On 11 July 2007, ESSEC signed a partnership agreement with Air France, L'Oréal and Deloitte, creating what was then the Chaire Diversité & Performance. The signature took place at Deloitte's offices, with Pierre Tapie for ESSEC, Alain Malka, Human Resources Director, for Air France, Bertrand de Laleu for L'Oréal and Amadou Raimi for Deloitte. The name set out the wager plainly: that diversity was not only a social question but a driver of performance. In 2012 the Chair was renamed ESSEC Leadership and Diversity Chair, recognising the role of responsible leadership in an environment shaped by diversity in all its forms.

As the Chair enters its 20th year, it has trained 369 students from more than 27 countries across five continents, who have carried out around 100 projects with our partner firms. Five books have been published with international academic publishers. And in 2015 and 2016, two successive cohorts built an online course on diversity and inclusion as their Chair project. Published on Coursera in 2017, it has since reached close to 59,000 learners, is available in 22 languages and holds a rating of 4.7 out

 of 5.

L'Oréal has accompanied the Chair throughout these twenty years. In 2026, Air France, a signatory on that first day in 2007, rejoins the Chair.