“Olympic silver medalist transitioning from elite sport to business leadership and healthcare impact.”

Hometown: Paris, France

Fun fact about yourself: When France announced the first COVID lockdown, I had 24 hours to call my surgeon and convince him to remove my cast, pack, and fly to Réunion Island, where restrictions were lighter and physiotherapy was still available after my broken leg. I convinced my best friend to join the adventure, and we stayed four months preparing for the Tokyo Olympics. The Games were eventually postponed, but I was ready that summer.

Undergraduate School and Degree:

Toulouse Business School – Master’s Degree in Marketing & Management (Master 1 & Master 2)
École de Guerre Économique (EGE) – Executive MBA in Strategic Management & Economic Intelligence

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school?

French National Rugby Sevens Team – Professional Athlete (2014–2024)
Competed in two Olympic Games (Rio 2016, Tokyo 2021 – silver medalist) and two Rugby World Cups (San Francisco 2018, Madrid 2024 – two-time silver medalist).

Where did you intern during the summer of 2025?

Novo Nordisk – Strategy Intern leading the ReturPen project (Paris La Défense, France)
Reported to the Associate Director, Corporate Affairs, and presented the project strategy to the General Manager France.

Where will you be working after graduation?

Novo Nordisk – Patient Experience & Solutions Officer, Cardio-Metabolic Care (Paris La Défense, France)
Working with healthcare professionals and patient organizations to improve care pathways and patient access to treatment.

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

President, MBA Tournament (MBAT), HEC Paris – I led the organization of one of Europe’s largest student-led MBA events, bringing together more than 1,500 participants from over 15 international business schools around sport, networking, and cultural exchange. Over eight months, I worked with a core team of 30 students and coordinated more than 100 volunteers both in preparation and during the event, managing a complex project involving multiple stakeholders and a fully campus-based experience.

MBAT was especially meaningful to me because it connected my background as a professional athlete with my transition into business. More than a competition, I wanted the event to create a strong sense of community where students from different countries and backgrounds could meet and collaborate. Inclusion was a key focus, particularly through initiatives to raise awareness of disability sports, which I felt was important for future decision-makers to experience and better understand. Leading MBAT felt like running a small company: managing a budget, deadlines, and logistics, but also navigating different personalities, resolving conflicts, and keeping a diverse team motivated over time.

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? One academic experience I am particularly proud of during my MBA was completing an exchange semester at USC Marshall in Los Angeles. Moving alone to the other side of the world without knowing anyone was a meaningful personal challenge for me, as I tend to question myself despite being used to new environments. For the first time in many years, I had no clear role or familiar structure to rely on, and I had to find my place in a completely new setting.

Being exposed to the confidence and directness of American students pushed me to speak up more than I ever had before. Living in Los Angeles also felt surprisingly solitary at times, very different from the collective environments I was used to in sport, at HEC, and in France more generally. During the semester, I also traveled alone for the first time: a solo trip to Hawaii in a van, which became another step in learning to rely on myself in a different context.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? The professional achievement I am most proud of is building a dual path as a professional rugby player and a student for more than a decade. Competing at the highest level of international sport while completing university degrees required constant discipline and long-term commitment. In France, combining elite sport and higher education has historically been difficult, with limited structural support, which made this path particularly demanding.

Beyond the results, including two Olympic Games and multiple World Cup medals, what matters most to me is having successfully prepared for life after sport. Transitioning from a career as a professional athlete to completing an MBA at HEC Paris and starting a new role at Novo Nordisk represents a continuation of that journey. I have always been someone who looks toward the next challenge, sometimes taking time to realize how unusual the path has been. Looking back now, I am most proud of having built something sustainable beyond performance alone.

Why did you choose this business school? I chose HEC Paris because of its strong emphasis on learning through experience. Programs such as MBAT, TEC, and the Leadership Seminar immediately stood out to me because they offered opportunities to learn by doing rather than only through traditional academic coursework. After more than a decade as a professional athlete, I was drawn to an environment where teamwork, leadership, and real-life challenges were central to the learning experience.

Choosing HEC also meant staying in France, close to my family, after years of traveling constantly for rugby competitions. At the time, I was looking forward to building a more stable routine and reconnecting with home. Ironically, the MBA ended up taking me abroad again through an exchange semester in the United States, which turned out to be an important part of the experience as well.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? My favorite course during the MBA was Negotiation because it combined practical learning with deep insights into human behavior. The class was highly interactive and based on real-life situations, which made every session engaging and memorable.

What I found most valuable was discovering that negotiation is not only about defending a position or winning an argument, but about understanding the other side and building solutions together. Coming from a competitive sports background, this was an important shift in perspective. The course helped me develop a more thoughtful and structured approach to difficult conversations, which I know will be essential in my professional career.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? My favorite MBA event at HEC Paris was the Talent Show. I was amazed by the diversity of talents within the cohort, from music and dance to comedy and performances that revealed sides of people we did not usually see in the classroom.

More than the performances themselves, what made the event special was the sense of togetherness it created. It was one of the rare moments when the entire cohort came together simply to support and celebrate each other. To me, the Talent Show reflected the strong sense of community at HEC and the richness of a group where everyone brings something unique beyond academics or professional achievements.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? Looking back on my MBA experience, I think I would have tried to slow down more and be more intentional about enjoying the moment. I naturally tend to take on many projects and focus on the next objective, which meant that the two years passed very quickly.

Between academics, MBAT, internships, and personal projects, I was constantly moving forward, sometimes without fully realizing how special this period was. The HEC campus offers so many opportunities, a beautiful park, sports facilities, and the Wednesday evening activities that bring students together, and I only started to take advantage of them later in the program, when I should have done it earlier. With hindsight, I would have made more time to pause and appreciate the people and experiences around me. This is something I am still learning, and the MBA helped me become more aware of the importance of balance.

What was the most impactful case study you had in business school and what was the biggest lesson you learned from it? One of the most impactful learning experiences during my MBA came from a negotiation exercise during my exchange semester at USC Marshall. The scenario involved an employee who had missed a few days of work because of illness and a sick child, and who had been financially penalized by the company. I played the role of the direct manager and was expected to defend the company’s decision.

What struck me most was the cultural difference in how the situation was perceived. Coming from France, I was surprised by how strict the policies were and by how normal this situation seemed to some of my American classmates, including the student playing the employee. Later in the semester, a class session on how negotiators’ cultural backgrounds influence negotiation styles confirmed what I had observed in practice. The biggest lesson for me was that negotiation is not only about interests and outcomes, but also about understanding the values and assumptions that people bring into a discussion.

What did you love most about your business school’s town? What I loved most about HEC’s location was the feeling of living in a small, self-contained community. Everything was within walking distance: classes, sports facilities, housing, the supermarket just across the street, and the train station fifteen minutes away for easy access to Paris. In many ways, it felt like living in a bubble where daily life was simple and organized around student life.

This environment made it incredibly easy to focus on studying while also building strong relationships. Because we all lived on campus, we constantly ran into each other, at the gym, in the laundry room, at the supermarket, or over dinners at each other’s apartments. Having done an exchange semester, I realized how special this was. When we wanted to step outside that bubble, Paris was close enough to offer a completely different atmosphere, but the campus itself created a true sense of community that became one of the most valuable parts of the MBA experience.

What business leader do you admire most? One business leader I respect is Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder of Bumble and co-founder of Tinder. What I find particularly compelling about her story is that after being pushed out of Tinder, she chose not only to start again but to build a direct competitor based on a different vision. Bumble was designed around the idea that women make the first move, changing the dynamics of the platform.

As a woman in competitive environments, I recognize how often you have to build your own path rather than follow an established one. What resonates most with me is the idea of responding to setbacks not by stepping back, but by building something of your own. That independence and determination are qualities I deeply respect.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? One way AI was integrated into my MBA experience was through its use as a practical tool in coursework and projects. We were encouraged to use AI to structure ideas, explore different perspectives, and support research, while remaining critical about the outputs.

Using AI taught me that it can be a powerful tool to accelerate learning and clarify thinking, but that judgment and context remain essential. I learned that AI is most valuable not as a replacement for analysis, but as a partner that helps refine ideas and challenge assumptions.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? The MBA classmate I most admire is Camila Avellaneda, whom I worked closely with during the organization of MBAT. At the beginning of the project, she was not initially Vice President of Finance, but when the VP stepped down after a few weeks, I asked if she would be willing to take on the role. Despite the scale of the responsibility, she immediately accepted.

We did not know each other well at first, as MBAT preparation started only a few weeks after the beginning of the MBA, but working together allowed me to discover someone exceptionally reliable and thoughtful. I particularly appreciated her direct and honest communication style, which made our collaboration efficient and transparent. She is both highly competent and deeply team-oriented. On the day of the event, when everyone had to step outside their roles, she was everywhere helping wherever needed. Throughout the year, she also faced difficult personal challenges with remarkable strength and composure. What started as a working relationship became a real friendship, and she is someone I deeply respect both professionally and personally.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list? One of the top items on my professional bucket list is to work on improving care pathways for people living with chronic diseases, particularly obesity. Through my work and studies, I became interested in how complex and uneven patient journeys can be, and I would like to help develop practical solutions that make treatment easier to access and better adapted to patients’ real lives. I would also like to work on these topics internationally, as healthcare systems and patient access can vary greatly from one country to another.

Another goal is to continue building bridges between the world of sport and the business environment. Having experienced how difficult it was to pursue academic studies alongside a professional sports career, I would like future athletes to have more opportunities without feeling they must choose between sport and education. High-level sport has taught me powerful lessons about teamwork, resilience, and performance under pressure, and I would like to use that experience to inspire and support others. I had the opportunity to record a podcast with Tony Parker about elite sport and education. I was particularly inspired by his initiative to create a school for high-level athletes and develop partnerships with major companies to support their careers. Initiatives like these reflect the kind of projects I would like to contribute to in the future.

What made Lina such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2026?

“Lina Guérin is, quite simply, a force. This is not surprising given her accolades as an Olympic medalist, but what is surprising is how she goes about driving positive change. What makes Lina such an invaluable member of the HEC MBA Class of 2026 is her leadership style, where she leads far more by example than by declaration. Whether serving as President of the MBA Tournament and coordinating more than 1,500 participants and 100 volunteers or contributing quietly within team settings, Lina consistently holds herself, and those around her, to the highest standards. Yet, she does so with remarkable humility and deep empathy. She is rarely focused on personal recognition, but instead focuses on bringing others along, making sure teammates feel valued, and bringing more people along for the ride. Her ability to drive top performance while creating an inclusive environment are exactly what the world needs in its leaders.

As Associate Dean of MBA Programs at HEC Paris, I have observed many talented leaders. What distinguishes Lina is the combination of discipline forged through elite sport and a genuine care for collective success. She understands performance, but she understands people even more. In classrooms, on projects, and across the community, she elevated those around her simply by the way she showed up each day: prepared, kind, resilient, generous, and quietly determined. For these reasons, I offer my strongest and most enthusiastic recommendation for Lina Guérin as one of Poets & Quants’ Best & Brightest MBAs. She belongs on this list.”

Brad Harris
Associate Dean of MBA Programs at HEC Paris

“As Associate Director for Leadership at HEC Paris, I have had the privilege of observing Lina Guérin closely, and she has been an exceptional addition to the Class of 2026.

What strikes me most about Lina is her rare combination of humility and excellence. Despite an extraordinary athletic career as an Olympic silver medalist, she never puts her achievements forward. Instead, she consistently places herself at the service of the collective. Her simplicity, approachability, and genuine respect for others create immediate trust.

Lina embodies resilience in a very concrete way. She understands what it means to commit to a long-term objective, to endure setbacks, and to continue progressing with discipline and focus. She brought this mindset to HEC, most notably as President of MBAT. Leading such a large-scale event required vision, stamina, and emotional intelligence. She was, in many ways, a “firm hand in a velvet glove”: capable of making tough decisions and holding high standards, while remaining deeply attentive to people and team dynamics.

She is also remarkably forward-looking. Lina constantly seeks to learn, to improve, and to expand her perspective. Even with her impressive background, she never positions herself above others; she listens, adapts, and engages with curiosity. Her leadership is not about authority, but about elevation: she raises the level of those around her.

Lina’s presence in the Class of 2026 has been invaluable not only because of what she has achieved, but because of who she is: principled, generous, driven, and profoundly team-oriented. She represents the kind of leader we strive to develop at HEC Paris.”

Floriane Civadier
Associate Director, Leadership at HEC Paris

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