Marine Hadengue is a Professor and Associate Dean at SKEMA Business School, where she leads the Global Executive MBA. Her work focuses on responsible management, innovation, entrepreneurship, and the transformation of higher education.
Alongside her academic role, she serves as Executive Director of the Higher Education for Good Foundation (HE4G), a Switzerland-based non-profit organisation that helps higher education institutions redesign their programmes for more sustainable societies. In this context, Marine led Youth Talks, a pioneering global initiative that became the first and largest worldwide consultation using open-ended questions and AI to analyse how young people think about the future, education, and major societal issues.
She is also Chief Executive Officer of the Fondation Arbour in Canada, which supports higher education & research.
An engineer by training, she holds a PhD from Polytechnique Montréal, a Master’s degree in Political Science from the Université de Montréal, and completed her postdoctoral studies at Polytechnique Paris.
How would you describe SKEMA as home to the Global Executive MBA?
I would say SKEMA is a very natural home for a Global Executive MBA because it combines academic excellence, international reach, and a real connection to business realities. It is a school that is serious, recognised, and ambitious, but also quite agile in the way it evolves.
What values are instilled in SKEMA GEMBA and what are some of the shared values students bring to the programme?
We really try to develop responsible, open-minded, and impactful leadership. There is a strong emphasis on curiosity, humility, and the ability to work across cultures and perspectives. And the participants themselves usually bring a lot of maturity, ambition, generosity, and willingness to learn from one another.
How does SKEMA stand out among other top-ranked business schools?
I think SKEMA stands out through its global DNA and its ability to connect academic quality with real-world relevance. In the GEMBA, we are not only preparing people to perform, but also to lead in a more thoughtful and responsible way. That balance matters a lot today.
What aspects of the student experience deliver the most value during the 20-month GEMBA programme?
For me, a lot of the value comes from the mix. The online format makes the programme compatible with demanding careers, and the Residential Weeks bring intensity, energy, and real human connection. On top of that, peer learning is huge: participants learn a great deal from each other.
What career paths and industries does GEMBA serve the best – corporate, entrepreneurial, social, and why?
Honestly, all three. It works very well for executives in corporate environments who want to step up strategically, for entrepreneurs who want to grow with stronger structure and perspective, and also for people driven by impact who want to connect performance with purpose. The programme is broad enough to support different ambitions.
How does SKEMA anticipate the needs of prospective EMBA students and the market to ensure that the curriculum is highly relevant?
We do not design the programme in isolation. The GEMBA Advisory Board plays an important role in helping us stay connected to market needs, industry expectations, and broader shifts in leadership. It brings together a mix of senior executives, business leaders, alumni, and academic voices who can challenge us, share perspectives from different sectors and geographies, and help us keep the programme aligned with real organisational needs. Beyond that, we also learn a great deal from our participants, faculty, and corporate ecosystem. That ongoing dialogue helps us continuously adapt the curriculum to major transformations such as AI, sustainability, and global complexity.
What are the key aspects of Responsible Management in a tech-driven environment?
For me, the key point is that technology should never be treated as neutral. Responsible management means understanding not only what technology can do, but also what it does to people, organisations, and society. So we need leaders who can combine innovation with ethics, critical thinking, and long-term responsibility.
What is GEMBA’s ambition in educating responsible leaders?
Our ambition is to educate leaders who are not only competent and strategic, but also lucid and grounded. We want them to be able to make strong decisions in complex environments, while keeping in mind the broader human, social, and environmental consequences of those decisions.
How do GEMBA participants develop a mindset and gain practical experience in driving business aligned with sustainable development goals? How do they impact the real business environment?
A lot of it happens through the constant link between the classroom and real life. Participants bring real challenges from their organisations, reflect on them collectively, and often test ideas directly in their professional environment. So the impact is not postponed until after graduation – it often starts during the programme itself.
How big and active is the SKEMA alumni network and how do GEMBA participants make the most of it during and after they graduate?
SKEMA has a large and international alumni network, which is clearly a major asset. For GEMBA participants, it creates opportunities for exchange, visibility, career development, and sometimes business partnerships as well. It is valuable during the programme, but even more over the long term.
The Youth Talks research that you are also heading finds that student expectations towards education are changing. How does this apply to GEMBA today?
What we see very clearly is that people are no longer looking only for knowledge. They want relevance, flexibility, interaction, meaning, and transformation. That applies very strongly to GEMBA participants: they want a programme that helps them grow professionally, of course, but also question themselves, evolve as leaders, and better understand the world they operate in.
