HEC Paris in Qatar welcomes the newly appointed Dean of home campus

Prof. Laoucine Kerbache, Dean & CEO of HEC Paris in Qatar, welcomed Professor Peter Todd, the newly appointed Dean of HEC Paris, during his first visit to Doha. Professor Todd’s appointment took effect on 1 September 2015, succeeding Bernard Ramanantsoa, who had been the Dean of the French business school since 1995. HEC Paris is ranked number two worldwide in Executive Education by the Financial Times in 2015. Professor Todd’s visit to Doha is principally to attend the ceremony honoring the latest batch of 45 graduates from the HEC Executive MBA and 49 graduates from the Specialized Master in Strategic Business Unit Management (SBUM) of HEC Paris in Qatar, which is a member of Qatar Foundation.

His Excellency Eric Chevallier, the Ambassador of France to Qatar, along with representatives of Total, Commercial Bank of Qatar (CBQ), Ooredoo, Qatar Petroluem (QP), Qatar Foundation (QF) and other universities within Education City joined HEC Paris’ officials in honoring the graduates. Meanwhile, during a VIP Alumni lunch attended by 15 VIP alumni including the President of the GCC Alumni Chapter from Dubai, Mr. Mahdi Al Amine Fachtali, attendees discussed how the HEC Paris Alumni network can help implement the school’s strategy. They also focused on measures that can be taken in order to keep HEC Paris alumni, especially in this region, better connected.

With the number of HEC Executive MBA and SBUM graduates increasing at an impressive rate, the cap of 252 graduates in Qatar has been reached.  Accordingly, a Qatar Alumni Bureau has been created. “You are now a graduate of HEC Paris, a wonderful school with a worldwide reputation. You represent today the excellence and diversity at the heart of our institution, having met the stringent requirements of studying here,” Professor Todd said. “Thanks to the dedication you have shown in committing to academic excellence throughout the entirety of your program, you are now able to face new challenges.”

For his part, Professor Kerbache commented: “It is a great honor to welcome Professor Peter Todd in Qatar. His visit serves as an affirmation of the close coordination between our activities in Paris and in Doha, specifically in terms of ensuring the high quality standards of teaching, research and learning at HEC Paris.” “I wish to extend my heartfelt congratulations to the Class of 2015. As I wish them more success in their professional careers, I am confident that they will contribute to value creation and better performances in their respective organizations,” he added. “I also would like to recognize the key role of the HEC Paris in Qatar faculty and staff for their continuous efforts in implementing our mission of developing the future leaders from Qatar and the region.”

For more than 25 years, Professor Todd has been a renowned researcher and professor in the fields of innovation management and information technologies. With a PhD from the University of British Columbia, he has significant experience in managing degree programs (specifically MBA) and Executive Education programs. From 2005 to 2014, he was the Dean of the McGill Desautels Faculty of Management based in Montreal, Canada where he managed more than 200 colleagues, including 100 professors, as well as almost 2,500 students. He also successfully undertook bold reforms that resulted in the development of a portfolio of programs, the internationalization of the school and the significant increase in the school’s ability to self‐finance.