Press release Sustainability speaks out at HEC Paris Jouy en Josas, 30th September 2009 From Yann Arthus Bertrand on Sep 16th to Rajendra Kumar Pachauri on October 15th, HEC Paris places sustainable issues at the heart of its new school year. HEC Paris has embraced sustainability alongside corporate social responsibility and business ethics as an integral element of its curricula. To maintain its commitment to a more responsible and informed corporate environment, HEC Paris will welcome Rajendra Kumar Pachauri on October 15th 2009, and will appoint him HEC Professor Honoris Causa. An economist and environmental scientist of immense repute, Pachauri is presently the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He is also the DirectorGeneral of TERI (Tata Energy Research Institute) - an institute dedicated to sustainable development. Pachauri was in the limelight recently when IPCC, along with the former US Vice President Al Gore, won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 and Pachauri received the award on behalf of IPCC. During his visit to the HEC campus, Pachauri will engage students in a lecture focused on environmental issues and the problem of global warming. “HEC has long been at the heart of sustainable business education through its long-standing involvement in sustainable development programs” says Bernard Ramanantsoa, Dean of HEC Paris. “We nurture this responsibility through our commitment to teaching sustainability and business ethics.” HEC Paris has invested dedicated faculty resources to address issues related to sustainable development. Six years ago HEC launched a Specialized Master’s program on sustainability (2003) and has led the Deloitte Chair on Energy Management since 2006. Positive Management has been fully integrated as a key learning process throughout the HEC Paris MBA Program. “Positive Management has developed a cutting-edge, holistic approach to building participants’ ethical awareness” explains Valérie Gauthier, Associate Dean of the HEC MBA program. “Initiatives like the Social Business Conference, the integration of Mission and Action Projects, the introduction of courses covering sustainable business practices, and the launch of the carbon neutrality initiative reflect an ongoing commitment to forecasting and meeting the changing needs of global business”. To introduce HEC’s newest students to the necessity of sustainability, the MSc, MBA and Executive MBA programs welcomed their new student intakes with a compelling inaugural address from Yann Arthus Bertrand, the renowned French photographer, film-maker and environmental activist as President of GoodPlanet. Arthus Bertrand forcefully underlined the need for the current generation of students to assume responsibility for man’s impact on the planet, and achieve positive change through alternative solutions to the energy crisis. About HEC Paris Founded in 1881, HEC specializes in management education and research. HEC offers a complete and unique range of academic programs for the leaders of the future: the Masters Degrees (MSc programs and Specialized Masters), the MBA program (full-time and part-time), the Executive MBA (Paris, Beijing, Shanghai and St Petersburg), the TRIUM Global Executive MBA (New York, Paris and London) and the PhD. HEC has a permanent faculty of 111 professors, 3,400 students on its campus and over 8,500 managers and executives trained in executive education programs each year. Altogether, 98 different nationalities are represented on the 320-acre campus. HEC Paris is ranked #1 Business School in Europe by the Financial Times. Press contact at HEC Paris: Elisabeth de Réals, + 33 1 39 67 94 23 dereals@hec.fr