Day: 16 October 2016

Last Thursday, October 13, at Stars’n’Bars EcoHub, the CONVERGENCE Monaco directional team held a collaborative dialogue with a team of five candidates in the Cornell Executive MBA class of 2017.
As part of the Cornell Global Business Consulting Initiative, the grad students have selected CONVERGENCE Monaco as their Global Business Project.
In 2015, Shane Heminway and Roger Randall cofounded CONVERGENCE Monaco with a goal to “help accelerate environmental sustainability through increased business profitability”.
Speaking to Monaco Life, Mr Heminway mentioned, “I was excited about having a young dynamic group of guys from a diverse background help to energise and fine-tune the package we’ve already started to develop. And to put it all in a way that’s more presentable and desirable to sponsors, presenters and companies. And maybe bring in a different vision than what we have in our little community.”
The second edition of CONVERGENCE Monaco, which takes place May 12 and 13, focuses on four key elements: a market place, showcase event, Formula E hospitality and social activities. The market place will present 25 “carefully vetted” start-ups, who will have 20-minute pitch sessions with potential investors. All participants with have access to the Hospitality Suite at La Rascasse, situated on the track, to provide Formula E viewing on Saturday afternoon.
The task for MBA Team Dallas’ business project is to provide comprehensive analysis on a business they collectively agreed had value, such as clean technology, and then “ spend a minimum of 525 hours evaluating the opportunity, assessing the options, and developing an effective proposal for senior management”.
For most of the group – Amar Mohey, Court Alley, Drew Bagot, Daniel Boone and Steve Caldwell – this was the first time visiting to Monaco. “The diversified, high intellect in Monaco is something people from the States don’t see,” commented Mr Boone. “Fostering good ideas from collective people from around the world who are talking about sustainability … this is the allure of Monaco, and it’s energising. It’s neat to get this perspective.”
“This is something completely different than what we do in our daily lives,” said Mr Mohey. “I come from a consulting background. People think about Monaco and the casino. I have to tell them that sustainability is heavily pushed here.”
The day took on constructive dialogue, with key considerations by the Cornell team including ways to strengthen the CONVERGENCE Monaco brand, targeting demographics and defining the sustainability initiative.
Mr Alley added, “The University is impressed that we’ve veered off the path a little with our project, which is unique compared to the traditional projects chosen by other MBA groups.”
Mr Randall, who admits he’s a conceptual thinker and not good at breaking down the details, remarked, “I was looking forward to the team bringing in new concepts and making it happen.”
 
 
 
 
 

After a hard-fought last night Artur Prusak (Pol) and Thierry Benchetrit (Fra) took first place in the very first Monte Carlo e-Rally. Starting the third and final stage in fourth position, the crew of the Toyota Mirai pulled out all the stops to win.
The Polish driver had won in the Principality at the Rallye Monte Carlo New Energies in 2013 and is twice winner of the Cup of the FIA Alternative Energies event, in 2015 and 2016.
“We are doubly pleased to win here as it was the very first e-Rally in history. Also we’re happy to have achieved a world first with a hydrogen vehicle in competition. We’d also like to pay tribute to the Automobile Club of Monaco for its superb organisation and, above all, to have thought of an event of this calibre, the first of its kind, which allows future vehicles to show themselves in real conditions.”
Second place was taken by Christophe Ponset and Serge Pastor of France, in a Renault Zoe. A French drew also won third place: Alexandre Stricher and Michael Torregrossa, also in a Renault Zoe.
The Monaco pair Georges Marsan and Jacques Pastor took sixth place in a Toyota Mirai, while driver Pascal Ferry, also representing the Principality, was in a very respectable 12th place out of a total field of 31 cars that finished.
READ MORE: Cars from first e-Rallye Monte-Carlo arrive Saturday in Monaco

The St Paul’s Charitable Donations Committee annual lunch took place on “Refugee Sunday”, following the 10:30 Sunday service on October 16. Some 50 members of the Saint Paul’s community and their guests, filled the church library for a meal, and €2600 was collected in support of two charities working with refugees: the Anglican Alliance, working through the Anglican chaplaincy in Athens, and iConnect Monaco whose efforts are focused on children in the camps in Turkey.
Two weeks ago, St Pauls Monte Carlo held a food drive of non-perishable food items and hygiene products in aid of the hot lunch programmes for the needy at the Fourneau Economique in Nice.