Professor Delphine Manceau is the Dean of Neoma Business School. We find out her thoughts on her leadership role, how she see business education adapting, and much more.
What is your favourite part of your role as Dean?
What excites me most as Dean is the forward-looking nature of the role. In higher education, we encounter each generation before the professional world does, offering us a unique opportunity—and responsibility—to anticipate the future. And we do it combining two roles: serving young people in their educational and professional journeys, and supporting companies in their need for top talent and future leaders.
At NEOMA, we are trying not to only adapt to the profound shifts currently reshaping higher education—driven by technological, societal, environmental, and geopolitical forces—, but to shape those changes. It’s a dynamic and inspiring challenge that calls for the collective engagement of the entire School.
What truly energizes me is imagining tomorrow’s learning models, redefining how we teach and what we teach, and engaging with the evolving values and aspirations of new generations.
How is business education adapting to the changes in the education and business landscapes?
Business education is undergoing a profound evolution. We are positioned at the intersection of societal and economic transformations, which makes our mission both demanding and stimulating. Generational shifts, changing aspirations, and the redefinition of work all push us to rethink our educational approaches—teaching formats, programme contents, leadership models, and how we support personal development.
Technological breakthroughs, especially Artificial Intelligence, are fundamentally changing the skillsets required across sectors. For example, AI is transforming the analyst jobs we have long prepared students for. At NEOMA, we are integrating these disruptions into both our curriculum and our strategic thinking.
But in this fast-moving context, anchoring students in foundational knowledge is also essential. That’s why we are introducing a new course for first-year Master in Management students—“Lessons from Classic Texts: Management, Business, and Leadership”. Taught by a literature professor, the course explores how great literary works—from The Odyssey to 19th-century novels—address timeless themes of leadership, ethics, and creativity.
What hopes do you have for your business graduates?
I hope that our graduates not only find their place in the professional world but feel equipped—and motivated—to transform it.
Today’s youth often express concern or even disillusionment in the face of environmental, economic, and social challenges. That is entirely understandable. But our role as a business school is to nurture both the competence and the confidence to act. We must empower them to become agents of change, not passive observers.
I want our graduates to enter the workforce with courage and conscience, capable of questioning outdated models and leading meaningful transformations from within. We aim to cultivate not just high-performing professionals, but responsible and engaged citizens.
How do you see business education evolving in the future?
The future of business education lies in our ability to stay relevant in a world marked by complexity and uncertainty.
We’re already seeing major trends—accelerated technological disruption, the hybridization of learning, and geopolitical quick shifts—compelling us to continually reimagine how we teach, what we teach, and why. While such volatility can be unsettling, it also pushes us toward innovation, agility, and personalization.
I believe that the schools that will lead the next era of education are those that successfully combine academic rigor, societal responsibility, and the flexibility to evolve. That’s the path we have chosen at NEOMA.
What distinguishes NEOMA’s approach to teaching from its competitors?
NEOMA is widely recognized for its culture of innovation, which permeates every aspect of our institution. This mindset drives how we design our programmes, deploy technology, structure our research, and even manage our daily operations. With 27 innovation awards in the past five years, NEOMA stands as Europe’s most awarded business school in this domain.
We leverage immersive technologies like virtual reality and a virtual campus to enhance learning. We also maintain strong corporate links, ensuring that our students face real-world business challenges and develop immediately relevant skills.
Our recent partnership with Mistral AI—a global leader in open-source generative AI—is a great example. Together, we’re integrating cutting-edge AI tools into our pedagogy, research, and internal systems, reinforcing our role as a pioneer in digital transformation. But we also work together as design partners to help shape how AI is used in Higher Education in general by including many universities and schools in an open innovation approach.
Well-being is another key area for us. Our Wellness Center provides comprehensive support—from nutrition and sleep to mental health—because we believe student success begins with student happiness.
We also have a distinctive position in Executive Education, particularly in career transitions for professional athletes. Through partnerships in rugby and handball, NEOMA has helped over 300 athletes redefine their careers—100 of them in 2024 alone, from 15 countries. This expertise in career reinvention also benefits other professionals seeking to reshape their careers through customised and open programmes.
What’s your vision for the future of NEOMA Business School?
NEOMA is deeply future-oriented. Our current strategic plan, Engage for the Future, reflects our ambition to address tomorrow’s major challenges by harnessing innovation, academic excellence, and social responsibility.
A major symbol of this vision is our new campus in Reims, opening in September 2026. It brings together architectural design, digital transformation, and pedagogical reinvention to create a learning environment of the future. It builds on the lessons from our Paris campus, which opened four years ago and served as a testing ground for new approaches.
Internationally, our ambition is to further strengthen our position among the world’s top business schools. This means deepening academic partnerships across the globe. In a world marked by fragmentation, a strong, diverse, and agile academic network is more critical than ever.
At the same time, we remain deeply rooted in our local ecosystems. With campuses in Paris, Champagne, and Normandy—regions known respectively for luxury and agri-food, and for logistics, transport, and energy—NEOMA plays a key role in regional development.
To conclude, two values remain particularly close to my heart: gender equality and access to higher education.
We are working to ensure gender balance among faculty and leadership, and to challenge gender stereotypes in programme choices. For example, too few women still choose finance or entrepreneurship. To change this, we are introducing role models, awareness-raising on cognitive bias, and specific training for women on salary and career negotiation.
On the equal opportunity front, we have tripled scholarship funding in five years and launched mentorship programmes for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
One initiative that embodies both priorities is our partnership with Veuve Clicquot. Each year, it supports 10 female students from around the world through full scholarships, daily living support, and mentorship from the company’s executive committee. It’s a concrete expression of our vision: inclusive, ambitious, and impact-driven.
For additional insights, announcements, and perspectives, visit the conversation on business school leadership.
