SKEMA Alumni Australia: the art of entertaining!

Nathalie Taquet (MBA 2019) approached the alumni association in anticipation of her future move to Sydney, to be put in touch with alumni in Australia. With a few years’ experience already under her belt and a PhD in Life Sciences, Nathalie is now studying for an Executive MBA at SKEMA. In response to her request, the association organised an unusual meetup during her reconnaissance visit!

After a warm welcome by the ambassador, Priscilla Koukoui, it was off to one of those unique SKEMA Alumni events that the Sydney ambassadors have such a knack for organising: a barber shop that was still “open” when the guests arrived. Across the room, a door at the back led to a secret bar that specialises in gin.

Hugo Rasse on a VIE programme at Cémoi (at Nicolas’, another Skeman!) and Chris Phung joined us. Chris is on a gap year working at Effilab in Sydney for 6 months and will follow that up with a 6-month internship at Google Ireland. Before arriving here he did a 3rd year internship at Fred & Farid Shanghai, a one-year student exchange in Taiwan, and a first semester of an M2 in San Francisco. He is currently working on a blog/vlog where he will share his experiences abroad with students wanting to give the expat life a go. He’s off to a promising start!

The group then headed to Sofitel for a “French business schools in Sydney” event, where they met a plethora of alumni, and students doing internships at companies in Sydney: Alexandre Diot, Jean Baptiste Martin, Pierre Quemeneur, Phylicia Mavioga.

A number of synergies came to light: two of the students had studied together in San Franscico, two others had played volleyball together in France, two alumni who’d graduated in the same year found each other again when neither knew the other was in Sydney. All in all, it was an evening in which the SKEMA family “down under” very much enjoyed each other’s company once again!

Nathalie T had this to say: “The alumni event was filled with great conversation [...] It’s particularly thanks to this event that we contacted consultants to help us with our visas and answer our questions about schools and life in Sydney. I sincerely thank you for this contact, which was constructive and a precious help to us. Thanks again"

Christopher had this to say: “It was great to be able to meet other Skemans in Sydney. I think SKEMA’s strength resides in its international network; we are never alone when we move to a new destination. This time I had the good fortune of meeting Priscilla, who has been in Australia for more than 6 years. This is a great start to my expat experience!"

Join us : SKEMA Alumni Australia
SKEMA Alumni Australia events: you know where they’ll start but you never know where they’ll end!