For Antoine Ajacques d’Halluin MBA’21J, coming to INSEAD’s Europe campus for his reunion in June 2026 is a return to a place where he has deep roots. He completed his MBA there, following in his father’s footsteps (Nicolas Ajacques took his MBA in 1988) and is now a loyal donor to the school, and an active volunteer for reunion weekends and the Paris alumni community.
Antoine is French, but spent much of his childhood living abroad, including more than 10 years in China. He returned to France as a student, before going back to China to start a career in finance. But when COVID hit in 2019, Antoine decided to come back to Europe. Professionally, he was also hoping to move, from finance to strategy, and he decided that an MBA would be the best way to achieve this. From there, INSEAD was an easy choice: “My father had an amazing time at INSEAD, so I’d always seen it as something I wanted to do.”
However, coming to INSEAD wasn’t without practical challenges for Antoine. “Affording the MBA was difficult, so I applied for a scholarship. I was very lucky to win one, and so grateful to the donors who made it happen, as without it, INSEAD wouldn’t have been possible for me,” he says.
INSEAD helped Antoine to make the changes he wanted in his career. “If you want to change direction, and you’re ready to challenge yourself, INSEAD is the perfect place to study,” he says. “Working with people with different values and ways of working – it’s challenging, but I discovered so much. And there’s an incredible positive energy here: you feel like everything is possible!”
After INSEAD, Antoine worked as a strategy consultant in London and Dubai. “But then I knew I wanted to come back to France, to make a contribution to Europe,” he says. Since 2024, Antoine has lived in Paris and worked for Knauf Industries, a firm specialising in packaging and components for construction, agri-business, automotive, and other industrial sectors.
“I feel like I have a positive impact in this role,” Antoine says. He works on reducing the demand for single-use plastics in Knauf’s manufacturing. It’s a problem he is highly motivated to solve. “We’re looking at solutions from three possible angles,” says Antoine. “Recycling, reusing, or finding plastic alternatives. The challenge is doing any of these things at scale, and with the manufacturing precision that Knauf’s clients require.”
Antoine’s work at Knauf is in an entirely new sector for him, and much of his confidence in his role is built on the foundations that he established during his MBA. “INSEAD gives you structures and methodologies in the way you work and think that enable you to deal with new territories and unexpected challenges.” In part, this is why he remains committed to the school as a donor and volunteer.
But Antoine’s support is also driven by a broader sense of INSEAD’s history and mission. “INSEAD was founded on the idea of bringing Europeans together after the war,” he explains. “In a world where we still face global tensions, INSEAD gives us a safe setting where we can address our issues and have frank discussions with each other. And I think that’s really important.”
