Nicolas Bonard CEO and Founder of Montreux Media Ventures, LGB 1989
Nicolas Bonard
La Grande Boissière, 1989
CEO and Founder of Montreux Media Ventures
Switzerland
Find out more about me:
Ecolint made me completely at ease in a multicultural environment, which proved invaluable in both my personal and professional life.
I graduated in 1989 from LGB. I was Boarder when Ecolint still had a boarding school.
Although I’m now based in Switzerland, I spent nearly 20 years living in the UK and France and still keep strong personal and professional connections there. My career has always been rooted in the international entertainment industry—spanning media, digital, events, and music. Today, I’m the CEO and Founder of Montreux Media Ventures, the production, distribution, and commercial arm of the Montreux Jazz Festival. Each year, we film and record more than 80 concerts, produce music documentaries and films, and release records that highlight both legendary performances from the Festival’s archives and exciting new work from contemporary artists.
My experience at Ecolint first gave me a solid academic foundation—I went on to do a bachelor’s in mathematics and a Ph.D. in economics. It also made me completely at ease in, and yearn for, an international environment (I had spent the previous seven years at the U.N. International School in New York). As a result, I spent 28 years at the World Bank before returning to academics at Georgetown.
There are so many memories of Ecolint but one of my favourite was my time in the Boarding House, where I built lifelong friends and a genuine sense of international community among fellow boarders from so many different nationalities. This environment also made me completely at ease in a multicultural environment, both personally and professionally.
There are so many memories of Ecolint but one particular session in Mr. Melnick’s English class stands out. We were asked to debate the question, “Do the ends justify the means?” We were divided into two groups and each group had to make the best possible case for their side. The discussion got so heated that people would stand up and bang their fists on the table. Mr. Melnick encouraged us to sharpen our arguments and find the holes in the other side’s arguments. This question remains relevant today. Whenever it comes up, I think of that day at Ecolint.
My words of wisdom for Ecolint students: treasure your time at Ecolint and seize every opportunity it offers!