François Heriard Dubreuil

MBA’75J

Chairman and CEO, Orpar SA

The moment François remembers most at INSEAD revolves around a Leadership class. During the class discussions, two ex-army participants one Jordanian and one Israeli, realised that they had been fighting each other in the same battle in the recent conflict in the Middle East. “They both came down to the front of the amphitheatre and shook hands. I then realised that INSEAD is so much more than just an MBA course.”
The group work at INSEAD is something that has also remained with Francois. “My first reaction on arriving at INSEAD was one of shock! There were all these people from all the corners of the world and I thought at the time that they were all much more intelligent than me.”
“There were six of us in my study group - I was the only Frenchman, there was a Welshman from the petroleum industry, a Belgian marketer, a shop keeper from Netherlands/Israel, a Portuguese politician and a Japanese banker. We all thought differently, had different educational backgrounds and as a consequence all had completely different views on everything.”
Born in France in 1948, François graduated from the Université de Paris with a Maitrise És Sciences in 1970 and a diploma from Institut d’Administration des Entreprises in 1975.

“When I left university I went to work for Sofres, a company that conducts public opinion polls. I was a mathematician but I ended up working in marketing. In this business environment, I quickly realised that if I wanted to climb the corporate ladder I needed an MBA.”
François applied for the MBA programmes at both Harvard and Stanford but chose INSEAD because he preferred the idea of a one year programme.

Since leaving INSEAD, François has spent almost his entire career working in the wine industry and has held many senior positions.

François is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Orpar SA, a family holding company which controls several companies in this sector, including Rémy Cointreau and Oeneo, a leader in the corks and barrels industry.

François is extremely proud of having created in 1980 the second, and now the oldest joint venture in China, Dynasty Wines, which is now one of the leading producers of Chinese wines in the world.

In 2005 for their 30th class reunion, Francois’ MBA Class of 1975 came together to endow a scholarship for African participants at INSEAD. Their generosity and foresight inspired Nelson Mandela, Africa’s greatest leader of the 20th century to back this initiative. Thus the INSEAD Nelson Mandela Scholarships for Africans were created.

“I have seen the results of these scholarships and my dream is that one day, INSEAD itself will have a footprint in Africa.”

One of the lessons François learnt from INSEAD was that there is a time to learn, a time to work and a time to give back to society. When he found out that INSEAD was setting up a campus in Asia, he knew that that this was the time for him to give back to future MBAs. With Orpar, he established the first chair of the new Singapore campus, the Orpar Chair in Risk Management.
François is proud that two of his children have attended INSEAD, but his ambition is to “see a grandson attend INSEAD.”