GGSB MSc Finance - Grenoble Ecole de Management

NEWSLETTER
GGSB MSc Finance
Second edition
April 2013
Dear MSc Finance Alumni,
I was very happy to see some of you at the GGSB Graduation ceremony
that took place in Grenoble end of March. Congratulations
again to our new Graduates. We had the pleasure to have for the
first time an alumni speech by an MSc Finance Graduate, Maria
Kouyoumijian. Maria did an excellent job as you will see in this
Newsletter.
In this Newsletter, Ahmed Ezzat (Grenoble 3) will share with you his teaching experience
with Singapore 1 students. Ahmed is working in a bank in Qatar but was willing to experience
teaching so he took responsibility for the International financial management module
in Singapore. End of April, Alexandre Baudin (Grenoble 4) will give a presentation on
Hedge funds to London students. Going forward, I’d like more and more alumni to come
back and teach or give a presentation to current MSc Finance students. If you are interested,
please make sure to contact me.
You will also meet with two alumni (Ahmed from London 2 and Hugo from Grenoble 1)
that have accepted to tell us (almost) everything about their lives before, during and after
the MSc Finance.
Finally, we will give you some information about the Serious game module that took place
recently on our 3 sites: its objectives, how it takes place, etc.
I’d like to thank those of you that have sent me job/internship offers recently or accepted
to advise students before interviews. I make sure to send these offers to current students
and publish them on the Graduate Network. As you know, the job market in Europe is difficult
so our MSc Finance students/graduates greatly appreciate your efforts to help them
start their professional careers. Networking is key and we now have a very good alumni
base, having started the program 7 years ago.
Finally, you have just received an invitation from Monique Garnier to join our next Alumni
meeting in London on May 23.The guest speaker is a JP Morgan Executive, Head of Equity
Quant Strategy. His speech will focus on the theme of quantitative investment: How to use
language recognition to invest in stock markets I’ll be there as well and hope to see
many of you.
Kind regards,
Stephanie Boyer
CONTENT
Serious Game - Alumni Success Stories
News from your Faculty - Alumni Event- Graduation Ceremony
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NEWSLETTER
GGSB MSc Finance
Serious Game
Hélène Michel and Olivier Cateura
April 2013
We have facilitated the MSc
Finance Serious game module
(that replaced the Integrative
case study) : Hélène Michel in
London and Grenoble (with Jean
François Perinel), Olivier Cateura
in Singapore.
“Serious Game”: How to define
such an oxymoron We can
present serious games as “games
in which education (in its various
forms) is the primary goal, rather
than entertainment”. These
applications then use the
characteristics of video games to
engage individual in a learning
experience. They belong to the
type of computer-mediated
environments of human learning,
combining mediatized learning
by machines, simulation,
emotional r eaction s and
professionalization. Serious
Games as learning methods have
been widely developed since the
2000s and Grenoble Ecole de
Management is developing their
use more and more.
When using game with learners,
we try to reach several goals: the
first one is to enhance students’
motivation to learn complex
concepts. Using competition,
challenge or curiosity as levers,
we engage them in this process.
The second goal is to improve
their academic level concerning a
topic. The game is a kind of
G G S B M S c I N F I N A N C E
“magic circle” where error is
a l l o w e d . T h e r e f o r e , w e
e n c o u r a g e s t u d e n t s ’
experimentation and creativity to
analyze and solve problems. The
third goal is to reduce the
“knowing-doing gap”: with a
classical learning approach,
students understand a concept
but have often difficulty to use
their knowledge in “real” life.
When using simulation, we offer
the possibility to experiment
different cases representing
professional situations. We
therefore increase the transfer
possibility from “virtual” to “real”
life, from “knowing” to “doing”.
The Global challenge business
game simulation is an easy to
use and very interactive tool that
gives the opportunity to our
students to manage a high-tech
company on a global market.
Based on the Nokia mobile
phone industry, the students
have to understand the market,
make strategic decision and
finally be smarter than the
competition. They learn strategic
management concepts and how
decisions (marketing, innovation,
HR, manufacturing….) impact the
financial performance of a
company. The game also
provides an opportunity for
students to develop their soft
skills: team work in a
multicultural environment (as
students are in teams competing
one against each other), ability
to make decisions under time
pressure (as several decision
rounds take place throughout
the week), written and oral
communication skills (as
students have to explain their
decisions and present their
results), leadership (as they have
to defend their position and
convince their team mates and
instructor)… To go further and
discover more about Cesim
Global Challen ge: h t t p: / /
www.cesim.com/blog/bid/125570/
Interview-Olivier-Cateura-On-
Business-Simulations
We have really enjoyed this
experience with the MSc Finance
students: they have learned a lot,
and had fun too ! Thanks also for
the good atmosphere and
interactive exchanges we got
during our stay in the city of the
Lion (Singapore) and the City
(London) !
The MSc Finance intake in Singapore
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NEWSLETTER
GGSB MSc Finance
April 2013
Alumni Success Stories… some news from you!
One of our MSc Finance 7 Grenoble students, Anthony Abou Khater is our new program ambassador and
has interviewed two of our Alumni.
We are very pleased to share with you their experiences.
Hugo ROITMAN
MSc Finance 1 Grenoble 2006-2008
Tell us about
yourself: career
e d u c a t i o n
background. If you
had the opportunity
to start over again,
what would you
change
My name is Hugo Roitman, 30 years, I am half
French half Brazilian and got a bachelor degree
in Business and Statistics at London
Metropolitan University, UK. After a 2-year
experience in telecom sector, I decided to apply
for the MSc in Finance at GGSB which gives me
the possibility to obtain more in-depth skills of
some finance aspects and interact with other
classmates which had an added value
experience as well. I was among the first intake
of the MSc in Finance (2006). From professional
experience, I mostly worked in corporate
finance by participating in merger-acquisition
(M&A) deals through investment banking and
global corporate company. Lastly, I am working
at Louis Dreyfus Commodities in Brazil.
I’m in charge of analyzing new deals for the
Group and monitor the performance of the
LDC´s investees. I already made several deals in
the new technology sector and agrobusinesses.
In Brazil, I often deal with leverage
bury out acquisitions which means acquiring a
company with a high percentage of debt.
Merger and Acquisition enables you to better
understand the real business model of the
company by crunching deep the numbers
through detailed financial modeling and interact
with c-level people to understand the strategic
rationale of the investment.
So then for the reasons explained above, I
would not change my background.
What are the possible next steps for you
Well, as you acquire more and more “M&A”
skills, you start thinking that applying this
knowledge for yourself could be an option. I am
thinking eventually to start my own business. I
am already part of a business angel group here
in São Paulo looking for new business
opportunities to invest at early stage in new
technology sector.
What is it that attracts and excites you the
most about Finance What inspires you to
continue working in it
For my standpoint, finance gives you the tools
to understand the economics behind a business
model, assess the economical return of the
investment but mostly try to solve problems in a
rational way. In the real world, it happens (in
some of the cases) that companies provide
subtly inaccurate financial information or tend
to use creative accounting with lack of details.
Accounting and finance are good base with
logical process in order to criticize in
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NEWSLETTER
GGSB MSc Finance
April 2013
Alumni Success Stories… some news from you!
constructive manner the information you
receive.
This is the most challenging part which I like
the most and where you can interact with
people that have different perceptions.
What do you do to keep your financial skills
up to date
In my point of view, the only way to keep up to
date is doing deals and analyzing real world
investments. I was disappointed with the
financial training offered in the market as it was
not realistic enough.
What, in your opinion, are the skills required
to become a high performing finance
professional
Be consistent, like any other job, discipline is
the key point.
What would be a typical working day for you
A typical vacation day
I start to work around 8h30 taking 30min to
read online newspapers and focus on some
headlines that might impact the Group´s
business. After that, I usually have a to do list of
tasks from different projects. I align some
issues of the day or the week with my boss. My
time is allocated to financial modeling of some
businesses or assets that we will potentially
acquire and scheduling meetings with the board
of the Group. Most of the materials are in
English version and an analyst always helps me
to do it. I am also in charge of monitor the
performance of LDC´s investees. Every month, I
receive the financial report that plugs into my
financial modeling. By analyzing some key
metrics, we set some strategic and operational
meetings in order to improve the performance. I
usually finish late at night after 22h, every day.
What are your most memorable moments at
GGSB
I have good ones! I enjoyed having met some
amazing teachers such as Isabelle Chaboud,
Stephanie Boyer and Christophe Bonnet. I have
made some friends with who I’m still in touch.
What advice do you have for the 2012-2013
MSc in Finance students
Guys, enjoy this year as much as you can at
GGSB with all the people and information
available. Enjoy skiing as well, personally, I feel
bad for not enjoying so much. Do great
networking! I wish you guys the best for this
year.
São Paulo, Brazil
G G S B M S c I N F I N A N C E
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NEWSLETTER
GGSB MSc Finance
April 2013
Alumni Success Stories… some news from you!
Ahmed ALHUMIQANI
MSc Finance 2 London 2008-2010
Tell us about yourself: career and education
background. If you had the opportunity to
start over again, what would you change
Before joining the MSC in Finance program in
2008, I was awarded a Bachelor degree in
Accounting in 2007 October 6 University in
Egypt. After graduating that year, I worked with
Al-Saeed Trading Company (the largest group
in Yemen) as a Sales Admin for four months.
After finishing the MSc Finance in 2010, I
completed a full time internship with Deloitte-
Yemen for three months. Then I received an
offer to work for “Shihab” (the 2 nd largest FMCG
Company in Yemen) as a Budgeting & Planning
Manager. I worked there for 13 months, but
due to the unstable political situation in
Yemen, the company laid off 10% of their staff
to decrease expenses. One month later I
started working at Yemen
Microfinance Network as a
Finance Controller. I have
been in this job for 20
months now. I would not
change anything in my past
as the rights and wrongs I made in my life are
what shaped the person I am today.
What are the possible next steps for you
My long term objective is to become a highlyskilled
financial analyst and open my own
financial consulting firm. I believe there is still
so much for me to learn, so on the short term I
plan to keep on acquiring experience from
different fields to develop my skills, in addition
to building a network of connections which is
vital for a private business.
What is it that attracts and excites you the
most about Finance What inspires you to
continue working in it
I have always been attracted to numbers in
general and that’s why I did a bachelor degree
in accounting which taught me how to deal
with numbers in a systematic way. However,
finance excites me as it enables me to see and
interpret a lot of the events around me in a
different way. Figures could be easily
misinterpreted if not presented in support of
the so many factors we learned during studying
finance.
What do you do to keep your financial skills
up to date
Once employed, we get shocked by the
workload and barely have time to learn new
things. What I’ve been doing to stay financially
updated is: watching/reading the daily financial
newspaper, participating in conferences and
financial related workshops (I was in Sudan for
the Sanabel’s Annual Microfinance Conference
in November 2012) and seeking training
programs provided by the companies I worked
for (received 2 international and 11 local
trainings in the past two years).
G G S B M S c I N F I N A N C E
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NEWSLETTER
GGSB MSc Finance
April 2013
Alumni Success Stories… some news from you!
Is there something that worries you about
the financial industry
What worries me is that despite the new
financial methods we hear about to prevent
financial crises, crises still hit and are
unpredictable. I once heard that “It is enough to
believe in a financial crisis for it to happen”,
while recovering from them costs a lot of time
and resources.
What, in your opinion, are the skills required
to become a high performing finance
professional
I believe that some of the key skills are paying
attention to details, be organized, problem
solving and having knowledge of different
financial software systems. However, these
skills could be found in many people and to be
distinguishable requires developing
interpersonal and managerial skills.
What would be a typical working day for
you A typical vacation day
On a typical working day (Sat-Wed) I would be
in my office from 8:00 am until 5:00 pm during
which I will be running the activities of the
finance department. I would also be having
almost daily meetings with the management
regarding our donors, budget, fund raising and
the status of the audit process. Other donors,
partners and bank related meetings are also
very common.
My program on a typical vacation day (Thu-Fri)
would be either spending time with friends and
family. But in all cases my program must
include sleeping as much as I can to
compensate for working hard during the week.
What are your most memorable moments at
GGSB
The best thing was the students’ diversity, as
the MSc Finance-London 08/09 class was made
of 26 students with 21 different nationalities.
The friends I made there were the main thing
that kept me going throughout the year, but
the memorable moment was when one of my
classmates from Colombia Fabio Hernández
asked me to be the best man at his wedding
which took place in London.
What advice do you have for the 2012-2013
MSc in Finance students
Back then, my flatmates kept telling me that I
had no life and I needed to go out more often.
My advice to the MSc in Finance 12/13 is the
same as my response to them: “It is okay to
spend more time studying and less time out if
your future depends on it”. Until now I believe I
did the right thing as this degree helped me a
lot to develop my career.
Sanaa, Yemen
G G S B M S c I N F I N A N C E
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NEWSLETTER
GGSB MSc Finance
News from your Faculty
April 2013
Ahmed EZZAT
As a GGSB post-graduate
Alumni and a practitioner in the
field of Market Finance for the
last 7 years, I was encouraged
t o e x p e r i e n c e t e a c h i n g
I n t e r n a t i o n a l F i n a n c i a l
Management in the MSc Finance
program. After consulting with
Professor Stephanie Boyer
“Program Director”, I was
assigned to teach at the
Singapore Campus. It was a
challenging opportunity due to
the fact that mastering the
technical tools required to teach
the course is something while
having the talent to deliver the
information in a prescribed
academic manner is a different
thing.
Although it’s a bit tough at the
first stance to be responsible
for coaching a class of 12
students especially if it’s your
first experience, I can assure
you that early and thorough
preparation of the material
paves the way for a successful
teaching.
Singapore is an amazing place:
highly multicultural, safe, great
shopping malls, excellent food
and good public transportation
(but expensive). The climate in
Singapore is tropical, so it is hot
and humid all year round and
almost every day it rains for a
short period of time.
Overall, it has been a great
experience and I strongly
encourage more GGSB Alumni
to give it a try.
GEM/GGSB around the world!
Finance Alumni Networking event in London on Thursday 23
May from 18:30 to 21:30.
GGSB is holding a series of networking events and is very pleased
to invite you to the next one, to be held in London on 23 May,
with the presence of Stéphanie Boyer, Philippe Dupuy, Asset
Management Professor and Monique Garnier, Alumni Manager.
This event will include an Inspirational keynote speaker speech on
quantitative investment, Marco Dion, Global Head of Equity Quant
Strategy, J.P. Morgan:
“How to use language recognition to invest in stock markets”
Venue: Radisson Blu Portman Hotel
To confirm your attendance, please click on this link Registration
Registration
G G S B M S c I N F I N A N C E
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NEWSLETTER
GGSB MSc Finance
April 2013
GGSB Graduation Ceremony (1/2)
The Ceremony took place on 16 March 2013. The fresh graduates
from the MSc Finance intake 5 Grenoble and intake 4 London had the
chance to receive their degrees on that day. And around 25 students
from the MSc Finance attended the ceremony!
We had the chance this year to have our class representative from
London to make a speech…
Maria KOUYOUMIJIAN
MSc Finance intake 4
Class Representative.
Let me begin by saying that I
am grateful for having been
given this opportunity to speak
to all of you. As Class
Representative, I had the
privileged of being involved in
the student experience. So
when I say that is truly an
honor to speak to a
distinguished audience, it is
because I KNOW how hard you
worked to get to where you are
now. Congratulations!! You
made it!
The Grenoble Graduate School
of Business is truly forging its
way upward! MSc Finance is
now in the top 10 of the
Financial Times ranks! And like
many of my colleagues, I am
extremely proud of our
achievements because this
M a s t e r s d e g r e e w a s
challenging… well, at least for
the MSc Finance students.
We watched yearningly as the
“cool” BIB and MIB students
organized parties and went on
their fun ski trips together. We
saw all the Facebook pictures.
And what were the MSc
Finance students doing for
“fun” Firstly, we did a
Statistical Analysis to find out
if in fact “the students”
coefficient of happiness
increased if the school fixes
their ventilation system and
provided us with more
oxygen” and secondly, we
drew a regression line to see if
possibly there was a positive
correlation between our grades
and the number of times we
complained to Stéphanie
Boyer.
The truth is we are truly
privileged to have shared this
unparalleled experience with
unique people: from our
outstanding professors (who
were stern but supportive) to
our diversified portfolio of
lifetime friendships. And we
are especially grateful for your
dedication, Stephanie Boyer, to
the MSc Finance program.
Fellow students, you have been
trained by this institution to
lead, not just to build your
resumes. A Masters degree
from Grenoble means that we
have been put through a
rigorous test of endurance and
tenacity, in exchange for a
newfound confidence in
ourselves. And along with our
instinct and impressive
achievement comes leadership
and professionalism.
G G S B M S c I N F I N A N C E
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NEWSLETTER
GGSB MSc Finance
April 2013
GGSB Graduation Ceremony (2/2)
We are entering a new
world, filled with new
i d e a s , n e w
technologies, new
f o r m s o f
communication, and
so I found in my
experience that the
following 3 principles
are very important:
∾ Be the inspiration
to the people around
you
∾ Don’t be afraid to
m a k e m i s t a k e s ,
always be open to
hearing and speaking
the truth and to tweak
yourselves constantly
t h e w o r l d ,
Muhammad Ali, which
motivated me during
the most intense time
of my life especially
when I was writing my
thesis. Hopefully they
will inspire you as
well to accomplish
any goal you want to
achieve.
IMPOSSIBLE IS
NOTHING
Congratulations to all
the graduates and
thank you very
much!”
∾ As I learned from
my own work on
Water Finance, our
responsibility is to try
to contribute to
society in a unique
way, being mindful
that the future of this
fragile planet is part
of our inheritance.
Lastly, I share with
you three little words
that I borrowed from
the most famous
boxing champion in
G G S B M S c I N F I N A N C E
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