Benoît Gabelle (SKEMA 2006), Deputy Finance Director, Teleperformance Group

"SKEMA Business School has given me the opportunity to be around inspiring professors who have helped me progress and improve.” 

My most outstanding memory at SKEMA? One of our market finance professors, who started each class with the following quote: "You snooze, you lose". For me, this sums up the spirit of SKEMA: our graduates are confident, curious and ready to work. 

From the beginning of my studies, I noticed the excellent level of the teachers, and their desire to transmit their knowledge and prepare us for the challenges of professional life. I am thinking in particular of Tarek Amyuni, director of the Financial Markets and Investments MSc, and Bertrand Groslambert, professor of finance, who devoted a lot of their time to motivating us and illustrated their technical teaching with practical examples. SKEMA also gave me the opportunity to meet some very inspiring people at meetings regularly organised with key players in the financial industry, like Henri Proglio (former CEO of Veolia Environnement and EDF), whose life and career are remarkable. These meetings made my studies more concrete and showed me what was possible in my field.  

SKEMA has played an important role in my life, both personally and professionally. During my last year of study, I joined the finance department of the Orange/France Telecom group in an apprenticeship programme, and this is where I began my professional career. At the start of 2007, thanks to Bertrand Groslambert, who put me in contact with a former student, I joined the law firm FIDAL (at that time affiliated to KPMG) in the transfer pricing team. That’s how I began my career in this sector. I wanted to learn in a field that made a link between real finance and market finance, and this opportunity enabled me to find that link. My career started thanks to the SKEMA network, and now I want to give something back. One of my colleagues at FIDAL was also an alumnus of ESC Lille (formerly SKEMA) and we lived through the merger and the creation of SKEMA together. We were then able to recruit former students of the school through the network, and these were marvellous meetings leading to some good years working together. 

I also worked at KPMG in Hong Kong from 2009 to 2012. I advised major international financial players in the field of trading and asset management, at that time strongly developing their activities in the region. In 2012, I joined EY in Paris, still in transfer pricing, to deal with issues concerning the valuation of intangible assets and intra-group financial transactions. At EY, I had the chance to participate in developing and then taking charge of a multicultural team of 80 employees from North America, Latin America and Asia: a magnificent melting pot with a fantastic atmosphere. I think the international environment of SKEMA and the high standards of the Financial Markets MSc have largely contributed to developing my appetite for international business, as well as the competitive aspects of my job.  

A few months ago, I became deputy financial director of the Teleperformance Group, a fast-growing group that joined the CAC40 two years ago, with a highly international operational footprint and culture.

Whether in Paris or abroad, I have always kept up with SKEMA through the alumni network or for recruitment needs. SKEMA remains a personal turning point in my professional life. I think that as graduates, we should pass on what we have received to the students who come after us. A bit like the partners of large firms like EY, who invest in, train and develop the next generation, enabling them to take over in the same conditions as those offered to them, thus ensuring continuity. My commitment to SKEMA goes in this direction, which is why I am a donor, though I would like to be able to devote more time to our school. Thanks to the commitment of alumni, SKEMA's international influence and reputation will continue to grow.

My advice to former and current students? We should be humble, but aware of our ability to move forward with confidence. There are no limits!

Contact: Benoît Gabelle (SKEMA 2006), Deputy CFO, Teleperformance Group