Hubert Madec

Student

“It’s really opened the eyes of a lot of people. Here we are, SMC students, and we’re dealing with General Motors. It’s brilliant!”

According to the young Frenchman from Brittany, Hubert Madec, SMC is fast becoming a hotbed of international business studies. “I’ve got an accounting class in five minutes,” he explained breathlessly, “and 37 percent of us are international people coming here to study and intern with local companies. The International Business Center is bringing people from all over Europe to SMC. And last semester, one of the biggest business schools in Paris sent 12 students here. When they got here, they said, ‘Wow! This is a whole different world.’ And a lot of them didn't want to go back to Paris.”

Hubert worked six years in hotel management and catering, including the day when a new luxury train service was launched from London to Brussels and Paris. “My job there was to make sure everything went smoothly, especially when Mitterand met the Queen of England,” he recalls. And during his travels, he learned a host of languages: French, Italian, Spanish, English, German and Breton, “which is our regional dialect,” he says. But Hubert’s current focus, by virtue of his involvement at SMC, is definitely towards the Far East. “Being on the West Coast we focus so much more on Japan, India and China—places we never think about in Europe. So this is all very new to me, and I love it.” Hubert plans to make thorough use of his experience at SMC in the International Students Club and the Business Club.

“I’ve been involved in lots of conferences and meetings, and we did a wonderful internship marketing program with GM,” he says. “Our project was to introduce a new Pontiac car, so we partnered with a local dealership. And it was a fantastic success.” Hubert has thoroughly enjoyed California, including a trip he made to Napa Valley. “You produce so much wonderful wine here. But,” he adds with a laugh, “you are still always going to have to compete with France.”

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