Testimony

"My one-year study in IAE Aix was really one of the most wonderful chapters in my life: challenging, exciting, reviving, changing.

Since at that time I was already 29 years old, I had worked for several years for European companies, I was looking for some intensive and practical management programme in a European environment.

The MBA programme was exactly a good match with my needs in terms of courses content and design.

Besides, I also got some financial support from the school after some performance assessment, which further strengthened my resolution to go for this programme, though at that time I had already gotten several attractive job offers in China.

I really enjoyed not only all the courses but more importantly all the changes in my life like the way of thinking, the attitude towards life and so on. I felt like having experienced a rebirth! I learnt a lot every day not only from our excellent teachers but from my colleagues who are coming from different countries. Now I have a decent job in Europe.

"Having worked in UK banking for 10 years, I decided it was time to invest again in my education. I decided to undertake the MBA at IAE Aix-en-Provence because of the quality, experience and ambition of the academic staff, and the international focus of the school. The pace and content of the course was extremely demanding and working with students from many different countries and backgrounds was both stimulating and challenging. I finished the MBA with a more comprehensive understanding of business management and wider perspective on life.
My motivation for doing the MBA was to move my career from banking to international consulting. On completing the MBA I joined Ernst & Young's Global Risk Management practice, where I now advice clients on financial risk management. Since finishing the MBA I have been based in Paris , London and now Zurich and have worked on projects across many European countries. It is, quite simply, one of the most challenging and rewarding things I have ever done."

"After obtaining my degree from Reims Management School , I joined Nortel Networks where I obtained seven years of rich and varied experience within a HR function, in addition to a year in telecom marketing. At a time in my life where I was ready to take a step back from the working world, the IAE Aix MBA specialising in Leading Change particularly appealed to me, especially because of its Provençal location! The programme gave me the ideal opportunity to deepen my consulting skills, a useful complement to a strategic HR environment that is oriented toward leading change in organisational cultures. The MBA consulting project gave me invaluable consulting experience at a major aerospace company, providing them with the necessary tools to improve international career development and to implement a corporate university . Through contact with a school professor I even had the exciting opportunity to link up with her consulting practice and train employees in cross-cultural skills.
My job after completing the MBA has been within a major US company that manufactures and commercialises well-known writing instrument brands, such as Waterman, Parker, Rotring, Papermate and Reynolds.  I am now European Director of training and development, in which the ability to lead major change initiatives through management development is essential.  The MBA has radically changed my own self-knowledge and outlook on the working world, through a healthy dose of organisational theory and strategy, insight on personal communication skills, as well as intensive and challenging team activities within a multitude of project assignments."

"Thanks to the MBA Change and Innovation, I am having a great experience as Managing Director of a GSM operator in Africa . A rather incredible thing happened to me just at the end of the MBA, and as of now, I am takingon as much experience as I can.

My background is in mechanical science engineering, with a specialization in international trade. Since 1995, when I created my own company as an internet service provider, I worked mostly as a major account sales engineer in the telecom sector, working for such companies as Firstmark Communications France, Groupe Louis Dreyfus Communications, and Neuf Telecom. I then decided to pursue the MBA Change & Innovation of the IAE Aix in Aix-en-Provence , and that was a great boost to my career. Just before the end of the MBA in July 2004, I was offered a position with a major pan-African group to work as the General Manager of their subsidiary in Gabon , the 3rd local GSM operator. "

HR Business Partner - British Rolls Royce HRD

I joined the programme at IAE having completed 14 years practical experience of International HR and Change Management.

Though greatly immersed in change, my decision to come to IAE was, however, because I had not in fact ever really studied change. I had therefore begun a search for a programme that would advance my skills and knowledge in this field.

The programme offered at IAE was enough for me to decide that I should invest in a career break and immerse myself for 15 months in this challenging programme.

Thus this programme was enormously beneficial in helping understand, shape and test-out the nature of change in today's working world.
What makes the C&I MBA

Programme unique is the fact of it marrying the established elements of a conventional MBA course, with some key learning in the effective management of both change and communication.

Requiring over 750 hours of classroom time, plus enormous additional project and team working, the time at IAE is both positive and exhausting.

With an enviable international faculty, teaching also at IMD, Kellogg, Oxford & Berkeley, drawing heavily upon their consulting experience gleaned in globally renowned organisations, the learning opportunity they make available to theprogramme's participants is an enviable one.