Interview Assas Finance: Diane JOSSELIN (President) and Meriam KHIAR (Vice-President)

How did you come up with the idea of giving a lecture on this specific topic?

In order to answer this question, we must return to the reasons for the creation of Assas Finance Association. Our aim is, firstly, to arrange lectures on financial topics that may interest students and, secondly, to become a single place of exchange between students and financial professionals.

We noticed that, gradually, the share of students wishing to work in the M&A sector, kept growing each year. Thus to anticipate and answer their questions, we thought that putting them in touch with M&A experts would be relevant.

Could you tell us a bit more about the speakers?

Here, we can emphasize the family spirit of the Magisterium that perpetuates and through which, we invited three the former students to debate on the "Future Prospects for M&A." We also had the honour of welcoming a speaker from ESSEC business school, whom we contacted by email.

Therefore, we had the pleasure of welcoming:

• Grégoire Revenu : Co-founder in 1996 and member of the executive committee of the merchant bank Bryan, Garnier & Co. He carried out nearly one hundred fundraising campaigns and provided advices in sales and acquisitions for European companies. He is graduated from the Magisterium in Banking and Finance of Pantheon-Assas University.

• Jean-Christophe Quiniou : Since the end of August 2017, he has been the sixth associate manager of the Transaction R team at Rothschild & Co. Bank. He is graduated from the Magisterium in Banking and Finance of Pantheon-Assas University.

• François Prioux : Since 2013, he has worked at DC Advisory as Managing Director in charge of the technology, media and telecom sector. He is graduated from ESSEC business school.

• Stoyan Kostadinov : In 2007, he joined Aurignac Finance as Deputy Director. Since then, he has been involved in numerous M&A in the press, specialized distribution, environment and agribusiness sectors. He is graduated from the Magisterium in Banking and Finance and the Institute of Business Law of Pantheon-Assas University.

What did you like most about preparing for the lecture?

Actually, absolutely everything. Every step of the preparation is very dramatic. As a result, we enjoyed to outperform ourselves at each steps, to see the project come to life and construct over time.

We really enjoyed arranging this lecture. Proof is that, since it has been ended, the only thing we want to do is learning from the mistakes we have commited and organizing a new one!

Overall, how was the lecture?

On the whole, the lecture went very well. We had good feedback from both students and speakers. It is the best accomplishment we have realized. Indeed, our main idea was that everyone has a good time.

Furthermore, we are very satisfied with the media coverage of the event which brought about 200 people on November 15.

What are the future projects of the association for the rest of the year?

What a great question! We have a lot of them. Firstly, at the end of each month, Assas Finance summarizes the striking events that affected the financial world throughout the month. Secondly, we write articles popularizing some major financial concepts to make it accessible to everyone.

Furthermore, we want to arrange at least one other lecture by the second semester of the school year. Eventually, we would like to develop more partnerships in order to secure sufficient funds to ensure the long-term sustainability of our association.

To get more information regarding upcoming conferences and to keep abreast on financial news or, discover (or develop) some subjects linked to finance, we urge you to follow us regularly on the Assas Finance website: https://www.assas-finance.fr