The kilometres separating the young professionals disappeared the time of a weekend, allowing students from Romania to South Africa, Canada to India to gather in a jovial atmosphere and collect their well deserved awards. Friendships picked up where they had left off last June when the students embarked on their various internships as all those who present were oblivious to the effort they had made travelling around the world in many cases, just to be in Paris on this special day.

The students donned their black gowns and mortar boards in good humour, while camera-flashing friends and parents crowded into the 1700 seat ceremony hall. The lights dimmed and the music blared while the names of the 600 graduates scrolled up the giant screens to the applause of the audience.

The Dean of EDHEC Business School, Mr Olivier Oger welcomed the officials on stage; Bernard Fournier, Chairman of the Board and ex-CEO of Xerox and EDHEC graduate 1976, Hugo Kunetz, CEO of L'Oréal Denmark,  Thierry Marraud, President of the EDHEC Foundation, Thierry Drecq, President the Alumni Association and Professor Anne Witte, Associate Dean of EDHEC Grande Ecole.

Bernard Fournier addressed the students and summarised the school's plans for the future together with the School's expectations of its fresh graduates in the business world before introducing the Patron of the MBA class of 2007, Sean Phelan. Sean, after graduating from the very first class of the Theseus MBA almost 20 years ago, went on to create his own company MultiMap which he recently sold to Microsoft for 50 million euros. He awarded the prize for Best Student of the Year to MBA graduate Peter Levant from the USA and then invited each of the MBA graduates on stage to receive their diploma.

The floor was then given to Hugo Kunetz, patron of the 2007 EDHEC Master students who advised the students to dare to take risks, to believe their dreams and follow them through to the end. He summed up his own success story in L'Oréal and went on to distribute the prizes for the best students in each of the MSc and Majors. As Graduation Sponsor, L'Oréal also offered a present to every graduate leaving the stage - a gift box of their latest fragrance. Thierry Marraud then handed out the EDHEC Foundation Award to the student Berengere Buisson for her excellent Thesis, entitled How can European Innovation policies improve the competitiveness of European SMEs?

After all the students had received their coveted EDHEC Degree, there was a brief outline of the services offered by the EDHEC Alumni Association as they are now officially part of this ever-growing worldwide network of over 18.000 present in 103 countries.

To round off the official ceremony, 600 mortar board hats were thrown into the air to loud cheering while the celebrations continued with a champagne cocktail and a further chance to catch up with friends and professors.