More info
The CEMS Global Alliance is a purpose led organization, powered by our beliefs that great leadership starts with self-leadership and societal progress requires continual exploration. In this series of interviews, we take a look at CEMS students and alumni who are contributing to making this world a more open, sustainable and inclusive world.
Today, in our Humans of CEMS series, we meet CEMS student Gwendal de la Rivière who participated in the exciting and thrilling Cap-Martinique race. The Cap-Martinique is a transatlantic sailing race. It's a daring adventure that embodies the spirit of exploration, challenge and freedom on the high seas. Gwendal was accompanied by Ivan, one of his dear friends and they both decided to take their friendship across oceans.
The Cap-Martinique race is a fascinating yet intense race, can you walk us through the preparation process for the race?
I have always been fond of sailing - my father builds wooden boats for a living and I was raised next to the sea. During my first year at HEC, I met Ivan with whom I sailed quite a few times on the Pere Labat (our boat for the Cap Martinique). Then, it was 2 years of training, upgrading the boat from a fast-cruising one to an actual racing boat, finding money to fund the project and organising activities with the NGO we represented during the race. For the sponsoring aspect, we raised around 70k€ from several companies, including Concentrix and Plastimo/AD Nautic - the first one is a global service company, the second one is a French company, European leader of nautical equipment supplier. For the NGO part, in the race we chose to represent Le Rocher, a non-profit working to re-establish links in 10 difficult neighborhoods in France. Our part was to bring children onboard and have them discover sailing on boats!
And would you say you've always been the adventurous type? Did you envision yourself doing this when you were younger?
I would not say I am. In fact, I would say I am somehow afraid of the unknown, and like when everything is well planned to minimise uncertainty and errors. Of course, I love sailing and one can’t control the sea. On the other hand, sailing a boat to a destination completely changes the way of traveling: instead of traveling for the destination, you appreciate the length of the journey.
Spending that long at sea can come with its challenges, what difficulties did you and Ivan encounter and what was your biggest takeaway from the race?
We indeed faced numerous challenges. The first one was about managing our energy and making sure that Ivan and I were always fit, rested, happy, and vice-versa. We had to pay constant attention to each other and trust each other 100%. When it comes to pure racing, we were under constant pressure of rankings and weather report/forecast, trying to make the best decisions while staying safe. Therefore, our biggest takeaway from the race would be: to get a good place when crossing the finish line, you need to cross it first. To do so, remain humble to the ocean, and keep an eye on the boat, its sails and its sailors.
Did you find any common values between the race and the values learned through your CEMS journey?
Sailing goes with core values that are: humility, and respect and in this case, for the environment of the ocean, which are part of the CEMS values statement. Now, based on my CEMS experience - HEC Paris (France) and Wirtschaft Universität (Vienna), I would say that values that are shared by the students would be about striving for excellence, discovering the world and becoming united despite coming from all over the world. In that regard, that sailing experience was based on different yet complementary values, which is not completely surprising considering how different the two environments are!
What advice would you give to anyone who has been inspired by your story and would like to take part in such an experience?
Do it! As a CEMS student, we are in our last years of study which is probably the best moment to undertake cool projects. Find yourself a good friend - I don’t think I could have done it by myself, and go for it. If you want to experience a new way of meeting people and traveling slowly (sustainable + super cool), find a captain on Facebook groups or even go on an adventure in ports and find a boat that could take you anywhere (near shore obviously)!
