Pierre Vernimmen (deceased) was a founding member and the first Coordinator of the Finance Department at HEC Paris. From 1973 to his death in 1996, he worked at Paribas as a private equity investor and, subsequently, led its mergers and acquisition teams.Pascal Quiry holds the BNP Paribas Chair in Finance at HEC Paris. After 23 years as an M&A banker, he founded an investment fund that invests in startups and unlisted SMEs. He is also an active investor in several listed companies. Yann Le Fur is a former Affiliated Professor at HEC Paris and is the head of the corporate finance group for Natixis in New York. He is also an active investor in several unlisted companies.