The Grenoble École de Management is a graduate business school founded as in 1984 as ESC Grenoble by the city’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Renamed in 2003, it has Triple Crown accreditation. As well as Grenoble it has campuses in Paris and, since 2013 Berlin, where its operation is run jointly with the Hanover-based GISMA business school.
It also has bases in Casablanca, Tbilisi, Los Angeles, London, Moscow, Singapore and Beijing. In 1993 it pioneered French business doctorates in partnership with Henley Business School, and it has offered PhDs since 2009.
Its dean Loick Roche said in 2017 that its aim was to evolve into a "School for Business for Society" with an emphasis on the management of entrepreneurship, innovation and technology.
In this it has taken advantage of Grenoble’s reputation as a centre for science and technology, host to institutions such as the European organisation for nuclear research, CERN, and once rated by Forbes among the world’s most innovative cities.
GEM is one of eight partners, along with two research bodies, three European institutions and two other higher education institutes in GIANT (Grenoble Innovation for New Technologies), a 250 hectare 1.3bn Euro research campus.
Its pitch to students places an emphasis both on the city’s lively, youthful culture, and its promxinity to the Alps. It has several universities and in term time a total of 68,000 students make up around 30 per cent of the population.
Since 2009 GEM has hosted the annual Grenoble Geopolitics Festival while its Altgliss student association organises the world student skiing and snowboard championships.
