An outside eye to help programs evolve

The Advisory board for the Master in Management, Technology and Entrepreneurship (MTE) and the steering committee for the Master in Financial Engineering (MFE) play a significant role in helping the two Master’s programs succeed. From the very start, each of the courses offered by the College of management of technology (CDM) set up a formal framework to maintain links with industry players. The aim is to keep an outside eye on the content of the academic program. This “temperature check” between the CDM and experts in the field is organized once a year, when the course outlines are being considered.

The MTE Advisory Board, launched in 2012, now has eight members, five of whom are external to EPFL and come from a variety of backgrounds, including multinationals to start-ups. The MFE Advisory Board, set up in 2009, has six external members with a range of specialists, both junior and senior, active in finance and financial engineering. “The aim of these committees has always been to understand the needs of industries as they develop, so that our program can evolve in the same direction,” explains Géraldine Nagel d'Eternod, MTE section deputy head and member of both committees. “We ask them for their feedback on the proposed changes, and work with them to develop a specific theme of interest to us”, she continues. How to promote sustainability and the place of women in finance have been at the heart of recent discussions.

Questioning sustainability

These committees enable members to broaden their network and stay connected to academic research. In fact, some members of the MTE committee combine this role with that of mentor. This dual role is particularly motivating for Pierre Chauvineau, whose career in digital health and medical technology spans some 30 years between the USA and Europe, and who currently sits on several boards of directors. “Mentoring enables me to identify future talent while bringing them my experience, while the MTE Advisory Board, of which I've been a member for the past three years, helps to nurture exchanges and the network. I bring them a practical vision, for example, of how to promote sustainability in business. These meetings give rise to new ideas. Not everything we bring to the table from a corporate point of view makes it into the training program, but it enriches the debate and opens up new avenues of thought,” he explains. Staying in touch with the market is essential for these practice-oriented Masters.

For Vera Glukhenkaya, IT Manager at Procter & Gamble, joining the Advisory Board is a way of staying connected to EPFL and contributing to the evolution of the MTE program, from which she graduated. “Even though I'm still at the beginning of my career, I bring a different perspective on the issues and trends in the job market. I have both the experience of a former student and the perspective of a professional working in a multinational company. It's an opportunity for me to grow personally during these exchanges while helping to improve a course that has given me so much.” The alumna herself landed her position with the multinational following an internship during her Master's degree. “I have ideas for making this course more attractive and attracting talented students.”

A breeding ground for qualified professionals

A former EPFL graduate, Aurèle Storno, Investment Manager at Lombard Odier Investment Managers, stresses the importance of nurturing dialogue and stimulating the circular effect between academia and industry. A member of the MFE steering committee for the past two years, he is all the more motivated to nurture these exchanges as they provide him with a pool of qualified future professionals. “I've already recruited four of them to my team, and we regularly welcome MFE trainees. The candidates already have very good tools, and I like the fact that the training content remains focused on their core strength: financial engineering. Ultimately, feedback from the industry should help confirm that the Master's degree is still of the highest quality and in tune with market expectations.”