About us
Created by four alumni in 2011 with the support of ESSEC Business School, the ESSEC Foundation, placed under the auspices of the Foundation de France, supports the development of the School. The Foundation’s mission is to promote talents, support teaching excellence, responsible entrepreneurship and the transformation of the Cergy Campus, and enhance the School’s international reputation - thus contributing to ESSEC’s long-term development.
Your precious support is vital to our actions.
Your loyal support to ESSEC has enabled the Foundation to collect €3.4 million, making 2022 a new record year. The ESSEC Foundation has received more than €20 million in donations from its alumni since its creation a little over 10 years ago.
Your first choice remains the financing of the magnificent new eco-friendly Campus project for which the Foundation has contributed €8 million to date. The campaign will continue in 2023 and 2024, when the new buildings will be inaugurated.
Our great joy in 2022 is to have been able to devote €1.2 million to the financing of all the ESSEC Group's social scholarships.
This was made possible by the crowdfunding campaign organized by our friends from ESSEC Alumni in favour of the ESSEC Foundation. We would like to thank them and all the new donors who joined us on this occasion.
Finally, we welcome Denis Leroy (E86) who joins the Foundation's Executive Committee with the mission of relaunching in 2023 the donations dedicated to the Endowment Fund.
Thank you very much for your ever-increasing generosity.
Kind regards.
President of the ESSEC Foundation
THE FOUNDING MEMBERS
President of Unifrance
“Helping the next generations benefit from a modern, rounded, international education that conveys our French and European humanist values, is an invigorating mission.”
Graduating from ESSEC in 1979 and with an MBA from Harvard Business School, Gilles Pélisson began his career in 1983 at the Accor Group where he held a series of international positions. In 1995 he became managing director of EuroDisney, then CEO in 1997. In 2000 he took over the leadership of the Suez Group’s consortium Suez-Telefonica ST3G, and became president of Noos. In September 2001 he was named managing director of Bouygues Telecom, before becoming CEO in February 2004. From January 2006 to January 2011 he was managing director of the Accor Group. He was Chairman and CEO of the TFI group from 2016 to 2023.
Gilles Pélisson was awarded the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur et de l’Ordre National du Mérite.
He was president of the ESSEC supervisory board from 2002 to 2008, then member of this supervisory board from 2008 to 2009.
He served as the first president of the ESSEC Foundation from 2011 to February 2016.
President of Paris Honotel
Jean Arvis is the founder of Honotel, a leading hotel operator and investment company with 40 hotels in France. An ESSEC graduate (1974), Jean began his career as an antiques dealer in the basement of one of the two family hotels he eventually took over in 1990, after 12 years managing the Saint Honoré auction house.
While consolidating the family-run group, he was president of Best Western France from 1998 to 2002. In 2000 he founded Honotel, which in 15 years has grown exponentially from 4 hotels at its inception, to 40 properties today.
Algonquin Group President
Jean-Philippe Chomette is the founder and main shareholder of Algonquin, an investment and hotel management group, created in 1998 and sold in 2018 to Schroders Plc.
Jean-Philippe began his career at Paribas as a financial analyst, then stock market and distressed debt investor in North America (Toronto then New York).
He then joined the hedge fund Everest Capital as a partner between 1993 and 2000.
He now lives between London and Florence.
President of Tenthorey
Having graduated from ESSEC in 1981, Yves Dubief is today the director of Tenthorey, a textile manufacturer and operator of hydroelectric plants in the Vosges region of France. A strong believer in defending the public interest, from 1999 to 2011 he was President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Epinal, renamed CCI of the Vosges in 2004.
He is currently vice-president of the Union of Textile Industries, vice-president of the economic section of the Mouvement des Entreprises de France (MEDEF), and vice-president of the Banque Populaire Alsace Lorraine-Champagne.
fondation@essec.edu
