Created in 1916, the Ecole de Haut Enseignement Commercial pour les Jeunes Filles (HECJF) – a business school for young women – was, in the words of its founder, Mrs Louli Sanua (seen in the photo giving a secretarial class), a direct response “to the need to give women an education that will enable them to earn their living in all the possible circumstances of existence, in order to protect both their material and their moral independence.” The affiliation between HECJF and its ‘big brother’ HEC Paris was officially forged in 1923, when it came under the ownership of the Chamber of Commerce in Paris. The links between the two schools were tight from the very beginning: aside from a moral connection –with the courage to take action to train men and women to adapt to modern times – it was in collaboration with the Dean of HEC at the time that Louli Sanua designed her programs and recruited her professors. Unable to convince the Chamber of Commerce to admit young women to HEC, the curriculum of HECJF used HEC Paris as a model instead. In 1973, HEC opened up its admissions process to girls. HECJF disappeared two years later. All of its graduates now make up an integral part of the HEC Alumni Association.