the next 25 years to support high‑level athletes at HEC. The mobilisation remains open, and donations are still possible to help us fund several scholarships per year!Thank you to everyone who made this initiative possible.

To support this initiative and expand its impact: give.fondationhec.fr/fonds-stan-schwab

The Wonder Women Fund supports talented Indian women who demonstrate determination, resilience and a strong desire to create positive impact in their community, in the business world or in society at large.

Thanks to an endowed fund, the project aims to finance, every year for the next 25 years, part of the studies of an exceptional indian student. The scholarship is intended for candidates with outstanding academic achievements who have faced significant personal, family or social challenges.

At the heart of this initiative lies a powerful conviction: giving a woman the means to realise her potential opens perspectives far beyond a single life story.

Priti agarwal (H.97),
Project initiator

Wonder Women is neither humour nor presumption. It is a scholarship designed to support a woman of Indian origin who has demonstrated academic excellence and remarkable resilience — someone who, in the face of the obstacles she has overcome, feels a bit like a ‘Wonder Woman’. The goal is to be a true turning point in the lives of these exceptional women and to enable them to succeed where nothing was guaranteed.

To support this initiative and expand its impact: give.fondationhec.fr/fonds-wonderwoman

The conference “Business Strategy in a Fragmenting World”, designed by Professors Jérémy Ghez (H.05) and Olivier Chatain, was recognised for its innovative approach bringing together academics, business leaders, public decision‑makers and think‑tank researchers — groups that rarely interact directly — to foster a multidisciplinary dialogue. 

By exploring the intersections between economic issues, geopolitical realities and industrial policies, the conference helped deepen understanding of the challenges of a fragmented world and raised students’ awareness of the need to consider new perspectives and imagine collaborative solutions. 
This project was praised for highlighting the importance of curiosity, open‑mindedness and agility in training leaders capable of generating lasting impact.

HEC Institute brings the world’s major challenges onto the campus and exposes the entire community to the issues of our time, fostering the co‑creation of solutions.

By bringing together research centres and their ecosystems — researchers, students, companies, entrepreneurs, alumni and public institutions — it helps générâtes responses to contemporary challenges. It fuels reflection through data, case studies and concrete projects (applied research, hackathons, dissertations), placing researchers and students in direct contact with real‑world issues. In doing so, it produces knowledge and solutions on today’s most pressing topics (climate, AI, social cohesion, geopolitics, health), following a Think, Teach, Act approach.

A true incubator of science‑driven solutions, it embodies HEC’s transformative capacity in the service of innovation, economic development and sustainable, shared prosperity.

Yann Algan,
Director of HEC Institute

Our ambition is not limited to producing ideas: it also aims to put them into action. We advocate for non‑profit research grounded in evidence‑based policy, attentive to the real‑world conditions of implementation and their concrete consequences.

Because at HEC, students and professors produce research every day that sheds light on — and helps transform — the world; because HEC is a community of 80,000 students and alumni actively engaged at the heart of society; and because boldness, innovation and solution‑driven thinking are part of the School’s DNA, HEC has launched Dare.
Each month, discover research‑based insights, bold ideas and inspiring stories to better understand today’s major global challenges.

Discover the new hub media Dare

Professor Myron Slovin & Jessica Jeffers

In tribute to Marie Elizabeth Sushka — an internationally renowned scholar in finance and professor in Arizona — a new Chair has been created at HEC Paris, building on the long‑standing relationship she developed with the HEC Finance Department.
This initiative aims to attract and support a leading professor whose work will advance research and shed light on major financial issues. Associate Professor of Finance Jessica Jeffers will be its first holder.

Read the article

Marie had envisioned this Chair for many years. By bringing to life a project she cared about so deeply, I feel I am extending her commitment to supporting research, sharing knowledge and contributing meaningfully to the academic community. 

Professor Myron Slovin

©Valentin Lerda

This international acceleration programme for science‑based start‑ups, developed in partnership with Creative Destruction Lab, supports deep‑tech entrepreneurs through structured, objective‑based mentorship delivered by a network of entrepreneurs, scientists, executives and investors.
Integrated into the MBA curriculum, it enables 70 students each year to work directly with participating ventures to refine their growth strategies.

Over five years, more than 25,000 hours of mentorship and guidance have been dedicated to entrepreneurs across key domains, made possible thanks to the decisive support of donors and corporate partners. Celebrated in Marseille in the presence of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, fellow and mentor of the Space Stream, this anniversary highlights the growing impact of an ecosystem dedicated to transforming cutting‑edge science into high‑impact ventures.

Learn more about CDL-Paris

CDL‑Paris is a unique place where science, entrepreneurship and industry meet. It is a one‑of‑a‑kind programme that builds bridges between researchers, entrepreneurs and industry leaders. For a company like ours, supporting this initiative is a way to encourage breakthrough technologies and to accompany the entrepreneurs who will shape tomorrow’s innovation.

Aurélie Lustenberger (EMBA.24), Vice-President Global Sustainability, Capgemini Invent

Launched in November to mark the 35^th anniversary of Challenge+ and also proposed to the HEC incubator and CDL‑Paris cohorts, the HEC Founder’s Circle brings together HEC entrepreneurs who share the same classrooms, values and ambition: to build ventures that create positive impact.

Because the programmes they benefited from exist thanks to the community, many wish to give back — to extend this shared legacy, offer opportunities to future talent and contribute to a fairer world. The HEC Founder’s Circle offers them a simple way to turn their current or future success into a lever for engagement: a commitment to share part of their success by supporting School projects through a donation to the Foundation when they are able to do so.

Learn more about this Circle
 

©HEC Records

Each year, more than 500,000 tenth‑grade students in France must complete a mandatory work observation placement — yet nearly 30% (around 140,000 Young people) are unable to find one. For many, their first encounter with the world of work is therefore an experience of rejection.

Jeunes Innovateurs reinvents this compulsory internship as a collective entrepreneurial experience. Over two weeks, high‑school students work in teams to design innovative projects, supported by their teachers and by HEC Paris. The programme develops self‑confidence, creativity and initiative, encouraging young people to become active agents of their own future. In 2025, 120 students from six high schools in Île‑de‑France completed the programme, and the goal is to reach 1,000 trained students in 2026!

Learn more about the "Jeunes Innovateurs" program

Each of our Centers is based on a three-pronged approach: research, teaching and action, and focuses on a major cross-disciplinary theme through extensive interaction with students and leading academic and business players.

Thank you to the companies that make these initiatives possible by supporting multidisciplinary projects across HEC Paris’ research centers:

ANTIN INFRASTRUCTURE PARTNERS - AXA -
BNP PARIBAS - CACIB - CAPGEMINI - CARTIER -
CMA CGM - DELOITTE - FORVIS MAZARS - ICADE -
KERING - L’OREAL - LVMH - NEXANS - ROTHSCHILD -
SANOFI - SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC - TOTALENERGIES -
VINCI - WORLDLINE - XTX MARKETS