The life of the network: beginning of 2022

The projects

The office of the Association has taken advantage of the still uncertain situation at the beginning of this year to finally carry out several long-term projects.

The first was the launch of our new website. The address remains the same, but much more than just web pages, it is a real communication and collaboration platform. In addition to the public pages, the pages dedicated to our members offer many new features and allow them to manage their profile, select their interests, easily register for events, join Clubs, browse the Alumni directory, discover and share job offers, and much more. This platform also allows our team to be more efficient.

Thanks to the support of the Fondation HEC, new features will be implemented when needed. This fall, we will be adding a module to better connect and follow up with participants in the HEC Alumni-Student mentoring program. 

The second project is also before your very eyes. The HEC Lausanne online Alumni Magazine. "Alumnzine"!

The decision to change the Magazine format was not taken lightly and many reasons pushed us to take the leap after 94 beautiful paper editions. The three historical sections, namely the "Special Report", "the Life of the Association" and "Inside the Faculty", remain and will now be expanded three times annually, allowing us to offer current content throughout the year! 

Enjoy this issue 95 edition 1 of the HEC Alumni Magazine. We wish you a pleasant reading!

The activities

In addition to the work on the projects, events were held at the beginning of the year. Some of them face-to-face, providing opportunities to meet and network; others were online, allowing people interested in the proposed topics to participate from anywhere in the world.

Company visit

The opportunity to discover a company is always met with a great success among our members. In March we were received by Mr. Piguet (HEC '91) at the Hôtel des Ventes Piguet in Geneva which is one of the most important auction houses in Switzerland. Participants had the chance to see the collection up close and learn about the exciting workings of auctions.

Conferences

The Association proposed several events on the theme of well-being at work:

First with a hybrid conference: "Mobilize and value your employees with their Genius Zones" followed by a series of three webinars dealing in turn with burnout, mindfulness and active breaks.

As tradition dictates, a conference systematically follows the General Assembly. This year, Mr. Philippe Petitpierre, President and Managing Director of the Holdigaz SA Group, honored us by sharing his great expertise on a current topic: "Geopolitics of natural gas.  What future for European supplies?”. Read the report of this conference written by the student newspaper HEConomist. 

The Alumni-Student Mentoring program ended with a workshop by Nadine Reichenthal on "Strategic Networking". The advice given and the reminder that "a network is built and maintained when everything is going well so that you can use it when you need it" are always important, whether you are a novice or a seasoned networker.

See our Replay 2022

Clubs

Our Ambassadors, delighted by the lifting of restrictions in Switzerland, have organized numerous meetings, meals, afterwork and mini-conferences, allowing our members to meet and exchange ideas over a drink. A big thank you to our volunteer Ambassadors of the Basel, Zurich, Lausanne and Geneva Clubs as well as the Data & Digitalization Club for their commitment: Denis Schraner, Josselin Meylan, Adrien Stamm, Anne Liquois, Valentine De Preux Tchekhoff, Jean-François Girard, Bérénice Jaccard and Raphaël Menard.

We are looking forward to the reconvening of other Clubs around the world! Can't find a Club in your area?  Please contact us

Alumni-Student Mentoring program

The 2021-2022 session of this flagship program, which is of dire importance to us, was a great success with no less than 165 mentorship pairs. We would like to thank all our Mentors for their commitment and the advice and time they gave to their assigned Mentee. 

HEC opens many doors and allows for professions and careers in a wide variety of fields. This is one of the many assets of this education, and it is also one of the challenges when forming the pairs (a Marketing Director mentoring an Actuarial student? why not, but it is not the ideal sought after).

The 2022-2023 edition will see the methodology of student selection and forming of the pairs evolve to make stakeholders more involved and in control of their choice. Thanks to a specific module on our new platform, the students will have to present themselves and motivate their request to the Alumni, who will then be able to choose to become a Mentor for this student... or not. 

We would like to thank all the Mentors again, not only for advising a student, but also for their feedback, good or not so good, which allows us to constantly find ways to improve. The call for Mentors for this next edition will be made at the end of the summer. 

Thank you!

General Assembly

The General Assembly is one of the most important yearly events of the Association. Among other things, it allows our contributing members to know where we stand, to have a precise overview of our activities, objectives, accounts, budget and to elect the members of the Committee. Always followed by a conference, this year was no exception to the rule.

But after two editions that were only held remotely, what a pleasure it was to be able to hold a General Assembly in front of members in the flesh again and to have the opportunity to network over a drink at the end of the evening!

Following the reports of the President Haja Rajaonarivo on the highlights of 2021, of the Director Laetitia Fatio on the objectives for 2022, and several pertinent questions asked by the assembly, the accounts of the Association 2021 as well as the budget 2022 were unanimously approved.

The members of the committee up for re-election were re-elected and we are delighted to welcome Paulraj Kanthia as a new member. A special farewell was given to Nadine Reichenthal who, after 20 years on the committee, including four years as President, has decided not to stand for re-election but to continue her involvement on specific projects. Lionel Tanner, Vice President for the last two years, has also chosen not to run again but will continue to be actively involved in the Club's activities in Luxembourg where he now lives. We thank Nadine and Lionel for their past, present and future commitment!

Our President Haja was re-elected by acclamation for a second term. The Committee is now composed of 10 members.

A warm thank you was given to all the members who volunteer for the Association: Mentors, ambassadors, speakers, committee and working group members, auditors, etc. for their time and commitment.

Do you want to participate in the life of the Association, one hour from time to time or more regularly? Let us know! It is with great pleasure that we welcome you! 

Without contributing members and volunteers, our Association would not exist. Thank you for your support!

Laetitia Fatio
Director