INSTANT ALUMNI presented by Aymeric Penven (2016), start-up coaching specialist

What an amazing career path described by Aymeric Penven, on Tuesday 8 March, during a "Career Talks" videoconference for students on the Master in Culinary Leadership & Innovation programme!

Having arrived in the summer of 2015 in the ALLIANCE programme, the Institut Paul Bocuse teaching teams immediately noticed Aymeric's potential as well as his original personality. He'd already benefitted from a busy career, straight out of Engineering School and other academic exchanges in China, Germany, Spain, Russia and Turkey.  In addition, he'd also already completed a training course in culinary arts at the school run by Thierry Marx.

After graduating from the Master in Culinary Leadership & Innovation, Aymeric focused on the exciting world of start-ups, participating in the launch of the Station F campus in Paris, created by Xavier Niel, to take care of ShakeUp Factory, the accelerator for FoodTech start-ups. After an experience in South-East Asia, he returned to Station F, this time working for the HEC Paris Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre, where he is now Associate Director. This transition was a challenge, since between 2016 and 2017 the HEC Paris Incubator grew from half a dozen start-ups to more than 70, supporting more than 180 by 2021.

Curious to find out how Aymeric's roles and responsibilities relate to their Master's degree, the students were not afraid to ask him questions and showed a keen interest in his field of work. Especially since Aymeric is now also in charge of a support programme for start-ups from the world of research working to solve environmental problems. His role today is to connect business, academic and entrepreneurial communities to enable entrepreneurs to make the best use of their most precious resource, namely their time.

Aymeric concluded with this last piece of advice: "The key is the network, for me it's thanks to the encounters I've had over a coffee that I'm where I am today, don't be shy, get out there and meet others."

A big thank you to Aymeric for his presentation, which will undoubtedly lead to new vocations!

You can watch the entire video conference by logging on to your Microsoft Stream account - Channel ‘ENG - CAREER TALKS Conferences’.