Kedge Business School

Kedge Business School was formed in 2013 through the merger of Bordeaux École de Management and Euromed Management in Marseille, creating one of France's largest and most internationally oriented grande école business schools. With roots tracing back to 1874 in Bordeaux and 1872 in Marseille, the institution carries well over a century of business education heritage, originally founded to serve the commercial and maritime needs of two of France's great port cities. Kedge operates as a private institution with close ties to regional chambers of commerce and industry, giving it a practical, business-first orientation that has stayed consistent across its various evolutions. Today, the school runs programmes from campuses in Bordeaux, Marseille, Paris, Toulon, and Dax, as well as international campuses in Dakar and Shanghai, anchoring a genuinely global academic footprint. Its core philosophy centres on international immersion, entrepreneurial thinking, and applied management education — grounded in the real economies its founding cities were built on.

Accreditations and Rankings

Accreditations:

• AACSB
• EQUIS
• AMBA

Kedge holds all three major international accreditations — AACSB, EQUIS, and AMBA — making it a triple-crown accredited school, a distinction held by fewer than 1% of business schools worldwide.

Rankings:

• Financial Times Masters in Management ranking: consistently featured, with a top-100 global placement (2023)
• Financial Times Executive Education Custom Programmes: ranked among European providers (2023)
• Le Figaro Étudiant and L'Étudiant rankings: regularly placed among France's top 10 business schools

Executive Education at a Glance

Kedge Executive Education serves practising managers, senior professionals, and organisations seeking both individual development and custom corporate programmes, with a particular depth in international management, supply chain and operations, sustainability, and entrepreneurship. The school offers a dual offering of open-enrolment programmes — accessible to individuals — and fully tailored in-company programmes designed in close partnership with corporate clients, with custom work representing a significant and growing share of activity. Flagship open programmes include the Executive MBA, available in Bordeaux and Marseille, as well as shorter Certificats de Spécialisation and modular development tracks that can be completed over weeks or months. Formats span in-person intensive sessions, blended learning, and increasingly online delivery to accommodate working professionals who cannot commit to full residential blocks. Indicative fees for open executive programmes typically range from approximately €3,000 for shorter certificate modules to upwards of €30,000 for the full Executive MBA, with some financing options available through French CPF (Compte Personnel de Formation) eligibility, which is a meaningful practical consideration for professionals based in France.

Campus and Facilities

The Bordeaux campus occupies a purpose-built modern facility in the Bordeaux–Lac district, with dedicated executive education spaces, breakout rooms designed for collaborative work, and access to the wider innovation and business ecosystem of a city that has undergone significant economic and urban renewal over the past two decades. Marseille's campus sits in a city that is France's second-largest and its primary Mediterranean port — a backdrop that makes discussions about international trade, logistics, and multicultural management feel less like classroom theory and more like a description of the street outside. Both campuses are equipped with digital learning infrastructure, case study rooms, and executive lounge facilities designed for professionals who are accustomed to working environments rather than student halls. The city contexts themselves are part of the curriculum in spirit: Bordeaux's wine, aerospace, and tech industries and Marseille's shipping, tourism, and North African trade corridors give Kedge a real-world commercial texture that purely metropolitan schools often lack.

Faculty and Research

Kedge employs over 220 permanent faculty members drawn from more than 30 nationalities, giving the school a genuinely multinational academic culture rather than a French faculty with a few international appointments bolted on. Research strengths cluster notably around supply chain management, sustainable development, international strategy, and entrepreneurship — all areas directly relevant to the executives the school serves. Faculty are expected to maintain active links with industry, and a significant portion hold professional experience or maintain advisory roles alongside their academic work, which keeps the teaching in executive programmes grounded in practice rather than purely theoretical. Key research centres include the Centre for Research on Supply Chain and Logistics and work on wine and spirits management through the Kedge Wine & Spirits Management Centre — the latter a genuine specialism that reflects the school's deep roots in Bordeaux's most iconic industry.

Student Body, Alumni, and Career Outcomes

Kedge's degree programmes draw students from over 100 nationalities, and executive education cohorts tend to reflect this diversity, with participants drawn from across Europe, Africa, and Asia — particularly given the school's Dakar and Shanghai campuses and its historical ties to Francophone Africa. The alumni network numbers over 70,000 graduates across more than 120 countries, making it one of the larger French grande école alumni communities and a tangible asset for executives looking to expand their professional reach beyond domestic markets. Notable alumni include senior figures in FMCG, logistics, finance, and consulting, with strong employer representation from firms active in the supply chain, retail, and international trade sectors. For executives specifically, the CPF financing eligibility of many programmes — alongside Kedge's chamber of commerce connections — means the school has cultivated strong relationships with regional and national employers who actively sponsor participant enrolment.