EDHEC Business School : History

Founded in 1906 by industrialists from the north of France to meet their requirements for trained managers, the School became an independent association (Association EDHEC) in 1958, governed by the law of 1901. It still retains this status. Today, the same association manages all the programmes and activities for EDHEC Business School, incorporating both EDHEC and ESPEME. EDHEC delivers its own state-accredited degree, which has the grade of Master. ESPEME also delivers a state-accredited degree.

Since 1958, EDHEC Business School has continually grown:

• second campus opened in Nice in 1991;
• with around a hundred students when it first opened, EDHEC now has over 5,000 (including international students, students on mobility programmes and students doing a sandwich year);
• the programme portfolio has expanded considerably, from mono-programmes in 1958 to a full-range portfolio of + 15 programmes, from ESPEME (4-year undergraduate programme) to PhD programmes;
• 550 managers and business leaders followed its Executive Education courses in 2008-2009;
• After Lille in 1906, the School opened a site in Paris in 1989, Nice in 1991, London in 1999 and is opening a new site in Singapore in 2010; the School organises conferences and training programmes in New York, Amsterdam, Frankfort, Milan, Zurich, to name but a few;
• Development of a permanent core faculty: 126 professors in 2009-2010;
• Development of research centres including EDHEC Risk, today one of the leading research centres in Finance in Europe;
• Development of major networks with international corporate and academic partners.