A new class has joined the SKEMA Alumni community

On Saturday 3 June 2017, a new class joined the SKEMA Alumni community. We look back at this exceptional day that ended with a night of partying for the 700 people who attended the gala event at Pavillon d'Armenonville. The first photos have arrived; you can find them HERE. 

The day started at the Paris Zénith at 3 pm for our new graduates (over 1,300) and their guests (3,500 people). This annual ceremony remains the biggest of its kind ever organised by a Business School in France. All of the programmes graduated together this year: the PGE, the BBA, the Masters of Science, the Specialised Masters, the MBA, and the PhD. The ceremony, which was once again emceed with humour, charm and complicity by Katrina Panchout and Peter Spier, was of course opened by Alice Guilhon. After presenting a brief overview of SKEMA’s history and the key milestones achieved together, Alice Guilhon underlined the importance of the bonds of loyalty and the legitimate reciprocal pride that bind our school and its alumni, before handing the floor to Jean-Philippe Courtois, EVP and President, Global Sales, Marketing & Operations – Microsoft, Chairman of SKEMA Business School, for an inspirational speech. Olivier Dufour, President of SKEMA Alumni, also congratulated all of the graduates who have now officially joined the network of 37,000 SKEMA alumni around the world; a network they will be able to rely on throughout their career and vice-versa.  He then presented the Alumna of the Year award to Fabienne Arata (SK 1998), Country Manager at LinkedIn France, who, to better talk about the new graduates’ present and future, talked with humour about her own memories of being a young graduate. Once the new graduates had taken to the Zénith stage one by one to receive their diplomas, the afternoon ended with a graduation photo and the now-traditional throwing of caps.

After the excitement of the stage and spotlights, the day continued with cocktails and finger food at Pavillon d’Armenonville. In this exceptional venue in the heart of Paris, our newest graduates got together for a prestigious evening in the company of their loved ones, members of the teaching staff, the school’s management team, and some fifty alumni invited by the alumni association for the occasion. This was followed by a graduation ball to the sound of electronic music, rock and disco on one side, and a Broadway cabaret atmosphere on the other side, in the ‘Salon Alumni’. For the fascinated spectators, a troupe of 8 artists put on a show all evening which combined singing, dancing, and costumes with feathers and glitter. The Salon Alumni provided an opportunity for our alumni to meet the new graduates away from the noise and excitement of the ball and welcome them into the big SKEMA Alumni community.

The other photos and videos will be available in mid July at www.skema-graduationceremony.fr.