About half of our graduates run their own companies at some point in their careers. Others join high growth ventures, lead entrepreneurial projects within corporations or focus on social entrepreneurial ventures. Some work with entrepreneurs as angel, venture capital or private equity investors.
We are very proud of their accomplishments and experiences and would like to share some of them here with you. Thus we recently started to compile alumni entrepreneur profiles to share with the broader community.
Profiles of Alumni:
Anat and Dov
Bar-Gera |
MBA 87D |
The Bar-Gera’s is a story of serial entrepreneurship driven by a couple of INSEAD alumni who complements each other perfectly. |
| Alexei Beltyukov |
MBA 97D
|
From doctor, street seller to successful entrepreneur and investment manager |
|
MBA 02J |
Internet, media and retail have always been close to Rodrigo’s heart |
| Elan Dekel |
MBA
02D
|
You can close your startup and join a company employing 20,000 people and still be an entrepreneur. Especially if that company is Google |
| Erik Lautier |
MBA
06J
|
Erik Lautier learned the hard way – by starting a corporate job that he quit only three months after - that he should follow his passion and not be afraid to fail in his new ventures |
| Alejandro Rivas-Micoud |
MBA 87D |
Taking advantage of circumstances, Alejandro buys out for one Euro a telecom company previously valued at $1.7 billion by Morgan Stanley, turns it around, resells it for a hefty package and goes on to his next venture on the Web. |
| Walter Faulstroh |
MBA 03D |
When Walter began mixing water with different flavours and colours in his friend's kitchen who would have thought five years later he would be selling the business to one of the largest global drinks manufacturers? |
| Friedrich von Ploetz |
MBA 07D |
Friedrich left a successful career in management consulting to have more time to think about his long-term career plans, ended up joining INSEAD's MBA and is now betting on clean energy with a new venture. |
| Tobias Vancura |
MBA 06J |
Tobias Vancura's story is a rare case of returning to his nanotechnology equipment venture after his MBA to accelerate its growth and finally sell the company. |
| Jonathan Gadish |
MBA 07D |
Jonathan had no idea when he began at INSEAD that he would leave with a business plan that led to a hugely successful car-sharing business in Tel Aviv |
In addition to our profiles of our entrepreneurs, please find below some links to interviews with Julie Meyer and Joe Tabet two of our alumni who were recently on campus giving presentations at the Global Entrepreneurship Forum in May 2009.
Julie Meyer, INSEAD’s most successful female entrepreneur, and Chief Executive and founder of Adriane Capital, talks about her experiences helping the next generation of start-ups and what she considers to be key success factors for those considering an entrepreneurial path.
Click here to read INSEAD Knowledge’s article entitled “Think big, start small and move fast”
You can also view Julie’s interview by Stuart Pallister, Editor of INSEAD Knowledge, by clicking here.
Joe Tabet, managing partner of Melcion, Chassagne & Cie, a group of international senior business advisors dedicated to helping entrepreneurs, talks about the need for entrepreneurs not to rely too heavily on venture capitalists for funding and instead to look for alternatives before giving away too much equity. The more creative an enterprise is at finding alternative capital, the more chance of sustainability and the entrepreneur of keeping control.
Click here to read INSEAD Knowledge’s article entitled “Debunking myths about Entrepreneurs” |
