Simone PESCE
HEC Paris
Age: 36
“Internazionale, curioso e pratico: amo viaggiare, scoprire nuove cucine e portare nuove idee sul lavoro.”
Hometown: Alessandria, Italy
Family Members: A small, yet closely connected family.
Fun fact about yourself: I can spend hours looking for rare vinyls in flea markets.
Undergraduate School and Degree:
1- Executive MBA | HEC PARIS, Paris – France (EMBA)
2- International Business Administration | IAE Caen, Caen – France (Master’s degree)
3- Business Law | Università degli studi di Pavia, Pavia – Italy (Master’s degree)
Where are you currently working? Transformation & Technology Manager at Deloitte, Paris
Extracurricular Activities, Community Work and Leadership Roles: I actively participate in various sports, including football, gym, and running along the St. Martin Channel in Paris. My experience as a theatre actor spans four years, during which I performed Shakespearean works. Additionally, I worked as a DJ in my twenties. Over the past decade, I have engaged in voluntary work in Italy. In 2014, I was appointed President of the Rotaract Club in Alessandria, where I facilitated the purchase of medical equipment for the Children’s Hospital to assist newborns with respiratory difficulties.
Currently serving as an HEC E-MBA Ambassador and as a member of the HEC Alumni E-MBA Board.
Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? (My greatest achievement was undoubtedly being accepted into the Executive MBA program at HEC, one of the world’s most prestigious institutions, which remains highly selective. Becoming part of this world was certainly a source of personal pride.
What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? As far as my career is concerned, as an Italian living abroad, my greatest achievement is undoubtedly being able to say that what I have today is down to my own efforts: the resilience I showed during the toughest times, and all the time and hard work I put into studying and practicing to constantly improve myself. No one has ever handed me anything on a silver platter. And being able to take these first steps in a fantastic country like France is a source of pride. Looking back at my academic and professional journey, I’ve been able to adapt and reinvent myself time-and-again, moving from the legal and negotiation fields to eventually landing in tech consulting. Before thinking outside-the-box, you need to build your box
Who was your favorite MBA professor? Sebastian Becker and Dimitrios Andritsos have served as significant sources of inspiration throughout this program. I have appreciated Sebastian’s dynamic approach and his ability to effectively clarify complex information. Dimitrios’s sense of humanity and his expertise in operations management, particularly within the scope of technology implementation, have also been invaluable.
Why did you choose this school’s executive MBA program? It felt like a natural next step. Even though I had my master’s degree from Caen, I could have pursued an MBA in the U.S. My university, the IAE in Caen, collaborates with many American institutions. At the same time, most of my international management classes were led by American professors who used a typical MBA style. But at 26, having completed two degrees, I decided to focus on moving forward my professional career seriously.
My second chance came in 2019 when I was offered to join the EMBA at Paris Dauphine in Paris, but the outbreak of COVID made it an unfavorable time. A few years later, after I was promoted to manager at Deloitte, the company organized a training program at HEC. There, I was fortunate enough to meet Andrea Masini, the former dean of executive programs, who answered all my questions and motivated me to apply. The ambition to do an MBA had been present for years, and getting into the EMBA at HEC finally brought everything together perfectly.
What is the biggest lesson you gained during your MBA and how did you apply it at work? Proactive listening sounds simple. But here’s the twist: most of us think we’re listening, when in reality we’re just waiting for our turn to speak. We listen to reply, not to understand.
This idea really hit home during my EMBA journey at HEC. It opened the door to a whole world of new cultures, perspectives, and workplace behaviors, all thanks to the incredible people I shared the experience with. The exchange of ideas wasn’t just useful, it was energizing.
And the best part? That spirit of sharing, combined with a genuine habit of listening first, is something I’m now bringing back to my team. Because when people truly feel heard, everything changes.
Give us a story during your time as an executive MBA on how you were able to juggle work, family and education? I like to think of the EMBA as a journey that has had its share of wonderful moments, but also others where one must not neglect one’s personal life. I’ve experienced many events over these two academic years, but one of them, which is quite amusing, concerns the period when I was working on the Capstone, the final project required to complete the EMBA at HEC.
I’ve spent – and am still spending – a lot of time on this project to draft a strategic thesis for an AI solution in the pharmaceutical sector. Well, for a few months, I spent my weekends working on my final project. A few weeks ago, a dear Italian friend suddenly wrote to me asking if he’d done something to upset me, since we hadn’t seen or heard from each other in three or four months. This gesture made me realize just how much energy and time I’m investing in this magnificent journey with HEC.
To balance everything (EMBA, work, and family), I structure my weeks by dedicating weekdays to work, evenings and one weekend day to family, and at least one full day of the weekend to the EMBA. With the Capstone, that balance has been a bit disrupted, but only for the final months of the EMBA as the deadline approaches.
What advice would you give to a student looking to enter an executive MBA program? Go for it! It’s a fantastic personal and human adventure. Beyond all the teaching, which remains top-notch. This period will fly by.
What was your biggest regret in business school? Perhaps I didn’t take full advantage of the opportunities the school offers. HEC offers a wide range of them, such as taking one or more modules in Qatar or taking elective courses in São Paulo, Brazil. Personally, I applied to go to Australia to take the Risk Management course at the University of Sydney. I was accepted, and I can’t wait!
What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? HEC has integrated AI very effectively and offers a specialization in this field. As for me, I’m working on it for my Capstone project, so I’m studying AI extensively and exploring ways to design solutions, such as how to launch a go-to-market campaign and implement it. AI is therefore a key focus of my EMBA program.
What was the main reason you chose an executive MBA program over part-time or online alternatives? Earning an MBA has always been a dream and a medium-term goal of mine. Even when I completed my second master’s degree in France at the IAE in Caen, I had the opportunity to go to the U.S. to pursue a full-year MBA program. In the end, I decided to move to Paris to start working in consulting. Later, I became interested in an Executive MBA at a university in Paris, but due to COVID and the uncertainty it brought, I decided to stop my search. The opportunity arose with HEC’s Executive MBA, and taking this type of program is completely different from an online course because it lacks one of the most important aspects: human connections with classmates. This was a factor that made all the difference for me and formed the basis for effective sharing of both professional and personal experiences.
How did you finance your EMBA and what did you do to make tuition and associated costs more affordable? I have paid for the entire course.
What is your ultimate long-term professional goal? My long-term goal is to be able to apply all the knowledge I’ve gained through the EMBA and my current career. In the long run, I’d like to lead an international tech consulting firm…why not my own? A key personal goal of mine will be to share my experiences and the knowledge I’ve acquired with young people, inspiring them to always give their best. Personal growth must be a cornerstone of every career; helping them achieve that would be a wonderful challenge for me.
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