PORTRAIT : Isabelle de Ligniville, ParisTech delegate for communication

A bit about your career...

I have been assisting higher education establishments in their communication, for some 16 years now. After an M2 Master’s Degree in company and institutional communication, I started as associate director of communications at Ecole Polytechnique before becoming head of the department for 5 years. I then rejoined the teaching organisation for the insurance sector as director of communication and educational resources.
For the last 7 years, I have been advising and implementing communication strategies for schools and networks, mainly in higher education: The Fédération Gay-Lussac which groups together chemistry in France (of which Chimie ParisTech is a member) and ESPCI Paris), the Collège de Paris which is a consortium of schools in the area of design, luxury goods and fashion, the EPFL on an internal communication project and publicity agencies.
 

What do you see as your mission as ParisTech delegate for communication?

I advise ParisTech on its positioning, its communications strategy and I coordinate the implementation of a certain number of actions. For 2 years now, I have been trying to clarify the positioning of ParisTech which, since 2015, is no longer a government establishment but which remains a beautiful network with prestigious schools bearing the excellence of French engineering. We have re-organised and boosted our digital communication, launched this newsletter allowing to rally together around projects and achievements of ParisTech, developed communication tools for an international public. And of course, we have just completed this survey on the brand which has been a lot of work over the last few months.
 

What are the challenges of your assignment?

ParisTech is a very beautiful brand incarnated in the actions of all sizes when taken together within the network: international, inclusion, social awareness and educational innovation.
ParisTech must re-define itself in an environment where the directions never stop shifting. In terms of communication, this is exciting: we must know how to re-invent the brand while capitalising on its history and its positive aspects. The results of the survey are encouraging and shall allow us to rebound for reflecting on and adjusting our strategy.

Having been active within ARCES for more than 10 years, the association which groups together higher education communication, I am convinced of the strength of the network and the commonality of skills needed for going forward.