HEC Paris launches “Impact Tomorrow”, a 2019-2024 fundraising campaign to raise €200 million
HEC Paris and the HEC Foundation have launched a five-year fundraising campaign aimed at answering the new economic challenges and the changes that are today reshaping higher education. The campaign is directed towards its graduates and the business community in an effort to consolidate the school’s finances and to accelerate the speed of its transformations.
€70 million in donations and pledges have already been raised for this new campaign, thanks to the financial support from 8,000 donors, 18% of whom are international contributors. 43 donations are from partner companies
Ranked among the best business schools in the world, with a student population from over 100 countries (constituting 40% of the total student population), HEC Paris aims to create a new model of business school for the 21st century. This model seeks to reconcile economic performance with social and environmental impact and reflects the diversity of our society.
The “Impact Tomorrow” campaign seeks to make an impact on the production of knowledge, on social and international diversity and on the school’s infrastructures.
In just over thirty years, the school must be completely self-financing, in keeping with leading Anglo-Saxon academic institutions. Back in 1986, half its operating budget came from the public sphere.
“While our ambitions grow in direct correlation with societal issues, the question of the sustainability of HEC Paris’ economic model is at the heart of this fundraising initiative,” explains Olivier Sevillia, President of the HEC Foundation.
“The HEC Foundation, which has become a strategic partner of HEC, will support the most important development axes of the school throughout this campaign. Our goal is to further mobilize our alumni and corporate partners around the evolution of their school, thus mirroring what is common practice in international business schools."
The first objective of this campaign will be to invest heavily in the development of a faculty of excellence. Research has always been a major pillar of the school’s strategy. HEC Paris seeks to recruit a growing number of professors and researchers with the aim of matching the student-professor ratio of schools in the UK and North America. "The main difference between the best universities in the world and the rest is the impact of the knowledge that is produced there, and its ability to change teaching, business models, public policy or society. Chairs are an essential vehicle to attract or retain HEC Paris research professors who produce and transmit knowledge at this level of impact,“ says Jacques Olivier, Dean of the Faculty and Research.
Both social and international diversity have become a yardstick of excellence for academic institutions, and a strategic investment priority for HEC Paris. "This is an essential ingredient of progress and innovation, the founding values of our school. We will continue to make room for all talented students, whatever their social, geographical or cultural origin, with more than 100 nationalities represented. The number of students receiving a scholarship on social criteria within the Grande École program has increased from 5% to 18% in the last ten years. Let us continue to make HEC Paris the most committed European business school in terms of social and international openness, and let us create an inclusive campus that benefits all students," enthuses Hélène Bermond, Equal Opportunity Delegate at HEC Paris.
The necessary process of ecological transition goes hand-in-hand with issues of social inequality. This is why HEC Paris wants to pursue more strongly the education of a generation of leaders able to withstand the urgent social and environmental challenges and to bring forward inclusive and environmentally sustainable models.
There is also a drive to incarnate this School of innovation from an entrepreneurial point of view. "Entrepreneurship, the creation or the acceleration of companies, all the transformations that firms experience today, are essential subjects. To establish itself as a school of innovation, HEC Paris puts a multidisciplinary approach and the complementarity of profiles at the very heart of its project," insists Eloïc Peyrache, Dean of Programs.
Finally, the fundraising campaign will accelerate a renovation of the campus geared to provide the best environment to learn, innovate and understand the world. "The creation of the Agora, a new life-center on campus, the development of strategic alliances with leading technological institutions and the development of a digital campus are all structuring points to be established by 2030. We aim to become a reference European campus," adds Peter Todd, Dean of HEC Paris.
The previous campaign raised 112 million euros in the space of five years, exceeding the set target of 100 million euros.
Press contact:
Julie Dobiecki