Gary Pinagot, KEDGE graduate, takes over the digital...
This kedger is has started his own brew lab
Interview with Lorris Martiningo, 2008 KEDGE graduate, now manager and brewer of La Beer Fabrique in Lyon.
INTERVIEW 💬
1️⃣ To begin, tell us about your educational background. What did you study, both before and at KEDGE?
After passing the social and economic sciences BAC, I had two years of CPGE (Higher School Preparatory Classes) in Valencia. I discovered KEDGE during the post-competition oral exam and I fell in love with its Luminy campus, and the atmosphere of Marseille, with its culture and history, only confirmed that it was the best choice I could make. I immediately got involved in the school's associative life by joining the Arts Office (BDA) as a project manager, while focusing my university path on financing and operational management in the cultural sector.
2️⃣ Tell us what you did after your studies were finished. What positions have you held? What did you learn in those positions?
My path after graduation was full of twists and turns but was very rewarding. The cultural sector has always been my first passion. Of course, I had to move to the capital because of the French culture is centralised. I started as a project and finance manager in a cultural engineering agency for the development of large-scale artistic projects. Then I got involved in the music industry, which was my second personal passion. I started off working on the distribution of the Naïve Records’ physical music catalogue, and I moved forward at the same pace as the industry, gradually moving on to distributing its digital catalogue to the major distribution platforms. The technological side behind the revival of the music industry did more than just lead me to a job as an operational project manager for a music platform that was mainly involved in white label music services for mass-market brands.
The evolution of content and streaming was a driver for change and development of new skills and opened the door for me to move over to video games streaming at SFR. What led me to my getting involved in the brewing field was my working with an Israeli start-up that specialised in IoT, connected objects, and draught beer. As Operations Manager Director for the French territory, I met a lot of players in the industry - distributors, producers, drinking establishment operatives, and, especially, independent brewers – and I got hooked. From brewing as a hobby in my small Parisian kitchen to taking brewing courses, I realised that a new life was taking shape. My professional career was somewhat specific, but it was the uniqueness of having evolved over time to see the technological and digital transformation of an industry that could go back to artisanal activities.
3️⃣ What are you doing/what is your situation today? What gave you the idea and why do you want to do what you’re doing today?
Today I am the Managing Director of La Beer Fabrique Lyon, the only franchise of La Beer Fabrique, which is based in Paris. I was trained as a brewer at La Beer Fabrique in Paris, where I met its founder as well as talented brewers. We got on well together, and the idea to expand it to Lyon quickly grew. As a Savoyard by birth, I wanted to set new personal and professional goals for myself somewhere outside Paris, and its potential was a real catalyst for this.
4️⃣ What are your development goals for the future?
My brewery workshops are open to anyone who wants to get to know the craft brewing industry and are interested in brewing their own beer. The development of my workshop is will depend on our ability to enter the collective imagination of the Lyon region by becoming a fun and friendly activity for individuals. We also want to attract companies that would like to offer their employees team building or incentive activities by offering them workshops in the unique setting of our lab, and offer talks and meetings on brewing by holding evenings centred around beer/zythology and the association between gastronomy and beer. We see many growth levers that can make our place a space for sharing and brewing.
5️⃣ If you were to give advice to any KEDGE graduate who wants to do something similar, what would it be?
Don't be afraid to reinvent yourself a thousand times. KEDGE's motto at the time was: "Be a Blue Cat". It meant “Know how to stand out, reinvent yourself, to give of yourself a thousand times, and be proud of each and every one”. More than the academic achievements I accomplished, it was a state of mind I acquired.
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