Our school was founded in 1984 and strangely enough …so was our network!
The 80’s: The AAE ESCG & the pioneer years!
It all started as an idea thought up by the school’s founding members. In order to help students find internships and jobs, they had to establish contacts with different companies, get the first steps set up, and support the first graduating class of the school. Who better to do that than an alumni network? And just like that, the idea to create a non-existing alumni network was born. They began with a silly idea of asking alumni of other business schools to take up the cause. Many agreed to play along, and so the Association des Anciens Elèves de l’Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Grenoble (Association of Former Students of Grenoble Business School) was born!
Passing the torch to the first graduating class
During the very first Gala in June 1987, the school’s director, Jean-Paul Léonardi, symbolically gave the keys to the network to Hélène Pelloux, GEM PGE 1987, and Nicolas Ceccaldi, GEM PGE 1987. They took the honor very seriously and are still involved in our network today.
Student associations: Fertile ground for the network to grow
The early years laid the foundation for what would later become France’s largest concentration of student associations. The first graduating classes were responsible for starting projects, coming up with concepts, and establishing traditions that are still strong today: Les Jeux Olympub which later became GEM Altigliss Challenge, and of course the first rivalry “battles” between the Junior Entreprise (now known as GEM Junior Conseil), and the BDS. They also set up a classic style BDE (Bureau des Eleves - student committee). Another group of students established a partnership with students from Grenoble INP called “Forum Odysée de l’Entrerprise”. The idea was to get recruiters from Paris to come in order to facilitate the job and internship hunt for students.
From a satirical perspective and a bit of cringe-worthy humor, we must not forget the launch of the “Yeti”, the “abominable snow school” newspaper complete with its typewritten articles – a real vintage artifact!
Year after year, these projects brought together groups of peers and friends that are still going strong today.
Class lists: the primitive version of an alumni directory
Originally used by the school’s administration to identify students, the Yeti repurposed the class lists by printing an issue with the photos, names, addresses and phone numbers of alumni from the first three classes. This essential tool was printed in black and white and stapled together. It was a precursor to LinkedIn and Tinder that people used constantly.
By the time the 2000s came around, it had evolved to a paperback book and renamed “TékiToi” (T’es qui toi - who are you).
The 90s: the paper years!
The World Wide Web was born in 1991, but while waiting for it to revolutionize the world, the network continued its paper trail.
Printed Directory
A colossal job to keep updated and read for edits, this printed directory was produced every year from 1995- 2001. In 1997, email addresses were added!
“Antirouille”: The network newspaper
Despite its chaotic printing schedule, each 18-20 page issue included cover stories, news from the network, and updates about life at school. We got a kick out of rereading one of the articles in the 5th issue focused on what might be the future of CDs following the war between Sony and Philips, the minidisc and the digital compact cassette (very promising). A special dedication to the author, Christophe Bardy PGE 1991.
Available on a subscription basis, each issue cost 20 Francs. The last issue we have in our records is number 25, from May 2000. The cover story was about gender balance and equality at work … no comment …
Former student services at the career center
In 1996, the school launched the “Career Center”, three main services were offered:
- Employment with Laurence Delpech
- Internship help with Rose-Marie Quineau
- And the “former student” services with Françoise Mouchot PGE 1989 who was responsible for coordinating the network
The “Career Newsletter”
Another subscription service, this typewritten newsletter was published every 2 weeks. Featuring job offers organized by position, sector, and region, it was a gold mine of information for finding your future job. In 1995, it shared 3,300 offers. This service ended at the end of the 90s.
The network’s first get-together in the new building
To kick off the academic year in 1992, the school moved to its new location in Grenoble’s Europole neighborhood. Right next to the train station, it was a daring choice at the time considering the neighborhood’s notorious reputation. The arrival of the “Palais de Justice” in the 2000s solidified the neighborhood as a business district, and the proximity to the train station proved to be an obvious advantage.
Our records indicate the first network get-together organized by the AAE ESCG took place at the school in November 1993. Please let us know if you have any photos or other archives from this event – we’d love to see them!
The 2000s: digitalization, inclusivity, and the rise of the GIT-SIT!
The AAE ESCG would disappear by the end of the millennium in favor of a new association: DESC: Diplômés de l’Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Grenoble (Alumni of Grenoble Business School).
The first website: mti-brothers.com
2001 was a pivotal year that modernized the way we did things: the printed directory was replaced by the launch of our first website. Called mti-brothers, it adopted its style from the blues brothers: black fedora and sunglasses, a bar scene as a backdrop and a limo to highlight the VIP aspect of alumni.
It included an online directory and individual profiles. This internal initiative was led by Susan Nallet and her team. Once per year, a memorandum was sent to each alumnus/a to make sure the information on their profile was still correct, a meticulous process carried out by Marie Ruzzin.
An inclusive network…
In 2001, the rules changed: students became members of the association. They were allowed to be board members but not to hold office. They had access to the directory and were offered reduced membership fees.
In 2004, the English version of the site was launched. The first class of the MIB program had already been alumni for 5 years. Initiatives to include international alumni were rolled out.
Getting organized …
In 2003, the first ever GIT-SIT (Get in touch, stay in touch) took place in Grenoble. The idea behind the events was simple, the alumni met up at a bar and everyone came and went as they wished. There was just one rule: pay for whatever you order! The GIT-SIT quickly expanded to Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Luxembourg, Lille…
Behind each city’s chapter was a motivated alumnus/a volunteer who stepped up to kick off a local alumni community. In 2018, these events were renamed “get-togethers” and in 2019 the alumni volunteers became known as the “Alumnizers”.
Maturing …
In 2007, the first graduating class celebrated its 20-year reunion. Héléne Pelloux PGE 1987 (see section about the 80s) rallied the troops to plan the celebration of this symbolic passage into the “golden years”.
In 2008, the torch was passed to Christine Coupé PGE 1988 who took the party up to Grenoble’s Bastille, a memorable evening for all involved! Celebrating class reunions became a continuing tradition.
Becoming professional …
With Christophe Mathevet PGE 1989 as a catalyst, the school agreed to sign a partnership to transfer a portion of the network’s organization from an internal team at school to the association.
In 2007, the first position was created at 50 hours per year.
...And changing names again!
By this point, the network included alumni from 40 different programs, 1/3 of which only spoke English. The school rebranded as GEM: Grenoble Ecole de Management, and you guessed it, the association followed suit! In 2007, the DESC became GEM GN: Grenoble Ecole de Management Graduate Network.
The 2010s: Social media and defending the value of our diplomas
Despite the fact that LinkedIn had already existed for 2 years by the time Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook in 2004, it would take until the beginning of the 2010s before social media would completely invade our daily digital life. Our network adapted and strove to highlight our alumni on these new platforms.
Alumni world tours
In an effort to continuously develop our network and recruit new volunteers, between 2010 and 2012, many “alumni world tours” were initiated by students nearing the end of their coursework. In this fashion, Marie Grange MSE 2012-PGE 2011 had a significant impact on the structure of our international network.
The GEM of the Year Awards
Created in 2011, the GEM of the Year Awards have become an annual tradition ever since. The nominees are chosen among the alumni that are involved in developing our network and the GEM brand. The recipients are those who have shown that our school’s values – the management of technology and innovation – are tools that make exceptional achievements possible..
In 2015, the GEM of the Year Award was bestowed upon Judith Bouvard for her extraordinary development of our international network over the past 20 years. It was also awarded to Thierry Grange for his tireless commitment to our alumni throughout his entire career at GEM.
Discover the GEM of the Year Award recipients since 2011
The Network Gala
The first edition of this annual event took place in November 2011 with the idea of establishing the “event of the year” for our network in Paris. This gala brought together the 10 and 20 year class reunions and the GEM of the Year Awards Ceremony around a seated dinner and an evening of dancing. The terrorist attacks in 2015 led to the cancellation of that year’s edition. In January 2017, the Network Gala was combined with other key GEM events under one name: the GEM Gala..
The end of an era
At the beginning of the 2010s, Eric Pierrel PGE 2001, served as President of the GEM GN association from 2010-2014. The association was in full swing, consisting of 7 part-time employees and 3,000 paid members..
Summer 2013 marked the end of the contract between the association and GEM. The school assembled an internal team to take over the array of activities and services geared towards alumni. The idea of paid membership was done away with, making the directory open to all alumni and students. In October 2018, after working to find a new business model, the association’s remaining volunteers made the decision to close its doors. Ludovic Millequant PGE 1999 who had served many terms as a volunteer, would be the association’s final president..
The GEM Alumni label
Since 2014, the name GEM Alumni has provided a clear label to identify all activities, links, and interactions involving our graduates and allowed better visibility of all actions carried out by the GEM Alumni Relations Team or by the volunteers they collaborate with regularly.
The goal of this label is to contribute to defending the GEM brand by creating and promoting content that highlights the career paths, nominations, success stories, and companies created by our alumni. The targeted audiences range from alumni and current students to recruiters, journalists and accreditors… and even prospective students.
In 2015, the label was launched on social media and immediately deployed across all media platforms and communications.
In 2019, the GEM Alumni label published 705 posts across its 4 main channels (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram), reaching 565,518 people through 21,869 interactions.
The stork or a teddy bear?
In today’s digital world, it’s important not to forget the human component, to stay together and share life’s many joys.
Since 2016, the GEM Alumni Relations Team has been sending little teddy bears to welcome GEM alumni babies into our network.
The 2020s: Building it together!
We’re at the dawn of a new decade and our network is stronger than ever with more than 50 global chapters run by almost 100 volunteer Alumnizers. Five full-time staff members based in Grenoble make up the GEM Alumni Relations Team at GEM to coordinate all alumni-related activities.
A new platform
After two years of hard work, in April 2020 we launched a new tool to manage our network.
Based on our directory and social media-like features, it offers our volunteers a more hands-on role, event creation tools, and an easy way to share updates.
It also includes access to our online job boards …
This major evolution will allow us to support the creation of new groups to meet various alumni expectations: groups for former members of a student association, groups by graduating class ...
2024
The school and the network are 40 years old, and throughout the year there will be a number of events dedicated to this anniversary.