"Germany is a highly strategic country for HEC Paris", Dean Todd
As part of its plans for international development, HEC Paris announced the opening of its representative office in Germany on Monday, 26 September. On this occasion, a roundtable discussion took place at the Embassy of France in Berlin: "How to be an entrepreneur on the other side of the Rhine – the Franco-German perspective." This debate illustrates the strength of ties and the complementarity between France and Germany in terms of economic initiatives, development of business flows, creation of innovative companies, and also in terms of management training. This subject is a reflection of HEC Paris’ strategy in Germany, especially given the fact that the school’s German students are the second most represented European nationality on campus after the French.
Leaning on strong links with leading German universities and companies, with a strong network of HEC Paris graduates in the country, HEC Paris today opens a representative offi ce in Berlin to extend its development to Germany.
HEC Paris’ objective in opening an office in Germany is to mark a milestone in line with its international ambitions. The new representative office located in the premises of the French Institute at the Maison de France on the famous Kurfürstendamm, will be the anchor point from where HEC Paris will develop its reputation in Germany, France’s largest economic partner. From there it will also deepen its relationship with key players in the German economy, including start-ups, large multinational companies, as well as the industrial and export firms part of the Mittelstand.
"Today, in addition to our commitment in the areas of entrepreneurship, innovation, digital transformation and social responsibility, HEC Paris’ success is founded on a very strong international presence. The opening of our Berlin office will allow us to be closer to students, alumni and companies implanted in Germany, a country that is highly strategic for HEC Paris," said Peter Todd, Dean of HEC Paris.
One of the highlights of the event will be the round table. Led by Annette Gerlach, journalist and presenter of television channel Arte, the discussion will illustrate the strong ties between France and Germany and complementarity between the two countries in terms of economic initiatives, development of business trends and the creation of innovative companies. The speakers, both French and German, will relate their experiences and successes on both sides of the Rhine. Panel members are to include Mr Thomas Edig, former deputy CEO of Porsche AG and Director of Human Resources at Volkswagen’s Commercial Vehicles department; Mr John Nicolas, CEO of the start-up Webedia; Mr Andreas Wiele, Chairman of Axel Springer Digital GmbH’s supervisory board and Seloger.com SAS; and Ms. Judith Zimmermann, project manager at Health Focus GmbH.
Founded in 1881 in Paris and located since 1964 on the vast Jouy-en-Josas campus near Versailles at the heart of the scientific and technological cluster of Paris-Saclay, HEC Paris has for decades remained the top management school in France in all national rankings. It enjoys an increasingly strong international reputation, as evidenced by its 64% foreign faculty, 90% of foreign students in the MBA program, its 96 nationalities on campus and 123 academic partners worldwide.
In Germany, HEC Paris is already closely associated with three universities that reinforce its position of excellence: the Freie Universität Berlin (FU), the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the University of Cologne. German citizens represent the third biggest international citizenship among students on the Master in Management at the "Grande Ecole" and the second European citizenship on campus. Germany is also a destination of choice for a growing number of graduates who either begin or continue their careers in the country.
The Berlin office is being supervised by Olga Hein.
Olga Hein
Director of the HEC Paris office in Germany