Meet the Winners of the Fourth Edition of ESCP’s Dean’s Award

Clément Dufau receives this year’s Dean’s Award Special Prize in recognition of his collective commitment and the innovative projects he has helped lead at ESCP. A Master in Management student passionate about sovereignty, innovation and industrial policy, he has been involved in ESCPRIT Défense and student representation, with a focus on strategic, technological and geopolitical issues.

The project he is most proud of is a seminar on European sovereignty. Developed over nine months, the initiative brought together ESCP administration, school departments, students and leading external speakers around the major technological, industrial and geopolitical challenges shaping Europe’s future. For Clément, the project showed how a student initiative can grow beyond student life and become part of the academic conversation.

For Noa Ettedgui, receiving the Dean’s Award is both a recognition of hard work and a reminder of the community that made her ESCP experience so meaningful. As elected Specialised Masters Representative on the Agora Student Board, she represented students across ESCP’s campuses, worked closely with delegates, academic leadership and Career Services, and helped strengthen communication and student engagement. A former competitive alpine ski racer and lifelong pianist, she

Alongside her academic work, Noa led Agora’s communications strategy and cross-campus social media team, organised Madrid’s Well-Being Week, and supported classmates through tutoring, interview preparation and career mentoring. For her, the award reflects something deeply personal: the belief that success and kindness can go hand in hand.

For Avani Jain, the Dean’s Award recognises the balance she has carried throughout her ESCP experience: academic commitments, leadership responsibilities and professional experience, often all at once. Specialising in Sustainability, Marketing and Strategy, she has taken on several leadership roles while building a strong professional profile.

The contribution she is most proud of is coordinating Agora’s Well-Being Week for more than 1,500 students on the Paris Campus while interning full-time at EssilorLuxottica. The initiative included an Open Art Wall, a 5K run with a DJ after-party and a live acoustic jam session. For Avani, the experience confirmed something essential about student life: community does not simply happen. It has to be built.

Haiming Lu views the Dean’s Award as recognition of two years of commitment to the ESCP community, alongside studies, internships and personal challenges. At ESCP, she became deeply involved in student life, contributing to five societies and the rowing club while bringing energy, discipline and creativity to each initiative.

Her proudest contribution was serving as President of Art Maniac, ESCP’s theatre society. Alongside twenty members, she helped bring Les Misérables by Victor Hugo to a Parisian theatre for six performances. She also served as Vice-President of Scep Invaders, ESCP’s games society, where she helped organise the second edition of the Intercampus Chess Tournament with the support of the ESCP Foundation — a natural fit for Haiming, who has been playing chess for over ten years and holds multiple regional and national titles. Through theatre, chess, student representation and association life, Haiming helped create spaces where students from different programmes and backgrounds could connect.

For Fay Ootes, the Dean’s Award represents a meaningful conclusion to her Bachelor in Management journey across London, Madrid and Berlin. Having first heard about the award as a first-year student, and later seeing peers and friends receive it, she describes joining this group of recipients as a special moment.

Growing up in Luxembourg as half-Dutch and half-German, Fay channeled her passion for social impact and institutional change into student governance. During her time at ESCP, she served in Agora as London Board of Trustees Representative, Vice-President and, most recently, President. She contributed to the Board of Directors, Campus Academic Boards, and Teaching and Learning Committees, helping ensure that student voices were heard. She also founded Well-Being Week in her first year, a mental health initiative she went on to organise three times across ESCP campuses. For Fay, student representation was not only a role; it was where she found her place at ESCP.

For Padmini-Helen Pandit, receiving the Dean’s Award is a gratifying conclusion to three years across ESCP’s Turin, Paris and Berlin campuses. A recent Bachelor in Management graduate, she describes the award as a reflection of the support, encouragement and collaboration she experienced from professors, classmates, friends and the wider ESCP community.

Her proudest contribution was organising the first Green Hackathon in Berlin. Inspired by a Green Hackathon she experienced during her first year in Turin, she wanted to recreate that energy in Berlin by combining sustainability, student life and career development. The result was a circular economy-themed event focused on supply chain issues, bringing together students, faculty and external professionals around ESCP’s values of creativity and plurality.

Amar Sigireddi sees the Dean’s Award as a meaningful close to a long academic journey. After eight years as a student and two Master’s degrees, the award recognises his commitment to doing good work consistently, even when the path was demanding.

At ESCP, Amar served as Vice-President of Agora, representing more than 10,000 students across six campuses. He also led a 15-member sales team at JET ESCP while pursuing a sales-focused Master’s, giving him the opportunity to apply what he was learning in real time. His ESCP journey also included reaching the Global Top 10 of L’Oréal Brandstorm and preparing for the next step in his sales career in Berlin.

For Divine Umeh, the Dean’s Award carries a personal and powerful meaning. Before joining ESCP, she founded two businesses in Nigeria: Deeviant Media, a digital marketing agency, and Dee Zobo, a hibiscus drink company built on ethical sourcing and women’s economic empowerment. Coming to ESCP allowed her to deepen the instincts she had developed as an entrepreneur and translate them into frameworks, strategy and research.

At ESCP, Divine served as MBA Representative in Agora, President of the MBA Consulting Club and Treasurer of the Women in Leadership Club. Her thesis, Finding Funding for Female Founders from Emerging Markets, brought together her entrepreneurial background, academic work and commitment to widening access to opportunity. Her contribution to ESCP was rooted in presence, honesty and perspective: showing up fully, sharing her experience and helping make the room wider for others.