Olivier Camino (SKEMA 1994): mobilizing SKEMA alumni in the United States for a more inclusive education

How has your experience as a successful entrepreneur influenced your commitment to philanthropy?

My entrepreneurial journey in the BPO sector has greatly shaped my thinking. Our field is indeed widely misunderstood, underappreciated, and lacks an academic training pathway. We turned this constraint into a strength by recruiting our customer advisors based on their skills rather than their degrees. Through these hires, I came to understand the power of inclusion and impact sourcing. We encounter many individuals with challenging backgrounds.

When you give someone the opportunity to receive training, to be mentored and tutored, you open the door to employment, and this is a game changer not only for the individual but also for their family and community. Recruiting across 47 different countries, I truly appreciate the power of social initiatives for greater equality of opportunity.

On a more personal note, I have always been passionate about education, which I believe is the cornerstone of any societal project. This is why I became involved with Ashoka as an ASN in 2010, to champion these issues and support social entrepreneurs.

All of this ultimately contributes to the same field of action in which I am engaged: impact sourcing through Foundever as educators in the field of CX, education promoted through the SKEMA Education Foundation, and a philanthropic project focused on education in France.

What are your main objectives as head of the SKEMA Education Foundation, and how do these initiatives align with SKEMA's educational mission?

The primary objective is to reconnect the alumni community in the United States, which has lost some of its commitment over time. The foundation must become this catalyst for rallying. By creating meeting opportunities - both virtual and face-to-face, such as the Tiffany event in New York - we aim to recreate this sense of community and belonging. It is only by renewing these ties that we will be able to encourage each and every alumnus to contribute to SKEMA's influence in the United States, particularly through the Foundation.

What are the Foundation's priorities for 2024, and how do you intend to maximize the impact of these actions to support SKEMA's students and strategic initiatives?

The main sites will be :

• The organization of events in New York and Los Angeles, as well as "virtual lunches" (which we launched in September) to reconnect alumni in the region.

• Updating our database to enhance the effectiveness of our direct communications with U.S. alumni.

• The foundation's connection to the US project on the SKEMA campus in Raleigh, so that the two feed off each other.

You mentioned the transformative role of SKEMA's programs and the importance of alumni in global management. How do you plan to mobilize the community to support the Foundation's mission?

We have an incredible diversity and depth of profiles and expertise in our SKEMA US community. By mobilizing these varied profiles, we can move forward together towards a common goal: equal opportunities in education. It's crucial to offer young people from modest backgrounds the means to access higher education.

It's an absolutely critical social issue if we are to bring out the diversity of talent needed for tomorrow's world, and thus contribute to greater social cohesion. It's important to make sure that as many people as possible understand that SKEMA is committed to this issue.Education must be a vehicle for reducing inequalities, which is not yet completely the case in the United States, but we are working to change that.

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