Meet the Winners of the BNP Paribas Vernimmen Teaching Prize 2020 & 2021

The annual Pierre Vernimmen Teaching Prize, sponsored by BNP Paribas, recognizes HEC Paris professors for their innovative pedagogy. The Pierre Vernimmen Prize is where the world of education meets the business world. It is an opportunity to honor the professors who provide the strongest educational contributions of the year.

The Award Procedure

Every year, teaching awards are granted in two categories: professors in the Tenure-Track Faculty and professors in the Affiliate and Education Track Faculty.
 
The list of eligible professors is established based on the teaching evaluations by students of all degree programs at HEC Paris (MiM, MSc, MBA, EMBA, PhD…). A jury comprised of BNP Paribas executives, HEC student leaders and HEC deans then meets and elect the winner in each category.

The 2020 BNP Paribas Vernimmen Prize winners are Anne-Sophie Chaxel and Olivier Sibony. For 2021, the recipients are Jeremy Ghez and Sam Aflaki.  

This year, the jury decided to grant Hervé Stolowy a Career Achievement Award for teaching excellence. Professor Stolowy had received the Vernimmen Award in 2003.

Interview with the 2020 winners:

Anne-Sophie Chaxel, Associate Professor of Marketing: “As a graduate of HEC, I want my students to have a great experience. I have been in their shoes and I want to bring them the best.” Anne-Sophie Chaxel is also a 2021 Best 40-Under-40 Professor on Poets&Quants.

Olivier Sibony, Professor of Strategy (Education): “Reducing the divide between the business world and the research world in France is an exciting mission.”

Interview with the 2021 winners: 

Sam Aflaki, Professor of Operations Management: “Education is not a one-sided transfer of knowledge. It’s about creating an experience with real impact on students’ lives."

Jeremy Ghez, Associate Professor of Economics (Education): “One of the biggest challenges facing the new generation is to imagine new paths that have not yet been explored.” Jeremy Ghez is also the author of The Architects of Change.

Career Achievement Award for Teaching Excellence:

The jury awarded Hervé Stolowy, Professor of Accounting, for his entire career and teaching excellence: "Learning financial accounting is like learning to swim or ride a bike, it's for the rest of the life."

Watch the collective testimony of the winning professors on this video, "Vernimmen Teaching Award 2020 & 2021 With BNP Paribas”: