EPFL Alumni marks its 10th anniversary and sets up a new leadership council

EPFL Alumni works actively to maintain close ties between EPFL and its graduates. As the network celebrates ten years since being integrated into the School, it has set up a new leadership council to further strengthen its strategic role.

Our School’s alumni have a long history of fellowship. In 1876, graduates of what was then the École Spéciale de Lausanne created a “friendly association” of former students. As EPFL grew and prospered over the years – especially following the turn of the millennium – the number of graduates soared. Yet its alumni group was still fragile and managed as an informal association led by volunteers.   

It became clear that the situation needed to be stabilized and the potential of the network better leveraged in order to contribute to the School’s success. The alumni association was dissolved in 2014 and EPFL Alumni in its current form was born: a full-fledged department of the School, placed within the Presidency. “Our alumni are our School’s best ambassadors – they embody EPFL’s values and showcase our strengths in thousands of ways,” says EPFL president Martin Vetterli. “And since EPFL Alumni is an official part of our School with a direct link to our upper management, we can nurture these important ties with our graduates.” 

In the decade since EPFL Alumni was founded, it has rolled out a career support service, a digital platform with a job board and online community, over 180 yearly events worldwide, startup support initiatives and a mentoring program that matches up alumni with current students. “All that is just the start,” says Leïla Ojjeh, the head of EPFL Alumni. “Building a strong alumni culture starts at the beginning of university studies and continues throughout life. An essential focus is to build up the strength of our network, its impact, and the mutual support it provides, for example around thematic and international clubs."

EPFL also strives to foster a culture of giving, as hundreds of its alumni already volunteer their time, sharing their experience and networks and helping to finance strategic initiatives. Alumni donations to EPFL’s Student Support Program have funded need-based scholarships, excellence scholarships, MAKE projects, the Coding Club for Girls and other programs. Alumni members are also behind numerous joint R&D projects, particularly with companies founded or run by former students, such as SBB (the Swiss railway operator), Swissquote, Logitech and Schindler.

EPFL Alumni took its development one step further in June, when it set up a new 13-member leadership council. This governing body is designed to give the School’s 44,000 alumni a voice at EPFL and advise the School on decisions affecting its former students worldwide. The council reflects the symbiotic relationship between EPFL and its alumni network, as each is instrumental to the advancement of the other. Michaël Thémans, the head of EPFL’s development office, explains: “The new council will only speed the pace of EPFL Alumni’s expansion, especially since the alumni network is an extension of the School and one of its five key communities, along with students, academics, employees and entrepreneurs.”

EPFL Alumni Council members

Alumni members: Léonard Badet (MT’17), CTO of Bobst; Nathalie Brandenberg (SV’11, PhD SV’17), co-founder of Sun Biosciences and Doppl; Nicolas Cudré-Mauroux (MX’85, PhD MX’88), CTO of Sicpa; Olivier Glauser (SC’94), co-founder of Shankai Sports and chairman of Cellap Laboratoire; Laetitia Henriot Arsever (IN’08), CIO of Valora; Patrick Hertzog (IN’01), co-founder and user experience officer at Nexthink; Sven Holstenson (MT’06), managing partner at Pictet; Michèle Reigner (MX’01), director of R&D at Rolex Manufacture des Montres in Bienne; Mark Kornfilt (IN’06), founder and CEO of 10doors ventures and former president of Vimeo; and Leïla Schwery Bou Diab (CGC’99), VP of manufacturing and operations at Johnson & Johnson.

EPFL members: Martin Vetterli (PhD IN’86), Leïla Ojjeh (CGC’94) and Michaël Thémans (PhD MA’07).