Learning from the Leaders

By Gabriella de la Torre, MBA in Hospitality Management, Mexico & USA, 2012-2014 2nd Year

As part of the program, ESSEC’s MBA in Hospitality Management Program hosts monthly Industry Leaders Conferences (ILC) during which a number of hospitality professionals present their respective companies, professional experiences and offer advice to help current students determine their career paths and make other decisions.

Since our return from the holiday break in January, we have had the pleasure of welcoming Eric Vincent, CEO of Fauchon; Pierre Charles Grob, Managing Director for Fastbooking; and most recently, Bruno Juin, Managing Director of Hotels for BNP Paribas Real Estate. It is through these conferences that we as IMHI students have the opportunity to learn from the experiences of those that have gone before us and to obtain a greater understanding of the trends in the market that will shape our career prospects upon graduation.

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Bruno Juin, himself an IMHI alum from 2000, took the stage in the ESSEC amphitheater for the last ILC of the 2013 – 2014 school year. About 30 students filled the seats of the venue, eager to learn about the hotel real estate market, opportunities in this particular field and Bruno’s own experiences after IMHI.

He began by presenting BNP Paribas Real Estate, where he has reached the position of Managing Director for the Hotels division. Throughout his presentation, we were able to learn more about the general structure and operations of the company, which he highlighted through the presentation of key deals and projects his team has worked on throughout Europe. He also shared with us the different dynamics in major European real estate markets and the role that hotel assets play in each of these different countries.

From there, he switched gears and began sharing his own personal experiences upon graduating from IMHI. He allowed us to learn more about the success and challenges that he encountered throughout his journey and offered valuable advice to those seeking to work in hotel real estate and development in the future. Upon concluding the conference, he gave his “best piece of advice to IMHI students”: Don’t ever give up, and if there is a particular subject that is difficult for you, work especially hard at it.

In conjunction with the many courses offered both within the IMHI program and at ESSEC, these ILCs allow us to truly learn from the leaders we aspire to be like in the future. We are able to interact with and benefit from the extensive IMHI network comprised of professionals who always find the time to give back to the program, many times by directly helping the current students following in their footsteps.