Holder : Thomas Froehlicher, General Director and Dean

Full Professor, HEC - Management School - University of Liege

On December 15, 2010, HEC Management School - University of Liege and Accenture (NYSE:ACN) announced the inauguration of the Accenture Chair in Sustainable Strategy. This three-year collaboration in research and teaching enhances the learning experience for students at HEC-ULg as it combines the research, knowledge and experience of Accenture Management Consulting with the research and academic know-how of HEC-ULg. The University Chair will also give organizations more insights into sustainable strategies by developing cases and sharing insights. The Accenture Chair in Sustainable Strategy combines HEC-ULg academic expertise with Accenture’s field experience and research on the world's most successful companies to offer a high-quality learning experience on sustainable strategy in a multi-polar world. Furthermore, the Chair wants to research and develop innovative learning materials with real life case studies of sustainable strategies, and perform research on the relationship between sustainable strategies and a organisations' performance.

The mission of Accenture Chair is thus to raise awareness and to develop (academic and executive) education as well as scientific research on Sustainable Strategy in a multi-polar world where concepts such as sustainable development become unavoidable. Indeed, firms and organisations (such as cities for example) now have to integrate more and more the three pillars of sustainable development (economic, environmental, social dimensions) in their strategy (see Accenture Research Survey). 

Accenture Chair in Sustainable Strategy has three fundamental objectives: 

• To provide a high-quality academic education in strategy and, in particular, in sustainable strategy. Two academic courses are currently concerned: 

  1. "International Strategy”, an academic course which provides first Master’s students in Management Science with the necessary basis in strategic management.

  2. "Sustainable Strategy in a Multi-Polar World", a three-week intensive seminar organized for all second Master’s students in January

• To contribute to scientific research in (Sustainable) Strategy and in Corporate Social Responsibility.

• To propose punctual conferences and executive education on these themes.

The use of various teaching methods including instructor lead sessions, conferences with international business leaders, reading portfolios and real-life case studies with active coaching by professors and management consultants from Accenture will further add to the experience.

Testimonial

“Our High Performance Business Research shows that the importance of sustainable development in an increasingly multi-polar world continues to grow”, says Fernand Dimidschstein, Managind Director for Accenture Management Consulting for France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. “Organizations need to embrace all three pillars of sustainable development - economic, environmental and social sustainability - and develop sustainable strategies. Students in management need to receive education on sustainable strategies to better prepare them for their careers.”

“During the Chair curriculum, our students work on a real-life case study on sustainable strategy”, says Prof. Dr. Thomas Froehlicher, Director General and Dean of HEC-ULg “We will coach students who delivered the five best case studies on how to create and present a case presentation. They will then present their work during a closing event where they will join top industry speakers in front of business leaders, HEC-ULg Alumni and top people from Accenture.”

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With more than 244,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$25.5 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2011. Website: www.accenture.com.

Academic year 2011-2012

Useful documents

Folder

Images

Rudi Thomaes (Administrator - FEB)

Sabine Denis (Director - Business & Society Belgium)

Don Minday (ESC Rennes School of Business)

Christian Du Tertre (Université Paris Diderot)

François Jegou (Strategic Design Scenarios sprl)

Jacques Teller (Lepur, ULg)

Jean de Lame (UWE)

Cédric Vatier (Accenture)

Bruno Berthon (Accenture)

Discussion de Panel avec Françoise Lejeune (SPI), Jean-Philippe Despontin (Spadel), Guenaël Devillet (Segefa), Florence Detalle (AREBS), Latifa Es Safi (Ville de Liège), Benjamin Blaise (Basse Meuse Développement) et Jacques Pélerin (GRE, UWEL)

Videos

Academic year 2010-2012

Useful documents

Accenture Chair presentation during the launch event

Accenture Chair presentation folder

Three-week Accenture seminar

Images

Accenture Chair launch

Videos

Accenture Chair Seminar

Fernand Dimidschstein interview about the Accenture Chair

Thomas Froehlicher interview about the Accenture Chair

Contact

Nathalie Crutzen, PhD, Assistant Professor, Accenture Chair in Sustainable Strategy, ncrutzen@ulg.ac.be

Platform

Sustainable Strategy

Holder : Danielle Sougné, PhD

Professor in the Finance Dept

Head of the Finance and Law Department

Under the KBL Chair in Fund Industry, Professor Danielle Sougné's research focuses on the management and administration of funds in an international environment, and is carried out in the particular context of the Luxemburg Financial Center, one of the largest in the world, where the investment funds industry is one of the main activities.

Professor Sougné's current research is centered on the determinants of credit spreads and funds' administration technology. As part of this Chair, she will open, for the 2010-2011 academic year, a new course called "Fund Industry" for students in the second year of a Masters at HEC Business School or at ULg's Faculty of Law. This course will cover all the legal, accounting and financial aspects of investment funds.  Professor Sougné will call on various high-level practitioners. Professor in the Finance Dept

Testimonial

« The Luxemburg Financial Center" is the uncontested leader in the European investment funds industry and in this industry KBL European Private Bankers plays a leading role.

In order to assure its development, and its continued placing in the financial world, KBL European Private Bankers particularly needs and will need high-quality staff who have gained transversal skills during their university education. It therefore seemed opportune to us to join forces with a Management School and a well-reputed university, close to Luxemburg, to launch a training program which covers all the skills necessary for the operational management of investment funds, including law, economics, taxation, accountancy and financial engineering. The idea of setting up a specially-dedicated Chair appealed to us and the project presented to us by HEC-ULg fulfilled all our expectations."

Rafik Fischer, General Director, Head of Global Investor Services, KBL European Private Bankers

Peak of Excellence

Asset & Risk Management

Holder : Aline Muller, PhD, Course convener. Aline.Muller@ulg.ac.be

Through the teaching activities and research of Professor Aline Muller, the Chair is dedicated to questions of management, investment and policies on international finance as well as the economics of development.

Professor Aline Muller's research program, "Risks of Political, Economic and Financial Instability: the Role and Implications for International Financial Markets" aims to create, develop and use new areas of research in international finance, through an interactive research dialogue using empirical financial techniques and experimental financial initiatives. The teaching activities and the professional expertise of the Ethias Chair are centered on international finance: derivative instruments, risk management and empirical analysis of financial markets. 

Testimonial

“The Ethias char is the ideal way to link theory with oractice. In our everyday business we are confronted with a permanent changing situation and evolution of the financial markets. These changes provide an opportunity for researchers of the chair to study and interpret new phenomena and to try to put them into models which are useful for portfolio managers. Ethias is proud to cooperate and sustain the research work and to give students the occasion to discover the real world during their studies. It is a way of preparing them for their future working life and of discovering how financial markets really work. We're also pleased with the many initiatives which are taken by the university in these matters.”

Benoît Verwilghen

CFO Ethias sa

Peak of Excellence

Asset & Risk Management

Deloitte Professor of Financial Management at HEC-ULg

Affiliate Professor at EDHEC (Lille/Nice)

Co-Founder and Scientific Director of Gambit Financial Solutions SA

The activities of Professor Georges Hübner, holder of the Deloitte Chair, are essentially centered on operational and financial risk management in the banking industry and asset management. The collaboration with Deloitte aims to carry out applied research to improve best practices in risk assessment and financial performance. 

Testimonial

“With more than 60 alumni and a large representation in executive positions, Deloitte Luxembourg has always betted, not only on the quality of teaching but also on the excellent personal profiles of HEC-Ulg  graduates. The success of the business school is our best asset over time. Our support to the professorship along with our recognition of its  mutual benefits is best evidence thereof.” Yves Francis, Managing Partner Deloitte Luxembourg & Alumni of HEC-ULg Business School

Peak of Excellence

Asset & Risk Management

Holder : Sybille MERTENS, Ph.D in Economics

Holder of the Cera Chair in Social Entrepreneurship

Professor at HEC-ULg in Management of Social Enterprises

Member of the Center for Social Economy

www.ces.ulg.ac.be

Founded in 2000, the CERA Chair in Social Entrepreneurship is the fruit of a partnership between the Center for Social Economy (University of Liege) and the cooperative financial group CERA.

The CERA Chair has an essential mission to establish and develop within the university framework, support for entrepreneurship and management in social economy. The CERA Chair achieves this by setting itself three fundamental objectives: offering high-quality education in social and cooperative economy; improving knowledge of the social economy sector; and supporting social entrepreneurship. It therefore aims at three target groups: students enrolled in programs studying economics and management and human and social sciences, managers and entrepreneurs in the area of social economy as well as everyone interested in social entrepreneurship.

In order to achieve its mission and reach the various target groups, the CERA Chair organizes its activities around five areas of work:

• Research
• Training
• Publications
• Events
• Expertise

The CERA Chair is also associated with other actors and research centers in partnerships which aim to pool the experience, knowledge and skills of each partner in the area of social entrepreneurship. 

Peak of Excellence

Social Entreprises and Social Economy

Holder : Jean Tondeur, Associate Professor

Marketing director HEC-ULg Executive School

Established on the 1st of September 2010, the ASE Chair in "Strategic Intelligence" is the product of a partnership between HEC-ULg Executive School and l'Agence de Stimulation Economique Wallonne.

The fundamental aim of the ASE Chair is to create, in collaboration with ASE, a transversal skills platform, at the disposoal of Walloon SME in the field of Strategic Intelligence. 

To meet its goal and reach different target groups, the ASE Chair is based on 5 lines of work:

• Foreign good practice benchmarking 

• Conception, organization, promotion and assessment of training programs meeting enterprises needs.

• lifelong learnings and certification of a pool of walloon consultants specialized in Strategic Intelligence

• Stimulation and framing of applied researches

• Frequent publication of popularization articles in the economic press.

Additional informations

ASE Strategic Intelligence Resources Center

Peak of Excellence

Asset & Risk Management

Thanks to a partnership with PriceWaterhouseCoopers-Luxembourg, HEC-ULg Management School has set up a room equipped with 25 work stations allowing students to monitor national and international market prices in real time and to do financial simulations.

The virtual market room gives students the opportunity to study financial markets through real cases and apply the concepts studied in their courses. Students therefore acquire solid experience and a good knowledge of the professional tools and working conditions that will be theirs in their future careers.  The virtual market room is also accessible to businesses who wish to use it as a study and/or research laboratory. The virtual market room at HEC-ULg Business School is unique in the Belgian francophone community and provides students, professors and businesses with the infrastructure which allows them to benefit from all the information they need to improve their theoretical and practical knowledge in the different financial domains. 

Peak of Excellence

Asset & Risk Management

HEC-ULg created a joint chair in Diversity Management with Hasselt University.

This Chair is under the responsibility of Professor Annie Cornet, EGiD, HEC-ULg and of Patrizia Zanoni, SEIN (Identity, Diversity & Inequality Research) Director, at Hasselt University.

Launch of this Chair will take place on the 24th of april at the GDF-Suez office in Brussels

The Chair takes an interest in

• gender : women but also men, victims of stereotypes, gendered representations structuring and justifying segmentations, prioritization phenomenons and exclusion,

• To the situation of persons of foreign origins, sometimes called visible minorities in their position towards employment but also as consumers and users, likely to evolve organizations, products and services.

• To the professional integration of handicaped persons.

• To professional insertion prospects for different age categories.

The Chair also takes interest in actions about the subject of social responsibility, defined as the employers voluntary integration of social issues in their business activities and in their relations with stakeholders, in which the diversity management policies are involved. 

Some research centers deal with this issue:

• EGiD: Genre et Diversité en Gestion - HEC-ULg

• SEIN: Identity, Diversity & Inequality Research - Hasselt University

Partners of this Chair are GDF-Suez, Mobistar and SNCB

Peak of Excellence

Human Resources Management and Organizational Change