Theme: Oxymores...

Showing through our oxymorons the contradictions and preconceived ideas that shape our -real or perceived- world, and may prevent us to grow as individuals, organizations, or societies.

Avenue Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Conservatoire Darius Milhaud
Aix en Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, 13100
France

Amina Zeghal

Amina Bouzguenda-Zeghal est Directrice Générale de l’Université Paris-Dauphine |Tunis, premier campus de l’Université Paris Dauphine à l’international.Avant d’arriver à Dauphine, Amina était adjoint au doyen, à la MSB de Tunis et professeur associée spécialisée dans les sciences de la décision. Elle a effectué un passage à la Kellogg School of Management de Chicago, en 2007 et à la Columbia Business School de New-York en 2008 en tant Fulbright scholar.Elle est Docteur en mathématiques appliquées à la finance de l’Université de Paris Dauphine. Elle complète sa formation par un Executive MBA puis un certificat en Leadership à l’INSEAD en 2013. Au lendemain de la révolution, Amina a fondé une association et s’est associée à Advans dans le domaine de la microfinance en Tunisie.

Christophe Pradère

Following his international studies in marketing between Paris, Berkeley, Tokyo and Beijing and a design training at the Milan Domus Academy, Christophe Pradère began his career in Asia as Brand Design Manager for a skincare brand.His career then led him to Euro RSCG Design where he was responsible strategically for the corporate pole and creatively for the retail pole, earning the trust of numerous major brands. At the end of 2000, Christophe Pradère created a global design entity for the innovative and prestige industries markets, integrated in the heart of BETC Euro RSCG, that he renamed BETC Design six years later. Christophe Pradère rethinks the brand experience through a holistic approach to design, enriched by anthropology and sociology. He founded a new global strategic and creative method, expressed in the concept of brand rituals. With this methodology, the brand experiences can be developed through the creation of products, services and places.

Elisabeth Grosdhomme-Lulin

Elisabeth consacre l’essentiel de son temps à observer les signaux faibles, imaginer les scénarios d’avenir qu’ils nous suggèrent et construire des stratégies permettant de tirer le meilleur parti de ces futurs possiblesFormée à la fois aux sciences et aux lettres, Elisabeth s’attache à comprendre les bouleversements de notre temps avec la rigueur de l’enchaînement des causes et des conséquences et avec l’imagination des artistes et des inventeurs. Une moitié de son activité actuelle et de son parcours antérieur comme haut fonctionnaire, administrateur de sociétés cotées ou membre de cabinets ministériels, s’inscrit dans les grandes organisations, les pouvoirs établis, la vision systémique du monde et la conduite de vastes ensembles. L’autre moitié, à l’inverse – comme entrepreneur, fondatrice d’un think tank, présidente d’une école de design – s’enracine dans l’expérience de l’innovation, de la sérendipité, du changement émergent, de la contestation de l’ordre établi.

Jacqueline Franjou

Figure importante de l’industrie française, Jacqueline Franjou est depuis 2010 le DG du Women’s Forum for the Economy and the Society (Publicis Groupe). Elle a occupé des postes à responsabilité dans le secteur privé, notamment auprès de Cegos, Air France et Vivendi (Nexity-SFR-SNCM). Elle a été chargée de mission auprès du Ministre de l’Industrie et du Commerce extérieur en 1991. Fondatrice du Festival de théâtre de Ramatuelle, elle est fortement investie dans le milieu culturel français. Fondatrice également de plusieurs festivals internationaux de photographie. Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, Officier du Mérite National et Officier de la Légion d’Honneur. Elle est lauréate du grand prix du rayonnement français à l’international, décerné par le Ministère des Affaires étrangères et du Sénat en 2014. Jacqueline Franjou est membre du Conseil d’administration de Vranken Pommery.

Jean-Paul Biberian

Jean-Paul Biberian, est enseignant-chercheur à Aix-Marseille Université, il est ingénieur en physique nucléaire et électronique, et Docteur ès-sciences. Il a travaillé pendant 43 ans sur son domaine de recherche de base, l’étude des surfaces des matériaux. Depuis 23 ans, il mène ses recherches dans le domaine de la fusion froide et des transmutations biologiques. Depuis son départ à la retraite il y a trois ans, il continue ses recherches dans son laboratoire privé.

Jean-Philippe Dambreville

Trompettiste, premier prix des CNR en direction d’orchestre, Jean-Philippe Dambreville a enseigné son instrument dès l’âge de 16 ans. En 1992, il fonde l’ensemble de Cuivres de Rouen. Il dirige les Écoles de Musique de Rouen, le Conservatoire de Beauvais, avant de prendre la direction du Conservatoire Darius-Milhaud en 2012. Il participe en 2007 à la master class de la Neeme Järvi Summer Academy avec l’Orchestre Philharmonique de La Haye, dans laquelle il dirige le Concerto pour Orchestre de Béla Bartók. En 2008, il a dirigé le St Petersburg Festival Orchestra en Estonie.

Linda Bortoletto

Linda Bortoletto began her career as an Officer for the French Air Force, in a search for action, extremes and movement. She wanted to become a fighter pilot but her dream was shattered, due to a medical problem. She joined the French National Police Force where she commanded more than 150 policemen serving the community for 4 years. At 27 years of age, she was promoted to the rank of Captain. Three years later, she decided to end this promising career in order to build projects in her image ‘’beyond every boundary’’ and to explore the world, others and herself. She left on a lone expedition to meet the Kamchatka nomad people, in the extreme east of Siberia. During several months, she followed the transhumance of reindeer. She then crossed Alaska alone on a bicycle, lived with Buddhist nuns in the heart of the Zanskar, crossed Kyrgyzstan running…. She now gives conferences which aim to promote values such as sharing, bravery and perseverance, respect for oneself and others.

Moran Cerf

Moran Cerf is a professor of Business (Kellogg School of Management) and Neuroscience. His research uses methods from brain research to understand the underlying mechanisms of our psychology. In addition, he is the Alfred P. Sloan professor of screenwriting at the American Film Institute.He works with patients undergoing brain-surgery to study behavior, emotion, decision making and dreams, by directly recording the activity of individual nerve cells using electrodes implanted in their brain. Recently, his focus has been on the neural mechanisms that underlie decision-making, thereby offering a new perspective on predicting future choices and investigating how much free will we have in our decisions. Prior to his academic career, Dr. Cerf spent nearly a decade in industry, holding managerial and development positions in computers security, pharmaceutical, telecom, Fashion, software development, and innovations development.

Nathalie Loiseau

Nathalie Loiseau joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1986 and then embarked on an international career as a diplomat for 20 years.She combined these activities with a busy family life.She held the delicate position of spokesperson for the French Embassy in the United States for a period of 5 years, just after the attacks of September 11th 2001. In 2011, she became Executive Director of Administration at the Quai d’Orsay (French Ministry of Foreign Affairs). As Director of ENA since 2012, despite not having studied there, she thus represents a new facet of this institution. She has since been working for diversity in the access to the school and for reforming its curriculum. She has also published a widely acclaimed book, in which she addresses women’s choices in their professional lives, associated with those in their personal lives. As a graduate of Sciences Po Paris (where she entered at age 16) and of INALCO in Chinese, Nathalie Loiseau is now a plenipotentiary minister.

Olivier Oullier

Olivier Oullier is professor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at Aix-Marseille University. He also teaches at the universities of Oxford and Geneva. Building on his laboratory and field work in psychology, behavioral economics, complex systems and neuroscience, he has developed new operational methods to measure the gap between what people say or think they do (intention) and what they do in real life (action) to improve communication, engagement and beha­vior change in organizations. As the proud father of eight-year-old twin daughters, he co-founded Generation K to better understand young individual and em­power them to lead achieve their dreams.

Peter Alfandary

French educated, Italian speaking, English lawyer, Peter Alfandary describes himself as a mildly schizophrenic Brit. After 30 years practicing as an international lawyer, Peter decided to turn his lifelong fascination with different cultures into a full-time occupation – training and coaching professionals and senior executives on cross cultural management skills. He passionately believes that the need for cultural intelligence is increasingly critical as we move inexorably towards greater globalisation.Film and jazz buff, avid reader, Peter travels the world advising businesses and lecturing on cross cultural skills. His passion for his subject is only equalled by his other passion, Huguette, his Citroen 2CV which he proudly drives around London.

Rebecca Abergel

Rebecca Abergel is a Staff Scientist in the Chemical Sciences Division and the Deputy Director of the Institute for Resilient Communities at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley.Her research program is dedicated to the coordination chemistry of heavy elements in different biological systems, with various therapeutic and environmental applications. Rebecca leads a large collaborative effort on the development of new drug products for the treatment of populations contaminated with radionuclides. One of these products was granted an Investigational New Drug status from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2014. Rebecca has been actively involved in establishing the new Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Institute for Resilient Communities, the radiological component of which was sparked by the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident.

Renaud Gaucher

Passionate about social sciences (and salsa), Renaud graduated in history, psychology and financial economics. Through his studies, he developed a genuine scientific cross-cultural sensitivity that led him to become an expert on mixed topics such as happiness and public policies as well as well-being at work and financial performance.Author of several pioneering books on the science of happiness and its applications, including Bonheur et politiques publiques (Happiness and Public Policies (2012) and La psychologie positive ou l’étude scientifique du meilleur de nous-même (The positive psychology or the Scientific Study of the Best in Ourself (2010), he was a history professor for nearly a decade, then became a researcher and a consultant in happiness economics. He recently did a 6-month, quantitative, scientific study on happiness at work and financial performance for a major French company.

Reto Wittwer

Reto Wittwer has served over the past 30 years as the CEO of top luxury hotel chains.A man of taste, he has worked and lived on five continents and has transformed his industry by pioneering lifestyle experiences even in unexpected places. A true citizen of the world, Swiss born, speaking 9 languages colloquially, Reto is not only a caring person by profession; as close to the staff as he was to his executives and his clients, he always has a different look at things, people and cultures.

Sylvain KERN

Lors de ses études à la Sorbonne, Sylvain Kern fait la rencontre de Jacques Huybrechts et Christian Auboyneau.Partageant les mêmes aspirations, ils ont un ‘déclic’ en juin 1988 : ils souhaitent investir les amphithéâtres de leur prestigieuse université pour y organiser des débats entre personnalités du monde politique, économique, scientifique et culturel autour d’un thème imposé, sous le regard et les questions des étudiants. Les trois jeunes gens créent leur société d’événementiel CHK pour lancer, entre autres, leur projet « la Cité de la Réussite ». Aujourd’hui, Sylvain Kern, gentilhomme énergique, altruiste, et résolument optimiste, est toujours un « homme heureux » et prépare la 20ème édition (2016) avec pour ambition un développement international.

Vineet Nayar

Vineet Nayar is the former CEO of HCL Technologies, founder of the Sampark Foundation and author of a book that is considered as a revolution in management, Employees First, Customers Second. He not only states simple philosophical principles but also applies them successfully: his company has succeeded the challenge of tripling its turnover ($4.2 billions today). Vineet Nayar has been elected best employer in Asia. His very simple idea of « management by trust » through challenging conventional management practices, was described by the American Fortune magazine as “the most modern management in the world”.He later created his charitable organization Sampark (“to be in contact” in Hindi), focused on the training of teachers. He is thus considered as the man who is resolving India’s problems. Indeed, in a country where tens of millions of children are dropping out of school, Vineet Nayar explains that he wants to “have an impact on millions of lives”.

Yves Grandmontagne

As a trained vet, he started his career in the animal health industry, holding various positions, before entering the world of human resources. For 7 years, he was the Human Resources Director for a major pharmaceutical company in France and then migrated toward the digital sector between 2010 & 2015, working for the global leader in computing. Thus, “at the heart of the digital reactor”, he experienced the digital transformation that is currently shaking the world of work and realized the challenges involved, thanks to his contact with various public and private companies. Yves is now a top management advisor, spreading best practices and innovation to leverage the digital revolution in human resources management.