Thomas Friang appointed Executive Director of the ESSEC Institute for Geopolitics & Business

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Thomas Friang appointed Executive Director of the ESSEC Institute for Geopolitics & Business

Thomas Friang has been named Executive Director of the ESSEC Business School Institute for Geopolitics & Business, founded as part of ESSEC’s TRANSCEND strategy.

Friang will report to Professor Anne-Claire Pache, Associate Dean of Global Strategy and Sustainability, and will work alongside Professors Aurélien Colson and Cédomir Nestorovic, the Institute’s academic co-directors.

Friang will help launch and develop the Institute for Geopolitics & Business on all ESSEC’s campuses (Cergy, La Défense, Singapore, Rabat). This Institute will draw on the expertise of the Institute for Research and Education on Negotiation (IRENE), the Center for Geopolitics, Defense and Leadership, and the European Center for Law and Economics.

"For many companies, the current state of the world has put an end to 'business as usual.' By creating the Institute for Geopolitics & Business, ESSEC will provide concrete answers to major questions facing boards and executives. I am delighted to join ESSEC: its excellence in academic research, its pedagogical innovation, and its international presence are tremendous assets for supporting this historic shift in our economies," says Friang.

Friang has over 15 years of experience in international affairs. Before joining ESSEC, he was an adviser for strategic communications and speech-writing to Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, French Minister of State for Development and International Partnerships in the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. In that role, he supported the transformation of development aid policy into international partnership policy.

Previously, Friang led the Open Diplomacy Institute from 2019-2023, a think tank dedicated to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in a tense geopolitical context. He founded the organization in 2010 and chaired it on a volunteer basis until 2019. In this role, he developed numerous initiatives like the Sustainable Development Meetings, the French anniversary of the SDGs, and the Y20, the G20's youth engagement group, which he chaired ahead of the G20 summit in Cannes.

Friang graduated from ESCP Business School and ENS Ulm and began his career as an economist. He was a research fellow at the Foundation for Strategic Research and EuropaNova before joining the Banque de France as a negotiator with the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. He subsequently advised various political figures and organizations with international influence, such as the Paris Peace Forum.

Friang was awarded the Youth and Commitment Medal in 2021, named the Giverny Prize Laureate by Le Point in 2022, appointed SDG Goalkeeper by the Gates Foundation in 2023, and Young Leader by the Aspen Institute in 2024. He is a board member of Committee 21 and the French United Nations Association. He regularly appears in the media to provide commentary on geopolitical events.

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For more information, or to speak to someone from ESSEC about this story, contact Jonny Stone at jonny@bluesky-pr.com or call 01582 790704.