Tribute to all my teachers - Guillaume Mariani

“Teachers can make such a profound impact on our lives and should be honored as heroes.”

Rainn Wilson

Acknowledgments

Collège Charlemagne ❤️
La Sorbonne ❤️
Eight Professors 🙏

1. Collège Charlemagne ❤️

“The influence of a good teacher can never be erased.”

I owe a lot to the formidable teachers of the collège Charlemagne, where I was taught French, Latin, history, geography, civics, philosophy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and two foreign languages, English and Spanish (my two favorite subjects in collège and lycée).

I would not have been able to study at the Sorbonne, the London School of Economics, Fudan University, and the Complutense University of Madrid, without the wonderful teachers of French, English, and Spanish (like Ms. Anne-Gaëlle Costa) at the collège Charlemagne (middle school).

Surprisingly, I had my first business and marketing classes at the age of 10 (which is very unusual) at the collège Charlemagne with my technology teacher, Mr. Hervé, who was more passionate about business, strategy, and marketing than about the national technology curriculum for teenagers, and who came to teach every day wearing an elegant business suit and a tie, looking like a CEO. Mr. Hervé taught me the value of learning by doing.

And his best friend at the collège Charlemagne, Mr. Olivier, my French teacher and homeroom teacher, taught me the importance of self-discipline and rigor to succeed in life and in your career. He always said: “Be demanding of yourself before being demanding of others”. One of the best teachers I have ever had, Mr. Olivier taught me to lead by example.

I will never forget their lessons.

2. La Sorbonne ❤️

“Omnibus sapientia, unicuique excellentia”

“Le savoir pour tous, l’excellence pour chacun”

“Knowledge for all, excellence for each”

Motto of the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne (1971).

I was the first person in my entire family to study business, management, economics, law, sociology, communication, marketing, and media, and more generally, to study HASS (Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences) or SHAPE (social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy).

The cosmopolitan and personalized curriculum in management studies, media studies and global studies in four different global cities (Paris, Madrid, London and Shanghai) that I designed for myself as a student was inspired by three existing programs at expensive private business schools in Paris:

1) ESCP (the oldest business school in the world, established in 1819) with its international curriculum since 1973, “3 years – 3 countries,” and its global campuses at the time in Paris, Berlin (transferred from Düsseldorf in 1985), Madrid (opened in 1988), and Oxford (later transferred to London in 2005).

2) The CEMS Master in International Management at HEC Paris, in partnership with ESADE (Barcelona), Bocconi (Milan), and LSE (London), among others, established in 1988.

3) The TRIUM Global Executive MBA ($208,080 cost in 2025), a joint program of HEC Paris, LSE, and NYU (New York University), established in 2001.

It is thanks to HEC that I first discovered the LSE (as a teenager, I only knew three universities abroad, Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge, like most people around the world). HEC also offered a leading MS in Entrepreneurship and ESCP (formerly ESCP-EAP and ESCP Europe) offered a leading MS in Media.

Coming from a modest, middle-class family, I couldn’t afford to study at ESCP or HEC Paris (tuition fees of approximately €65,000 or €70,000 in 2025), so I started to look into the 13 public universities in Paris (only €178 per year for a bachelor’s degree and €254 per year for a master’s degree in 2025), inheritors of the historic University of Paris split into 13 autonomous universities in 1970 after the student protests, strikes and civil disorder of May 68.

Source: Major Prépa, https://major-prepa.com/grandes-ecoles/ecoles-commerce/frais-de-scolarite-2025-hec-explose-la-barre-des-70k/

Source: Mister Prépa, https://misterprepa.net/levolution-des-frais-de-scolarite-combien-coute-une-grande-ecole-francaise

My choice was quick, easy, and obvious when I discovered in high school that the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne:

was famous worldwide thanks to the Sorbonne brand name (the only French university known throughout the world),
offered the best or second-best bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees in business and management studies (ranked 1st or 2nd after Dauphine among all public universities in France in the national rankings published by L’Étudiant, Le Nouvel Économiste, L’Expansion, Capital and Challenges),
was the leading French university for research in the cultural and creatives industries (see my literature review and my tribute to Henri Mercillon) and for teaching in the cultural and creative industries and especially in media economics and media management (see my tribute to Daniel Sabatier),
had prestigious international partners (Columbia University, Cornell University and NYU in the US, Oxford University and King’s College in the UK),
cost only €137 per year for a bachelor’s degree back in 2002, around €200 per year for a master’s degree and €0 for scholarship students. Since its foundation in 1253 by Robert de Sorbon, the mission of the renowned Collège de Sorbonne (Faculty of Theology of the University of Paris) has been to provide free education to disadvantaged, underprivileged and poor students from all around the world.

Choosing Paris 1 was my first major decision as a manager and strategist. This crucial decision proved incredibly profitable, both economically and intellectually. I hated high school and wanted to drop out at 15. But studying a subject I am truly passionate about at the Sorbonne from the age of 17 opened up new horizons I could never have imagined as a young teenager. Some exceptional professors, whom I pay tribute to at the end of this page, have had a very important influence on my life.

I was then able to study at Complutense thanks to the Erasmus grant of the European Union. After completing five years of university studies (Bac+5), after earning all my Sorbonne degrees with honors and after graduating from one of the best master’s programs in strategy and consulting in France as valedictorian, I managed to get a student loan at a very attractive interest rate granted by a major French bank to study at LSE (one of the most expensive schools in Europe, around €35,000 for overseas students in 2025) and Fudan University (around €15,000 for international students in 2025).

Source: average annual tuition fees charged by public institutions at bachelor level, source of the 2022/2023 data: OECD, 2025 infographic by Statista

I also received the merit award for outstanding academic achievements from the Chancellery of the Universities of Paris, a merit-based scholarship for the best students in the Paris region, including notably the full reimbursement of all the fees that I had paid from the first to the last year of my studies at the Sorbonne. Which means that I studied for free for five years at the prestigious University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne and Complutense University of Madrid!

Merci la Sorbonne ❤️

3. Eight Professors 🙏

“A good education can change anyone. A good teacher can change everything!”

3.1 Media and Communication

Alfonso Puyal Sanz (Complutense), Ricardo de Cala Castillo (Complutense), Leslie Haddon (LSE), Jean-Marc Lehu (Sorbonne) and Terhi Rantanen (LSE) played an important part in my choice to dedicate my life to audiovisual, communication, marketing and the media. The very interesting classes (even better than Netflix! 🙂 ) of these passionate professors were a great source of inspiration for me as a young man and still are to this day…

Alfonso Puyal Sanz (Complutense)

Source: Universidad Complutense de Madrid, https://www.ucm.es/cap/prof-dr-alfonso-puyal-sanz (page viewed in September 2025)

Jean-Marc Lehu (Paris 1)

Source: Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, https://www.pantheonsorbonne.fr/page-perso/jean-marc.lehu%40 (page viewed in September 2025)

3.2 Management and Strategy

“A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning.”

Brad Henry

Corentin Curchod (Paris 1)

Source: University of Edinburgh Busines School, https://www.business-school.ed.ac.uk/staff/corentin-curchod

Corentin Curchod currently serves as a Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management & Organisation at the University of Edinburgh Business School. He holds a BSc in Management from ESCP Business School and he completed the Agrégation in Economics and Management at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) de Cachan in 1999, followed by an MSc in Microeconomics (major subject: Theory of the Firm) at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne in 2000, and a PhD in Management from the École Polytechnique in 2004. Over his tenure as a world-leading strategy scholar, his university affiliations have spanned several premier European institutions: he began his formal faculty career as a Lecturer in Strategic Management at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (2000-2007), and subsequently expanded his research portfolio as a faculty member at both the Strategy Division of Audencia Nantes School of Management (2007-2011) and the Department of Strategy and International Business of the University of Nottingham (2011-2019), before joining the faculty and Strategy Group of the University of Edinburgh in July 2019.

Corentin Curchod (Sorbonne) is, with Ricardo de Cala Castillo (Complutense), one of the two great professors who made me want to become a teacher. As one of the most brilliant minds and most amazing professors I have ever met, his great influence has been foundational in my life. He was my first professor of strategy and instilled in me his passion for strategic management. I would not have taken the international strategy course at the Complutense without him, I would not have completed the Master’s degree in International Strategic Management (M2 MSI) at the Sorbonne without him, and I would not have started my career as a consultant at a global management and technology consulting firm like Accenture without him.

Hubert de La Bruslerie (Paris 1)

Hubert Pierre Jean Marie Étienne Piochard de La Bruslerie was my Albus Dumbledore 🙂

Hubert de La Bruslerie was the Director of the Sorbonne School of Management (UFR06/Gestion Sorbonne/Ecole de Management de la Sorbonne) between 2001 and 2009, including when I was a student there between 2002 and 2007. He welcomed me at the Sorbonne (amphithéâtre Richelieu) when I entered the beautiful Sorbonne building for the first time in my life at the age of 17. He was also the Director of the Sorbonne BBA (Maîtrise de Sciences de Gestion) and the President of MSG France (the association of the Bachelors of Business Administration at public universities in France). He was Vice-Director of the Sorbonne School of Management between 1998 and 2001 when the great Jacques Rojot was the Director of the UFR 06.

One of France’s leading professors and researchers in finance who taught at the best universities for business, management and finance in France (Université Paris Dauphine from 1978 to 1981, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord from 1981 to 1988, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne from 1988 to 2009, Université Paris Dauphine from 2009 to 2020, Director of the Dauphine Master 270 – Corporate Finance & Management from 2010 to 2020, Professor Emeritus at Université Paris Dauphine since 2020, Dean of the FACO between 2021 and 2024 and, finally, Researcher at IAE Paris Sorbonne Business School – Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne since 2021) and alumnus of both Sciences Po (1972-1975 Master’s degree in Accounting and Finance) and Université Paris Dauphine (1975-1976 Research Master’s degree in Finance and 1976-1979 PhD in Management, Finance specialization), Hubert de La Bruslerie supervised my business administration and management studies at the Sorbonne for five years. He decided to send me to the Complutense University of Madrid in my fourth year so that I could improve my Spanish and become a trilingual international manager (that was his idea). He was the founder and director of the Sorbonne Master’s degree in International Strategic Management (Master MSI) from 2000 to 2009, and during my final year at the Sorbonne, he wrote me a letter of recommendation that he sent to the London School of Economics and Political Science so that I could continue my studies at LSE after obtaining all my management degrees (DEUG/associate degree, MSG/bachelor’s degree and M2/master’s degree) with honors from the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and graduating at the top of my class (valedictorian in the US or “major de promotion'” in French) from his highly regarded master’s degree program that he called “the Sorbonne MBA”, ranked #1 or #2 among the best master’s degrees in strategy and consulting in France for many years (including in 2025 and in 2026) by SMBG/Eduniversal.

Source: IAE Paris, https://www.iae-paris.com/fr/enseignants/annuaires/hubert-de-la-bruslerie (page viewed in September 2025)

Hubert de La Bruslerie has written numerous articles and books on corporate finance and financial governance, but his work that had the greatest impact on me as a management student was his book on business ethics: “Éthique, Déontologie et Gestion de l’Entreprise” (collection Gestion, Série : Politique générale, Finance et Marketing, Economica, 1992), written with François Bourricaud (famous sociologist in France), Jean-Pierre Jobard and Patrice Poncet (two of the greatest finance academics in the history of business and management studies in France), Pierre Grégory (one of the greatest marketing academics in the history of business and management studies in France), Jean Parent (one of the greatest academics of industrial economics and production management in the long history of the University of Paris), Frédéric Perier (strategy consultant), Jean-Emmanuel Ray (one of the greatest social law and labor law academics in the history of law and legal studies in France) and Jacques Rojot (one of the greatest academics of human resource management, organization, negotiation and conflict management in the history of business and management studies in France). Hubert de La Bruslerie, Pierre Grégory, Jean-Pierre Jobard, Jean Parent, Patrice Poncet, Jean-Emmanuel Ray and Jacques Rojot were all stellar scholars and legendary professors at the Sorbonne School of Management (Ecole de Management de la Sorbonne – Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne).

Here is a very interesting interview of Hubert de La Bruslerie on the history and the future of business and management studies (“Sciences de Gestion”) in 2019 by Xerfi Canal (in French):

Max Peyrard (Paris 1)

Max Peyrard (1932-2023) was my Gandalf 🙂

Max Peyrard changed my life completely by introducing me to the Erasmus program of the European Union and by often talking during his classes about all the international opportunities we had as students at the Sorbonne School of Management and as future managers. Professor Emeritus at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (UFR06), ad personam Jean Monnet Chair of the European Union awarded by the European Commission, Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Harvard University and MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972-1973, founder of the Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne Master’s degree in International Business Management in 1989, ranked first or second among the best master’s degrees in international management in France for many years by Eduniversal (Master GEAI – formerly DESS Gestion Européenne et Internationale, then Master 2 Gestion d’Entreprise et Affaires Internationales, and now called Master Gestion des Entreprises à l’International), and eminent French scholar of management, international management, international marketing, international strategy, international trade, finance, international finance, tax, international taxation, economics, international economics, geoeconomics, EU geoeconomics, international affairs and European integration, Max Peyrard was an exceptional professor who trained many generations of economics, business and management students first at the Université de Paris (founded before 1045 and dissolved in 1970) in the 1960s, and then at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne from its founding in 1971 until his official retirement (and even afterward, as a beloved Professor Emeritus). He was a very kind, generous, humble and sensitive human being, who perfectly embodied the values of the French University, the University of Paris and the Sorbonne, and I was so heartbroken when he passed away in 2023…

Max Peyrard in 2019 during the 30th anniversary of the Sorbonne Master’s degree in International Business Management (GEAI) that he created in 1989.