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Ophélie VANBREMEERSCH graduated with IÉSEG’s Master in International Business in 2023, and a few years after creating her “Lunettes de Zac“, she was already on the “2024 Forbes 30 Under 30” list. This year, she wins the prestigious Financial Times Student Award as part of the “2025 Responsible Business Education Awards“.
For the past 4 years, these awards have been rewarding business schools, their students and graduates, who tackle sustainability and social justice issues, and who strive to make a positive impact in the world.
Last year, IÉSEG won the ‘Best business school demonstrating system-wide responsible business principles integrated throughout teaching, research, operations, and student outcomes’ Award, and was selected in the highly commended institutions for the category ‘Best responsible teaching resources: innovative materials with a financial sustainability focus’.
Impact is what IÉSEG strives for every day through its Vision: “Empowering changemakers for a better society“. A Vision that Ophélie VANBREMEERSCH perfectly embodies through ‘Lunettes de Zac’, a company she founded in 2019 to collect and refurbish eyeglass frames that she brings back to the marketplace, based on the principle of circular economy.
I’m extremely proud to have been selected and to have won the Financial Times 2025 Student Award. It’s an extraordinary recognition, which proves that beyond borders, people believe in the future of refurbished products!
Ophélie VANBREMEERSCH – IÉSEG Master in International Business graduate & CEO of ‘Lunettes de Zac’
Entrepreneurial spirit, a key differentiator at IÉSEG
IÉSEG congratulates Ophélie VANBREMEERSCH for this Award, which symbolizes the entrepreneurial spirit that the School and its Incubator want to instill in its students. This objective initiated the third pillar of IÉSEG’s 2022 – 2027 strategic plan, which is: “to develop an entrepreneurial and innovative ecosystem” .
Indeed, thanks to the interdisciplinary teaching integrated into all its programs, IÉSEG students acquire all the essential soft skills and knowledge needed to experiment, test, learn and succeed as entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs.
In order to meet the needs of young people who are increasingly looking to create their own business and change the world, IÉSEG has developed a range of programs (like the Master in Impact Entrepreneurship), tracks (a specific Entrepreneurship track created when the Master’s cycle of the Grande École Program was redesigned), courses (like the Créenso Prize which enables, each year, ten impact entrepreneurs to benefit from the skills of Master’s students of the Grande École Program) and a specific status (« Student Entrepreneur », a status attributed to 175 students last September).
More about the Financial Times Student Award here
Lunettes de Zac… in the blink of an eye!
Ophélie VANBREMEERSCH founded “Lunettes de Zac” in 2019 to give a second life to used eyewear, by collecting, refurbishing, and remarketing thousands of pairs of glasses that stay unused in drawers. In addition to the principles of circular economy, customers also like the social dimension of the business: the refurbishing part is carried out in Northern France by people on vocational reintegration schemes.
In 2023, while still she was a student at IÉSEG, Ophélie decided to launch “Zac Collections” to amplify her positive impact on the world. Together with her team, she created dedicated spaces for refurbished glasses in optical stores to support opticians during their positive transition and to help transform the optical market for good.
Zac now offers on its professional website selections of timeless and renowned brand frames. Opticians can choose from pre-designed selections or create their own selection by choosing the frame styles. With each pack, opticians also receive point-of-sale displays and a communication kit to help them explain this new concept in store and on social media.
With this new B2B activity, Zac has grown rapidly. More than 230 opticians have equipped their stores with Zac glasses, including one of the most recognized chains in the French market: ‘Ecouter Voir’. With ‘Ecouter Voir’, the goal is to equip 750 stores by 2026. By 2028, ‘Lunettes de Zac’ aims for 7,200 corners and 200,000 glasses put back on the market by 2028.
