ESCP Europe Alumni Magazine - n°146 - Janvier/Février 2013 - 23

FOCUS

Par Bruno LEBEAULT (88), Delegate for Canada

Stronger
together!

I live in Toronto and I am the Marketing Director for North America at
Viva Healthcare Packaging, a global packaging company specialized
in Injection Molded Tubes with In Mold Label. I try from this big town
to keep and entertain a dynamic ESCP Europe Alumni network with a
small number of Alumni...

I volunteered as the ESCP Europe Delegate for
Toronto end of 2010 as nothing existed. About
25 of us were living in the Toronto Area. Some
of them for over 20 years, some recently arrived. Hardly anybody knew each other. During
one of my trip to New York City, I had had the
opportunity to discover an interesting association called AAGEF (Association des Anciens
des Grandes Écoles Françaises). It regroups the
alumni of the top 16 French Graduate Schools in
Business, Engineering and Public Administration
and ESCP Europe is one of them. The others
are HEC, ESSEC, EDHEC, EM Lyon, INSEAD,
Polytechnique, Centrale, Mines, Arts et Métiers,
Ponts et Chaussées, Supélec, Supaéro, SciencesPo Paris, ENA, Normale Sup.
 
Events every month
Back to Toronto, I decided to create AAGEF
Ontario. I contacted the existing delegate of each
school and when there was no one suggested
one of their alumni to represent their school. For
the first event we organized in January 2011, we
had 80 Alumni from all schools including 10 from
ESCP Europe. The Association organizes events
every month. A business leader active in Toronto is
invited to speak around 15 minutes and the rest of
the evening is dedicated to networking in a relaxed
atmosphere. Each participant is given a badge for
easy identification and a networking list of all the
participants is distributed to each guest. Average
participation is around 80 alumni. Recent keynote
speakers included the EVP of Lafarge Group, the
Ambassador of France in Canada, the CEO of
Thales Canada...

A real success
The success is clear and durable with 450
members to date. Its success is largely due
to ESCP Europe which started it and the
ESCP Europe alumni are regularly the biggest crowd in the group. In North America
where 90% of executives are on LinkedIn,
it is a fabulous tool to manage an alumni association. I volunteered to create the ESCP
Europe, North America LinkedIn sub-group,
which now counts around 700 members
and is the biggest geographical subgroup.
Whenever I travel to a US City, I send a
message and try to meet up with some
ESCP Europe alumni. I have met some great
people like that. Each geographical zone is
also organizing regular happy hour advertised on
LinkedIn that I also try to attend when possible.
Some initiatives started in NYC, San Francisco,
Washington...
Quality networking

Quality networking among quality alumni from
leading Graduate Schools like ESCP Europe
is key and recognized by local authorities like
the Consulate and Ubifrance in Toronto, fully
supportive of our action. AAGEF is developing
in North America with a growing presence
in Canada (Montreal and Ottawa), led by 2
other ESCP Europe alumni and delegates, Bernard CANNEVA (69) and Kareen
GUIDA NESTEL (MSC 91), as well as in
the USA (NYC, Chicago, San Francisco).
The secret: we are stronger together!
●

ESCP Europe Magazine N° 146 - Janvier/Février 2013 -

23

Table des matières de la publication ESCP Europe Alumni Magazine - n°146 - Janvier/Février 2013

Couverture
Zapping
Sommaire
BUSINESS
Personnalités du mois Nos 700 délégués : À nos ambassadeurs
Focus
- Get involved
- L'attractivité touristique
- Get in touch!
- Welcome to the club
- Partager son savoir
- Rendre ce qui a été donné
- Dynamism
- Un réseau de talents
- Create opportunities
- Get on board!
- Stronger together
- Dynamiser le réseau régional
- For a common success
- Be incentive!
- Be passionate!
- Ne rouillez pas !
- Expand your network
Itinéraires
- Deviens qui tu es !
- Practice of fine art
Entretiens
- Transports
- Conseil
- Agro-alimentaire
NEWS
Vie du réseau
- Adel FEKIH (MBA 09)
- Nouvelle rencontre
- Tour à Vaugaudry
- London Campus open doors & Carnet
- Filleul cherche parrain
- Escapade en Bourgogne & Agenda
- Nominations
Carrière Quand les délégués créent pour les entrepreneurs
Voyages De grands moments au pays des paradoxes
À lire
CAMPUS
École
- Blue Factory fait peau neuve
- Engagez-vous à nos côtés !
Fondation Les entreprises pour ESCP Europe
Vie étudiante
- ESCaPe
- Tout sauf la fin du monde…

ESCP Europe Alumni Magazine - n°146 - Janvier/Février 2013