Inside The Bold Transformation Of A ‘Grand École’ Business School

When Caroline Roussel took the helm of IÉSEG School of Management in 2022 — becoming the first new dean at the French grande école in 28 years — she inherited more than just a prestigious title. She stepped into a pivotal moment for the institution. 

A new strategic plan had just been finalized. The landscape of global business education was shifting. And generative AI, though not yet widely known, was about to upend the rules.

Three years later, Roussel’s tenure has yielded undeniable results. Under her leadership, IÉSEG has grown its student body to 8,500, increased its annual budget by 20% to €216 million, and welcomed 46 new permanent faculty members. It’s climbed nine places in the Financial Times Master in Management ranking — from 32 to 23 — and appeared for the first time in both the FT Master in Finance and Custom Executive Education rankings.

FROM VISION TO RESULTS

“The school is now at a critical size,” Roussel says. “We have the resources to invest where it matters—technology, faculty, infrastructure—and the visibility to attract top students and partners from around the world.”

But scale alone wasn’t the goal. The five-year strategy launched in 2022 is grounded in transformation, not just expansion. Its pillars — sustainability, interdisciplinarity, entrepreneurship, internationalization, and student experience — are designed to reposition IÉSEG as one of Europe’s most innovative, globally connected business schools.

And in a time of global disruption, Roussel’s steady, purpose-driven leadership is helping the school find its footing — and its voice.

Though the 2022–2027 strategic plan was developed during the transitional period before Roussel officially became dean, she played an integral role in crafting it and began executing immediately upon taking office. That preparation allowed her to hit the ground running — and to avoid a common pitfall for new deans: the lag between vision and implementation.

CLIMBING THE RANKINGS & BUILDING FACULTY STRENGTH 

Three years in, she has the data to show progress. Enrollment has grown by nearly 20%, fueled in part by international demand. The number of core faculty has risen to 210, with 85% hailing from outside France and representing more than 60 nationalities. These hires help ensure the school can maintain low student-to-faculty ratios while expanding programs across multiple campuses.

Equally important: IÉSEG’s improved standing in global rankings. “The rise in the FT rankings matters — not just for visibility, but for credibility,” Roussel tells Poets&Quants in a recent interview. “It signals that the work we’re doing internally is being recognized externally.”

One key addition: the school’s first appearance in the FT’s Master in Finance ranking, debuting at No. 26. IÉSEG also entered the Custom Executive Education ranking in 2023 as the highest new entrant — recognition, Roussel says, that reflects not just program quality but strong corporate satisfaction.

SUSTAINABILITY: FROM TRAINING TO TRANSFORMATION

One of the most ambitious transformations under Roussel’s leadership has been in sustainability — a theme that’s central to IÉSEG’s mission of “empowering changemakers for a better society,” first articulated in 2015.

“Sustainability has become a buzzword in higher ed,” Roussel says. “But we want to be held accountable for it — with data, results, and real institutional change.”

To that end, IÉSEG launched Transition 2026, a full-scale initiative to embed sustainability across the school. Over the past 18 months, more than 550 faculty and staff completed a six-part internal training series designed in-house by sustainability leaders and professors.

EMBEDDING ESG INTO TEACHING & OPERATIONS 

But training was only the start. Every department — academic and administrative — was asked to create a customized sustainability roadmap, detailing how their area would contribute to the school’s broader ESG goals. Each team presented its roadmap to the full management board during a three-day review process.

“It wasn’t symbolic. We gave it our full time and attention,” says Roussel. “It created a shared sense of ownership.”

Now, the school is finalizing a global sustainability roadmap synthesizing these inputs. Already, it has published two detailed impact reports tracking more than 60 KPIs across areas like research output, curriculum content, corporate partnerships, and carbon emissions.

MEASURABLE IMPACT & FT RECOGNITION 

One standout metric: IÉSEG cut its institutional carbon footprint by 14% over the past year.

Academically, the school requires all students to complete sustainability consulting projects with real organizations — ranging from nonprofits to corporations focused on circular economy or green product strategy. “It’s one thing to learn about impact,” Roussel says. “It’s another to help create it.”

IÉSEG’s efforts were recognized with a Financial Times Responsible Business Education Award in 2024.

PREPARING FOR AN AI-DRIVEN FUTURE

When ChatGPT launched just months into Roussel’s deanship, it caught much of higher education off guard. Some institutions responded with bans. Roussel took a different tack.

“We see AI as a professional tool, just like Excel once was,” she says. “Our job is to teach students how to use it wisely.”

IÉSEG adopted a “test and learn” model, piloting edtech tools, collecting feedback, and developing internal training programs. Students can now earn an AI badge certifying they’ve completed foundational coursework in generative AI ethics and applications.

Staff and faculty receive similar training, including leadership workshops for board members and program heads. Meanwhile, the school’s teaching and learning innovation team has co-developed an AI strategy with IT leadership to identify scalable tools that enhance personalization, assessment, and instructional design — while staying ahead of privacy, security, and data governance risks.

In parallel, AI coursework has been embedded across levels. Undergraduate students take an AI survey course. Postgrads can specialize through a dedicated master’s program. And in executive education, IÉSEG now offers an “AI for Boards” certificate geared toward C-suite leaders seeking to understand and manage AI transformation.

“It’s not about chasing the latest hype,” says Roussel. “It’s about preparing students and professionals to lead responsibly in a world where these tools are ubiquitous.”

NEW MODELS OF GLOBALIZATION

As international mobility grows more complex, IÉSEG is rethinking what internationalization looks like.

Rather than focusing solely on bringing international students to its Paris and Lille campuses, the school has launched new hybrid programs in collaboration with partner institutions. One example: a “preparatory class” model launched in Cameroon, where students complete two years of undergraduate study at home before transferring to IÉSEG for the final undergraduate year and the full master’s cycle.

“It reduces financial and cultural barriers while ensuring academic quality,” Roussel explains. “It also opens the door to students who might not otherwise pursue education abroad.”

EXPANDING PARTNERSHIPS IN CANADA, ASIA & AFRICA

Next year, IÉSEG will expand this model into Asia and Latin America. Simultaneously, it is launching a new cohort-based program in Montreal, in partnership with French design and gaming school Rubika. First-year IÉSEG students will spend a semester in Canada taking joint interdisciplinary courses in areas like project management and design thinking.

“It’s immersive, it’s collaborative, and it’s rooted in intercultural exchange,” says Roussel. “That’s the future of business education.”

These strategies come at a moment when geopolitical uncertainty is reshaping student mobility and international partnerships. Roussel sees new momentum — particularly from institutions in China—toward deeper European collaboration.

LEADING WITH PURPOSE, STAYING GROUNDED 

Now in her third year, Roussel has found her rhythm as dean — and her style. The early months, she says, were filled with learning curves: understanding institutional culture, building networks, and gaining visibility within the global business education ecosystem.

Today, she’s a familiar face at EFMD and AACSB conferences, sits at the table with other top French deans, and has built strong connections with alumni and corporate partners. But she’s also made a point to stay connected to students and staff — hosting quarterly lunches with students, attending club events, and celebrating extracurricular wins like sports tournaments and pitch competitions.

“When a student team wins a national competition, I want our whole staff to celebrate with them,” she says. “That pride connects us all.”

BUILDING COMMUNITY, INSIDE & OUT

She also encourages her managers to keep explaining the “why” behind initiatives, whether in strategy meetings or hallway conversations. “People don’t just want direction — they want purpose,” she says.

Ultimately, Roussel sees her role as a bridge: between internal and external communities, between tradition and transformation, between local values and global ambitions.

“At IÉSEG, we’re preparing changemakers,” she says. “That means we have to be changemakers ourselves.”

DON’T MISS AT THIS GRAND ÉCOLE B-SCHOOL, THE FIRST NEW DEAN IN 28 YEARS USHERS IN A NEW STRATEGIC PLAN