The Academy

After some 15 years spent in a communication agency, I joined the world of higher education to try to share the professional lessons I had learned.

From a few hours of classes related to communication and marketing strategies, to project management, through the history of brands, I accepted responsibility in the management of pedagogy for different degrees and above all to share the daily life of students eager for knowledge.

Propelled to the head of a business school, I took up many challenges in these functions by guiding the students in their motivation and the pleasure to deploy for the success of their studies.

Today, it is time to build an Academy that lives up to their ambitions by blending internationalism with excellence in skills, building a setting that will serve their aspirations for a successful professional career.
May the force be with us!

Steven Thomsen, Ph.D., is a consultant for the Academy of International Business and is a professor of communication at the School of Communications at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah USA, where he has taught for 26 years. He earned his doctorate from the University of Georgia and an MBA from Western Governor’s University. He is the founder of the BYU School of Communications Biometrics Laboratory and currently directs the school’s international media studies programs.

He teaches courses in public relations. His areas of expertise include bio-behavioral measurement, survey and focus group research, media relations, and crisis communications. He has lived in France, Tahiti, and in Norway, where he was a visiting Fulbright Scholar at the University of Oslo’s Institute of Psychology.

He began his career as a public affairs specialist/corporate publications editor at Toyota USA’s headquarters in Los Angeles, CA. He continues to serve as a public relations consultant for a number of clients that have recently included A-B-Skis/Smartful Kids, Grogrub, and the Fiji Sun newspaper.

A. Scott DUNCAN consultant for The Academy Of International Business is an Associate Professor of Digital Management at Burgundy School of Business and former owner of Culture Calling, a higher education consulting company. Previously, Scott was the academic director for a Franco-American business school.

His main research focuses on the international strategies of French Business School and the use of international branch campuses. Other research interests include the impact of digitalization on higher education, with an emphasis on international education, as well as the use of digital tools in crisis management.

He teaches a variety of courses in Marketing, Communication, and International Management from a traditional and digital perspective in several bachelor and master’s programs at the school. His research interests include the impact of digitalization on higher education, with an emphasis on international education, as well as the use of digital tools in crisis management.

Prior to academia, he did marketing and communication for companies in Europe and the United States, including nonprofit organizations like the Air Line Pilots Association and the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

After 10 years in Banking and Finance I brought a new momentum in my life journey by taking a 3-year respite in order to live a unique entrepreneurial experience in Africa

Thus it was without any specific training, experience, or preconceived ideas other than a happy ingenuity making everything possible, that I could experience entrepreneurship.

Back to France since 2021, this fabulous adventure ended with the following awards

- Recipient of the 2021 Orange Social Entrepreneur Africa Middle East Award (Prix Orange Entrepreneur Social Afrique Moyen orient 2021; aka POESAM)

- Recipient of the 2020 Young Entrepreneur Trophy (Trophée Jeune Entrepreneur-2020; aka TJE BNI)

Today I am delighted to share with The Academy students these 15 years of accumulated experience (Business Development, Marketing and Communication, Strategy, Talent Management, Capacity Strengthening, Investment Management and Entrepreneurship) keeping at the same time this ability to dream, adapt, build and succeed from scratch in any environment

Thanks to his engineering degree in accounting and commerce/management, Christopher Darguence is a seasoned executive with over 20 years of experience as a CFO, CEO, General Manager, and VP Head of Sales. For the last 18 years, his focus has been on developing and selling solutions and services for the energy market stakeholders as his knowledge spans all the main relevant energy market processes and areas of the value chain, generation, transmission, distribution, and supply.

He also knows how to take risks and was a co-founder of five of the first leaders of 5 start-ups (Sur un banc, Lead up partners, ENGES, Energy Pool, and Agregio) and a transition manager in a business recovery case (SOCOTA group). Each of them was a great success, and he enjoyed working with skillful collaborators who shared these sometimes-painful adventures with him.

He will teach students to develop their appeal for entrepreneurship and will share another of his professional focuses: Sustainable Development. He is drawn to choose responsibilities that will add value to a better world for the next generations and our ecosystem.

He considers mutual respect, openness, and straightforward communication as the foundations of stable and valuable relationships, both among colleagues and with customers.