Hannah Herzig

What is a fun fact or something unexpected about you?  

I'm doing an Executive MBA, even though the only time I've ever worked for classic private sector companies was when I was still in high school.

After that I worked in hospitals, research and in the public sector. I have a job that involves interacting with industry but I haven't actually had a lot of inside experience.

It's a funny coincidence to study in Fontainebleau as I started climbing about two years ago and this area is famous as a bouldering site. I hope to be able to try out outdoor bouldering as soon as the winter is over.

Tell us about yourself, and how you got to where you are today both on a professional and personal level?

During medical school I was a teaching assistant in anatomy and did research on skin biology. This focus on the healthy body gave me the fascination for public health I have until today. I wanted to learn about health ‘upstream’, meaning how to help people stay healthy instead of treating them once sick.

To get some international exposure, I did my medical internship in the UK and South Korea. After qualifying as a physician, I then moved to Boston to follow my passion to get a master in public health and work in policy research. Wanting to see policymaking in action, I moved to the European Commission, with my work focused on reducing pollution.

I found these tasks extremely impactful and meaningful, and enjoyed the work’s more interactive nature. 

I also felt—and continue to feel—truly passionate about serving the public. This is why I stayed in the EU’s public service, first joining the competitive Junior Professionals Programme and then coordinating COVID-19 contingency measures in shipping. 

When the EU set up a new service, the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) in late 2021, I immediately applied—it has been exciting to continue emergency work and help build a completely new department.

This work meant I had even more interaction with industry associations than in my previous job. Being in a place that was being built up from scratch also meant more awareness of changing organisational processes and needs. 

As part of my job I support the European Commission Advisor Peter Piot, transforming input from several colleagues into coherent, strategic products. I immensely enjoy this management component and wanted to further develop my skills in this area. All of these things drove me towards the EMBA.

What led you to decide to pursue an EMBA, and why did you choose INSEAD in particular?  

My career so far has been focused on the public sector, first in research, then as an EU official. 

I decided to pursue an EMBA because the fields I have worked in—public policy and public health—are dominated by a mindset of distance and scepticism toward the private sector.

The same is often true for how businesses view public administration—showing a lack of understanding on all sides. I want to learn more about the corporate side to become a ‘translator’ between both worlds. 

I am currently working on strengthening European pandemic preparedness and biosecurity, identifying producers of novel medicines, and evaluating whether to support them. I hope a good understanding of business will help me to make more nuanced and informed assessments, building bridges but also spotting warning signals—in short, it will make me better at my job. 

Another reason is that I am usually seen as a subject matter expert. I wanted to sharpen my profile and become more versatile, adding organisational and business knowledge that the programme enables me to build. Also, I wish to become better at managing—myself, projects and people—to get more responsibility. Through the EMBA, I hope to open up for work on the core topics of our time, including the green transition and digitalisation, be it in the public and private sector. 

I chose INSEAD because of its reputation for excellence in teaching and its global outlook, diversity and focus beyond classic business metrics. 

With a strong focus on technology and sustainability, INSEAD seemed a perfect fit given my aim to broaden my profile.

Working for an international organisation and having a 'non-traditional' background, such a focus is what I was looking for, as opposed to schools centred on finance or a specific business sector. 

I'm also very open about where to work in the future, so INSEAD's approach with campuses across the world and strong focus on diversity is really appealing to me. Such an international class and programme is something that's hard to find elsewhere. 

Fontainebleau is an excellent place for an EMBA. Pursuing a part-time programme, I want to spend the limited time in school fully focused—and being in a small town makes this a lot easier and really helps getting to know everyone in the class. 

Fontainebleau makes the experience much more intense and immersive.

Could you describe your experience so far? The classes, the curriculum, your fellow participants, the professors?

So far the experience has been incredibly exciting, enriching and interesting. INSEAD offers an incredible number of learning opportunities through side events and on-campus activities.

On the academic side, I've been very impressed by the quality of the courses and how well the programme is structured. I'm a novice to all things business, so I was worried about not being able to keep up in classes like financial accounting. But not only was the material presented in a way that made it possible for everyone to follow the lectures, readings and questions, they are also very engaging and fun, while being incredibly dense and insightful!

I have received a lot of support from the admission team, and everyone has been really helpful no matter whether it was questions on logistics, financial or academic aspects. 

My class is truly a group of amazing people: It's where I saw that the motto of being 'The Business School for the World' is a perfect fit. I've lived on three continents and work for an international organisation, but have never been part of such a diverse group before. 

To me this is really the strength and uniqueness of INSEAD, bringing together people from all parts of the world and across all sectors, putting them into a very intense and rigorous programme, all by making sure no one is left out. 

It turns into this incredible bonding experience for the whole class—you get to know people at a personal level very quickly and make friends already during the first module.

What advice would you give to someone who might be interested in pursuing an INSEAD programme?  

My first advice is simple: contact the recruitment team. I had a first video call with Claudine on zoom while I was just scanning the horizon and not sure whether I would go for an EMBA. 

I was also trying to see what schools are supportive of a candidate like me, with little classical business experience. I did this with all the schools I was interested in, and got a lot of information out of these calls. 

In addition, I also think it helps to get an impression of what the school is like. A few months later I visited the campus during an Open Day. For me, this was a good way to see what the teaching is like and get to meet others interested in an EMBA—quite a few of them are now my classmates. 

The EMBA is a very interesting, incredibly rewarding but also intense and challenging programme. I would therefore say it's important to be sure about wanting to do it and choosing a good time. The admissions team helped me in finding out if it's the right school, programme and timing for me. They also helped me figure out how to finance my EMBA, something I was worried and unsure about initially.

The information and views set out in this piece are those of INSEAD and Hannah Herzig in a personal capacity.