On 30th March 2023, the Chair students arrived at the L'Oréal Beauty Tech campus for a Chair Seminar with Anke Hadasch, Global Vice President Color Science Métier and Digital Transformation at L'Oréal. The topic of the presentation was ‘It’s More Than Just a Color: How to Make the World More Inclusive?’. The seminar started with a foreword by Nina G Jablonski, Evan Pugh Professor of Anthropology at The Pennsylvania State University on the definition of inclusivity. Following this, Anke talked about the technical rationales behind color technology and how one can leverage data to make the shade range for cosmetics more inclusive, citing NYX Professional Make-up as a perfect example of the same. The Chair students got many helpful tips from her on their projects for designing an inclusive consumer experience during the Q&A.

Thus, the seminar not only helped the Chair students deep dive into the world of color science technology but also gave them an opportunity to incorporate this information into their projects with NYX.

On 23rd March 2023, the Chair students got the opportunity to connect with Clemence Poinsignon, Sustainable Sourcing- Social Initiatives Director at L'Oréal and ESSEC Alumni for a Chair Seminar on ‘Inclusive Sourcing Challenges’. It was an interactive session and students shared their understanding on the topic before handing the baton to Clemence. Clemence then spoke about L'Oréal’s ‘Solidarity Sourcing Program’ that aims to facilitate social inclusion, improve the main source of revenue for marginalised communities through fair sourcing, and promote supplier diversity by giving an equal opportunity to companies in disadvantaged situations.

The Chair students were thus inspired to tackle global inequality by having a sourcing-driven commitment in their future business endeavours.

On 16th March 2023, the Chair students arrived at L'Oréal Beauty Tech Campus for the Chair seminar on ‘Inclusive Leadership’ by Eva Azoulay, Global CPD Human Relations Director and Lamia Alkass Fleury, Global O+O Shopper Activation Director and Diversity, Leadership & Inclusion Lead. The seminar began with a tale called ‘A Peacock in the Land of Penguins’ that brought new insight to an important topic - workforce diversity. The discussion then delved into important actions and policies to correct internal bias, create equitable opportunities for all and the importance of starting at the top of the hierarchy to ensure Inclusive Leadership. Q&A on cross-cultural management and quantitative measurement of DE&I efforts concluded the event.

The Seminar unveiled various dimensions of Inclusive Leadership like effective collaboration and cultural intelligence. The Chair students took home a very important message that Inclusive Leadership is more about the small, circadian actions and less about the big, grand gestures!

On 16th February 2023 the Chair students had a virtual rendezvous with the multi talented Sylviane Ballustre, Director of L'Oréal Fund for Women, Fondation L'Oréal and Beauty program. Sylviane began the seminar by meticulously delineating the projects and processes involved in L'Oréal’s ‘Beauty for a Better Life’ and ‘L'Oréal Fund for Women’ initiatives with special focus on qualitative and quantitative impact analysis. The floor was then opened to the Chair students for the Q&A session, where they got more insights on how the company tracks progress of its initiatives, what KPIs they use for the same, and potential collaborations for the program.

The seminar was a resounding success and filled the Chair students with optimism and determinism to be the catalysts of change they want to see in the world.

On 9th February 2023, the Chair students gathered at L'Oréal Beauty Tech campus for an interactive session with armchair fencing champion and sports doctor, Maxime Valet. Maxime spoke passionately about his triumphs in the 2016 Rio Paralympics and the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics and the hurdles he overcame while transitioning from playing in the Olympics to playing in the Paralympics. He not only articulated the physical qualities one needs to master the sport but also stressed upon the importance of tactical strategy, experience and mental health. He brought to light several present-day realities regarding the visibility of para sports in the media, and the funds allocated to para sports by sports organizations around the world. 

This instilled a sense of determination in the students to spearhead the change in business policies towards differently-abled people in every sphere.

Our chair was joined by L'Oreal Solidarity Sourcing Director, Axelle Hallu to learn more about solidarity sourcing methodologies at L'Oreal and the importance of their impact in changing the industry's infrastructure and ecosystem. A program that started in 2010, L'Oreal's "Solidarity Sourcing" program directs a proportion of global purchases to suppliers who employ people from vulnerable communities to allow them to have durable access to work and income.

21st March, 2022 at 5 PM

Our chair had the joy of meeting the International Marketing Director Kérastase, Diane and learning more about how Kérastase became the world leader in professional haircare thanks to its unique positioning and pioneering innovation. She illuminated to our group how a brand contends with innovating whilst not compromising on its DNA and its rich history. Introducing us to the launch of the brands' curly hair care product line, Curl Manifesto, the students were able to understand how addressing a need is core to business savvy. 

March 28th, 2022 at 4:30 PM

The Leadership & Diversity Chair was joined by the Circular Economy Chair students to understand better where individual leaders and organizations can impact sustainability and societal equity. Alexandra answered an assortment of questions from our students ranging from current events and the intersection of historically held belief systems to defining equity and outlining how businesses must remain accountable for meeting and setting resilient KPIs.

Our students were left with a resounding message to build a backbone of values and to defend them whilst also remaining receptive, adaptive, and pragmatic! 

March 7th, 2022 at 5 PM

Yann Andrea is the International General Manager PRADA BEAUTY and an Essec Alumni. 

January 25th, 2022 from 4 PM to 5 PM  in the Grand Amphi. 

On March 18th 2021, we had the honor to invite ESSEC Alumni, Axelle Venot-Hallu, L’Oréal Solidarity Sourcing Director, as our speaker. After greeting everyone, she shared her life story with us and proved that it’s possible to balance family life and professionally life. Then she talked about how L’Oréal is carrying out solidarity sourcing by focusing on every stage of the supply chain, making sure Diversity & Inclusion is passed on to the extended eco-system. Afterwards, she shared her experience in China as L'Oréal Global Category Manager and how she helped the female workers

in Guangzhou by relocating the factories to rural areas. After speaking about several projects  managed by her, she posed a question that sparked insightful discussions among students.

The session begins with Trevor Shah, the Corporate Responsibility Manager at L’Oréal, giving a brief introduction about his background and work. Next, he gives us an insight into the sustainability and social program – L’Oréal for the future, which focuses on 4 key areas: Climate, Water, Biodiversity & Resources. Then he dives into the definition of a Brand Cause, and how it differs from Brand Purpose. He goes on with the description of the process that various L’Oréal brands follow to decide what cause or issue they want to towards. Then we get an elaborate explanation about L’Oréal’s recent International Women’s Day campaign called #StandUp, a program that provides trainings for both women and men to combat street sexual harassment they witness. The last part of the presentation shows how various brands across product lines have partnered with various NGOs and non-profits across the world to work on issues and causes that make sense for the brand. These issues vary from country to country. The floor was then opened to the students of the Chair to ask questions, and Trevor answered them, giving more insights on how the company tracks progress of all its initiatives, what KPIs they use for the same, and potential collaborations. 

On March 4th, we were honored to have our old friend Sylviane BALUSTRE-d'ERNEVILLE (L'Oréal Fund for Women Director, L’Oréal Foundation AVP Inclusive Beauty program, Executive Coach (ICF and Activision ACTP certification), French Foreign Trade Advisor (CCEF), Administrator) as a speaker. She began with an introduction of herself and her inspiring career path, especially her experiences as a human resource director in Kenya and her story with a team previously working for Yves-Saint-Laurent. Then she answered questions from chair students about the integration with the YSL team, criteria of Fund for Women organization of, and how to ensure inclusivity while using beauty to empower women. In to end, she introduced one of the pillars of the L’Oréal foundation: Women in Sciences. 

Alexandra Palt (Executive Vice-President Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer of L'Oréal and Executive Vice-President of the Foundation L'Oréal) first introduced herself, which includes her background and her experiences in the fight for human rights, especially on the issues of violence against women and women in prison. Then she focused primarily on Corporate Social Responsibility - what L’Oréal is doing on that frontier. Later discussions also centered on environmental sustainability, SDGs, and how corporations need to take into account the environmental footprint of their products and services. In the next part of her talk concerning how L’Oréal can tackle the issue of systemic racism, which is the main topic of the chair this year, she shed light on the initiatives being taken internally within the company in terms of recruitment, promotion and training. She also expressed her views on how and when corporations and brands can or should express their standpoints on major social issues happening in the world, especially those affecting their consumers, and how to be prepared for backlashes from certain sections of society at the same time. She ended the session with her vision of what Leadership today in society means - Corporate leaders that we need - people who are sincere, authentic and connected with society.