- Delphine Arnault, LVMH CEO’s daughter, received the award as part of the school’s annual alumni event, EDHEC Rendezvous, which brings together hundreds of alumni from across the globe
EDHEC Business School, a Financial Times Top 10 European Business School, held its annual alumni event, EDHEC Rendezvous, on June 9 at a rooftop urban farm and restaurant in Paris. During the event, alumni awarded Delphine Arnault – a 1998 EDHEC graduate who is Executive Vice President of Louis Vuitton and the daughter of LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault – the school’s highest alumni prize.
The alumni event offered a hybrid format (in-person and virtual) that gave EDHEC graduates the chance to reminisce with classmates from EDHEC campuses in Nice and Lille and strengthen and expand professional connections. The EDHEC Alumni Association represents 50,000 graduates from 127 countries. It organizes more than 500 events annually to help members reach new career goals. There are 81 EDHEC Alumni Clubs in 45 countries, including India.
Alumni prizes are a highlight of the EDHEC Rendezvous. This year, four alumni – each with a unique vision of entrepreneurship, innovation, and societal impact – were celebrated for their impressive achievements in creating a more sustainable world. Besides Delphine Arnault, the winners were:
- Benjamin Blanchard, a 2016 graduate and general manager of Murphy, a start-up that aims to encourage the recycling of home appliances
- Jeremy Odoux, a 2003 graduate and managing partner of Blue Gate, a consulting firm that helps French companies create new businesses in Asia
- Victoire de Lapasse, a 2018 graduate and co-founder of Neptune Elements, a start-up that produces condiments from dried seaweed
Delphine Arnault received the EDHEC Alumni of the Year award because of her ambition to have a positive impact on the world, which aligns perfectly with EDHEC’s “Make an Impact” mission. In 2013, she created the LVMH Prize to celebrate brilliant young fashion creators, and she is behind numerous LVMH projects to encourage upcycling and bio-sourcing, and to create a more sustainable economy and planet in general.
“EDHEC provides the education that students need to transform the world, and in doing so, it serves future generations,” Delphine Arnault wrote in her acceptance letter. “I support the school’s educational mission because I believe business can help solve society’s biggest problems and move the global economy forward.”
Delphine Arnault is the daughter of Bernard Arnault, the CEO of LVMH, a worldwide luxury Group with iconic brands such as Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, Bulgari, Moët & Chandon, and Hennessy, to name a few. Bernard Arnault donated a large property in Roubaix, France, to EDHEC in 2021. The property was where his grandfather started the family’s construction business and where his grandparents had an elegant home.
Today, the property – named the Jean Arnault Campus in honor of Bernard Arnault’s grandfather – houses the EDHEC Entrepreneurs startup incubator and classrooms for L’Institut des Vocations pour l’Emploi, which helps low-income adults learn new skills and rejoin the workforce. The institute is chaired by Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron and France’s First Lady.
