KEDGE Alumnus and perhaps future winner of Koh-Lanta?

As has been announced many other places, Fouzi’s will be one of the faces to appear in this latest season of Koh-Lanta.

TF1 presents Fouzi as an “ultra-positive” adventurer which made it possible for him to overcome the sorrows in his life, particularly the loss of his mother. Since then, he’s only had one goal: to make his family smile. This is without a doubt why he has gone on to become the financial director of a major comedy festival. "

After 10 years of waiting and a journey strewn with challenges, his childhood dream has come true. But doing Koh-Lanta was not only his own dream, it was also his mother's. “He wants to be the hero of his loved ones and when Fouzi decides something, nothing will stop him.”

FROM THE KEDGE GRANDE ECOLE PROGRAMME TO THE FINANCIAL DIRECTOR OF COMEDY

An avid traveller, but also with a passion for numbers, Fouzi’s professional career speaks volumes about his personality and his adventurous and driven side.

After completing two years of preparatory classes for the Grandes Écoles, he enrolled in the KEDGE Grande École Programme, where he specialised in finance. He graduated in 2016 and started his professional career at as an Administrative and Financial Manager at Cheese and More. In March 2015, he started working for EY as a financial auditor before moving three years later to the Amaris group, a firm with offices in 60 countries.

Lastly, in October 2020, he became the Financial Director of the well-known Montreux Comedy Group, previously known as the Montreux Laughter Festival. This comedy festival takes place every year at the beginning of December in Montreux in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HIM ON BUSINESS-COOL.COM

FOUZI ANSWERS OUR QUESTIONS

Hello Fouzi. Thank you for agreeing to this interview. To start off, would you tell us about your background and your years at KEDGE?

Hello. After completing an HEC preparatory class in Lille, I started at KEDGE. I very quickly loved the spirit of the school and I wanted to actively participate in the school's associative life. I was a member of "Armadas" of the student’s Sports Association which won that year and then I joined the Junior Enterprise (JE). At the Armadas, I was the coach of the women's football team (we won the ESC cup as well as the Ecricome challenge - excellent memories), and at the JE, I was in the Finance department.

It took me a lot of time and energy to juggle the two but I was always extremely energetic and I wanted to take everything the school had to offer. In terms of academics, I decided to take the DSCG (Advanced Accounting and Management) course because I already knew I wanted to work in finance. 

Before asking you about the Koh-Lanta adventure, please tell us about your company "Montreux Comedy" and describe your role as its Finance Director?

GF Productions Group is an international company with 75 employees working in six different countries. It organises the famous "Montreux Comedy" and other comedy festivals around the world. I had the opportunity to work for them after having been a financial advisor to Grégoire Furrer, the CEO and founder of Montreux Comedy. We connected right away and Grégoire asked me to come and work with him on developing the company.

As Finance Director, I'm in charge of the financial activity in the broadest possible sense: fundraising, development and financing, financial management of productions, consolidation, and management of accounts. It is extremely rewarding to work in a company that wants to bring cultures together through humour and that wants to become the world leader in its field.

You graduated from KEDGE, Class of 2016, and you participated in the last season of Koh-Lanta. How did your experience and what you studied at the school help you in that venture? Did some of the soft skills you acquired at KEDGE help you advance?

I think that KEDGE helped me a lot on Koh-Lanta, to be honest. I remember the management courses and putting what I learned in them into practice within the student associations. This enabled me to be very well prepared in the management of human relations: never give in to emotion, stay calm and think about what's effective and best for the group. My role as a coach in the women's football team added a unifying and leading aspect to my personality which helped me on the island. And lastly, the hours I spent studying for the exams, whether in prep school or at school, clearly helped me to build a mental capacity and resilience to stress which is the core of Koh-Lanta.

As we all know, Ko-Lanta is first and foremost an extreme challenge competition. What was the most challenging part for you?

It's the resistance to hunger and cold. It's extremely difficult. When you eat three pieces of coconut and 10 grams of rice a day, your body tells you to stop at some point... and this is when your head takes over. I also found the trials exciting. Denis Brogniart has a great sense of competition and pushes us to our limits. Sometimes you face some tough physical challenges but anything is possible in this adventure. 

The adventure is punctuated by numerous trials to determine the winner. What has been your favourite challenge so far?

As a viewer, I always loved two events: archery and the obstacle course. The former requires composure and skill, while the latter requires a great sense of cardio, speed and endurance. We'll see if I get the chance to participate in these events this time around! 

To finish, if you were to give one piece of advice to graduates and students who would like to take part in the adventure, what would it be?

I think you need to have a story to tell and be very natural. You don't have to be an Olympic champion but your story and determination should be compelling. I also often say that casting is like a first date. You have to be seductive, have chemistry, and connect. It's like an interview, you have to convince them that you can be the next great Koh-Lanta adventurer.

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