Friends of Ecole Polytechnique

Friends of Ecole Polytechnique, Inc. is a US-based non-profit organization with the IRS 501(c)3 status.

It was created in June 2007 to support the campaign for Ecole Polytechnique.

The board members are Polytechnique alumni Philippe Khuong-Huu (chairman) (X1983), Roland Acra (X1980), Antoine Bernheim (X1972), Eric Claus (X1979), Jean-Bernard Lartigue (X1965), Gérard Munera (X1954) and Nicolas Vandenberghe (X1985), and the campaign director Laurent Mellier.

Friends of Ecole Polytechnique, Inc. has already raised more than $2M. We count on you to help us raise more and support exciting new projects that will make Ecole Polytechnique one of the best Universities in the world.

About the Board members

Philippe Khuong-Huu (chairman) (X1983)

Philippe Khuong-Huu, is Director and Chief Investment Officer of Alphadyne. Prior to forming Alphadyne, Mr. Khuong-Huu was a Partner at Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he served as the Head of the Structured Credit Group and, immediately prior, as Head of the Global Interest Rate Products Group. Mr. Khuong- Huu was also a member of the Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities Risk Committee. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Mr. Khuong-Huu spent 10 years at JP Morgan where he held various global senior management positions within fixed income, equities and credit markets including Global Head of Options, Exotics and Credit Derivatives Trading (1996-2000), Co-Head of European Swaps (1995-1996), Head of U.S. Interest Rate Options (1993-1995) and Head of Equity Derivatives Trading in Tokyo (1991- 1993). Mr. Khuong-Huu was also a member of Lab Morgan (2000-2001) where he invested in derivatives market platforms, including Swapswire, an industry-backed electronic platform for the OTC derivatives market and Creditex, the global market leader of electronic trading for credit derivatives. Mr. Khuong-Huu began his career at Societe Generale in Paris where he was an Option Market Maker and subsequently appointed as Head of Equity Derivatives in Tokyo where he focused on Option and Index Arbitrage (1988-1991). Mr. Khuong-Huu served on the boards of Broker Tec, Swapswire and SwapClear. Mr. Khuong-Huu was the founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of FpML.org which has become the Standard for Electronic Definition of Derivatives Transactions, and orchestrated its incorporation within the ISDA organization. Mr. Khuong-Huu graduated from École Polytechnique and received his Masters in Statistics and Economics from ENSAE.

Roland Acra (X1980)

Roland Acra is Vice President in Cisco's Smart Grid Business Unit, following the acquisition of Arch Rock by Cisco in September 2010. Roland was President and CEO of Arch Rock, a developer of IPv6-based wireless sensor networks, from its founding phases in 2005 until its acquisition by Cisco. Prior to Arch Rock, Roland was President and CEO of Procket Networks, in the Internet Routing space. Roland previously held several general management and executive leadership at Cisco from 1991 until 2003, following several years in software engineering and communication protocol development at 3Com and Interphase. Roland holds graduate degrees in mathematics and physics from Ecole Polytechnique and in Electrical Engineering from ENST (both in Paris, France) and an M. Sc. in Statistics from Texas A&M University.

Antoine Bernheim (X1972)

Eric Claus (X1979)

Jean-Bernard Lartigue (X1965)

After graduating from the French Ecole Polytechnique, Jean-Bernard Lartigue joined Société Nationale des Pétroles d’Aquitaine. (The company eventually became Elft-Aquitaine). His tenures include VP International M&T Chemicals in Woodbridge (New Jersey) USA, Executive VP, member of the Executive Board of ATOCHEM, member of ELF Management Board. When Total took over Elf, Jean-Bernard became member of TOTAL management Board, CEO of Hutchinson (2000-2002) and Group Executive VP for Petrochemicals, President TOTAL Petrochemicals (2002-2006). Since his retirement in 2006, he serves General Delegate of Fondation de l’Ecole Polytechnique and as Managing Director of SICAT, a start-up company in Silicon Carbide catalyst support and Senior Advisor to CELERANT Consulting.

Gérard Munera (X1954)

Mr. Munera, a US citizen, is Managing Partner of Synergex Group LLC and serves on the Boards of Dynamic Materials Company and Nevsun Resources Ltd. A graduate of the French Ecole Polytechnique and of Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees in Paris, Mr. Munera has a diverse background which includes engineering, economics, sales, finance, operations, mining and metals. His tenures, most of which were at the Management, CEO, Executive VP and/or Chairman level, include Pechiney (20 years), Union Miniere, Rio Tinto and Minorco, an affiliate of Anglo American. Based for many years in various countries of Europe, Africa and South America, he is fluent in English, French and Spanish. Mr. Munera has been awarded the French Legion of Honor (officer) and the Veteran Medal.