A Global Citizen... with Unexpected Perks

The American University of Paris

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Yann Lechelle '93
 
BS, Computer Science Summa Cum Laude
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A Global Citizen... with Unexpected Perks
 
 
 

I was born and raised in provincial France, near Valenciennes. Up until the age of 18, I was basically "small-town" with the occasional study trip to Germany and England. After a baccalauréat scientifique (high school scientific track), I wasn’t sure that the French higher education system was the right fit for me. My parents had the foresight to send me for a year as an exchange student to Maine, USA.

My horizons were, consequently, first broadened by spending one year in the USA as an exchange student, essentially mastering English and discovering the culture.

My year abroad was the catalyst that led me to choose a hybrid solution for my university studies: an American education on French soil. AUP would take my initial experience in the States to a whole different level, thanks to a common language combined with a most diverse international community of students, faculty, and staff. This was an unanticipated and highly rewarding benefit for me.

AUP had a small Computer Science Department, but more importantly, a liberal and pragmatic approach that would allow me to identify my true interest quickly. My only focus was to get a degree in Computer Science – fast – in order to gain the necessary credentials to enter the marketplace. With a few more credits gleaned here and there, I finished AUP in under three years.

As an undergraduate CS major I naturally became involved with the Computer Lab, and also raised funds in 1992 via the SGA and other sources to bring top-of-the-line computing equipment (namely 3 NeXT workstations) onto campus. This allowed me to offer the first round of institutional emails, at a time when faculty had just a personal CompuServe email account (if at all). If I recall properly, I worked on the layout of the AUP Yearbook in what would appear to be an antique version of QuarkXpress!

The AUP classroom experience? I remember the small classes, and the accessible and sometimes eccentric faculty… debating Ethics while sitting in a circle in Professor Jim Latham’s own living room… and deliberating on an independent linear programming project with Professor Jim Clayson. My hang-out was the lab in Grenelle, sort of the antithesis of the AMEX café in Bosquet!

I undertook an internship during my last semester, working for a financial software company in La Defense, now a subsidiary of Reuters. This company ended up offering me a full-time position right after graduation, and essentially defined the field of my first “career” in software development, leading me to various jobs in financial software (but also in cartoon animation@Dreamworks!).

I then decided to complement my technical degree with a formal business degree, obtaining an MBA from INSEAD in late 2001. But unlike my peers who went back to consulting, finance, or higher management positions in the industry, I decided to start my own venture, ETHERYL, specializing in online community and collaboration systems, using the Software-as-a-Service model (SaaS). I eventually sold a majority stake of the profitable company to a group of private investors in 2007 to start focusing on new projects. The rest of the story remains to be written…

Quite simply, my career started with an international spin despite being a Frenchman based in France, much faster than would have been possible otherwise. This dimension has defined my professional and personal life ever since!

AUP broadened my horizons and basically turned me into a global professional and citizen. It was the perfect compromise for me… with a lot of unexpected perks.

 
 
 

Please feel free to check Yann's LinkedIn profile for more information: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ylechelle

 
 

 

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A Global Citizen...
with Unexpected Perks

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