Trophée de l'Innovation : 2024 edition

PRESIDENT OF THE JURY
Pierre Ernst,
Member of the Executive Board and Corporate Secretary of LBP AM

Pierre Ernst has been a Member of the Executive Board and General Secretary of LBP AM since January 2021. Until the end of 2020, he was Chairman of Candriam France, a member of the Strategic Committee and COO of Candriam Group, a pan-European asset management company, having previously held the position of Head of Risk Control. Pierre Ernst also holds and has held various directorships: IS4F (IBM Group) from 2011 to 2017, Ostrum AM from 2021 to 2022, and Iznès, a fintech specialising in fund distribution via blockchain, since 2021. Lastly, he has been a member of the AMF's Consultative Commission on Management and Institutional Investors since 2017.

Sonia  Artinian-Fredou,
Co-founder and President of FIND Climate

Sonia Artinian-Fredou is the President of FIND Climate, the first industrial Greentech innovation hub in the Île-de-France region, which she co-founded in May 2023 and which opened its doors in Nanterre in June 2024. Concurrently, she is also the President of ecosystem, an eco-organization in the electrical and electronic equipment sector, where her mission is to support the transformation of the organization. Before founding FIND Climate, Sonia held several executive positions in large companies. She was the HR Director on the Executive Committee of Lafarge, after serving as the General Manager of Lafarge Romania. She was also a member of the Executive Committee of Michelin, in charge of two operational divisions: high-tech materials and connected services and solutions. Sonia began her career at Capgemini Consulting in 1995, where she developed her expertise in the construction, engineering, chemical, and energy sectors. She is a biologist by training, graduated from ENS Lyon, ENGREF, and the Collège des Ingénieurs.

Géraldine Brasseur,
Investment Director, MGEN

Géraldine Brasseur has been working in the world of investment and financial markets for fifteen years. After studying in France, China and the United States, she began her career in the financial world with a broker, Oddo Securities, in Paris. After this initial experience, she switched to the institutional investor side at Réunica, where she stayed for 8 years. For the past 6 years, she has held the position of Investment Director at MGEN, working to diversify the asset portfolio and integrate a greater proportion of unlisted assets.

Laurent Daudet,
Director and Co-founder of LightOn

Laurent Daudet is the CEO of LightOn, a startup he co-founded in 2016, which is at the forefront of AI technology, developing and commercializing the Paradigm platform for Large Language Models in enterprises. Laurent is currently on leave from his position as a physics professor at Université Paris Cité, where he is a recognized expert at the intersection of signal processing, information theory, and wave physics. He has held various academic positions: member of the Institut Universitaire de France, lecturer at UPMC - Paris 6, visiting lecturer at Queen Mary University of London (UK), and visiting professor at the National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo (Japan). Laurent is the author or co-author of over 200 scientific publications, has been a consultant for various small and large companies, and is a co-inventor of several patents. He is regularly consulted by various national and international bodies (OECD, Presidency of the Republic, France 2030, etc.) on AI policy support.

He is an alumnus of the École Normale Supérieure de Paris, holds a PhD in applied mathematics from the University of Marseille, and a Habilitation to Direct Research from UPMC - Paris 6. In his free time, Laurent is the co-writer of a graphic novel on AI, "Dream Machine," published in September 2023 by Flammarion.
 

 Géraldine Farjot,
Innovation Director (ICM)

Géraldine Farjot is the Director of Innovation at the Brain Institute, a research center dedicated to the central nervous system. She was appointed to this position in March 2024, succeeding Alexis Génin. The Brain Institute, also known as the Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière (ICM), is a French foundation recognized as being of public utility, founded on September 24, 2010, under the auspices of CNRS, Inserm, APHP, and Sorbonne University. Located on the site of the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, the Brain Institute brings together patients, doctors, researchers, and entrepreneurs to understand the brain and accelerate the discovery of new treatments for nervous system diseases. It includes more than 800 experts, 27 research teams, 11 technological platforms, a clinical investigation center, a living lab, and a startup incubator. Before joining the Brain Institute, Géraldine, a specialist in biopharmaceutical research, worked for Sanofi, Air Liquide Healthcare, and startups, where she gained significant experience in the field of health and innovation.

Muriel Faure,
President of the AFG Technological Innovations Commission

Muriel Faure is President of the AFG's Technological Innovations Commission. She has extensive experience as a founder and director of portfolio management companies. She is Senior Advisor to Tiepolo, an independent private asset management company, and a member of the AMF College. Muriel Faure is a graduate of ESSEC and SFAF. 

Maïlys Ferrère,
Director of the Large Venture Division, Bpifrance

Maïlys Ferrère has been with Bpifrance since its creation in 2013, where she heads Large Venture, the venture growth fund that supports French tech champions. Prior to this, she was Investment Director at the Fonds Stratégique d'Investissement (FSI), after some 20 years' experience in equity capital markets origination at various French banks. She is a graduate of IEP Paris and holds a degree in business law.

Cécile Goubet,
Managing Director, Institut de la Finance Durable

After serving as an advisor to the Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, in 2022, where she was responsible for the sobriety plan and climate issues, Cécile Goubet has been, since 2023, the coordinator of the acceleration strategy for eco-responsible digital innovation. Cécile Goubet has over 15 years of experience in energy and ecological transition issues, notably at the Caisse des Dépôts, the Directorate General for Energy and Climate, and Avere France, which she led from 2018 to 2022. She joined the Institute for Sustainable Finance in September 2023 as the General Director to enable the ISF to continue its mission as an accelerator of the Paris financial center's action for the achievement of the energy and environmental transition.

Thibault Heckman,
Officer of the French Gendarmerie, Associate Researcher at ENS Paris-Ulm, Founding Member of Cercle K2

Doctor of Mathematics from the École Normale Supérieure de Paris (Ulm '18), Associate Researcher in the Computer Science Department at ENS since 2018, Researcher at the University of London and Cambridge, External European Expert for the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, and Founding Member of Cercle K2. He is involved in cybersecurity training at the Institute for Higher National Defense Studies (IHEDN), at Université Paris-Dauphine, and with students at École Polytechnique in their initial training. He is responsible for the "Cybercrime" course in the "MSc Cybersecurity & Defense Management" program at EM-Lyon Business School. He received the European Researcher Award from the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENFSI) and the Cybersecurity Trophy from Cercle K2. He is the co-author of the Dalloz Cybersecurity Code 2022.

Josselin Kalifa,
Chief Risk  Officer Group, CNP Assurances

Josselin Kalifa is Chief Risk Officer for CNP Assurances. A Ponts graduate with post-graduate degrees from Sorbonne-Université and Université Paris-Dauphine, he began his career at the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, before joining the French Embassy in Beijing, where he was deputy head of economic services in China. He was then appointed Head of the Foreign Trade Division at the French Treasury. He joined the Caisse des Dépôts savings funds department in 2010, where he held a number of positions before being promoted to director of loans and housing. He joined CNP Assurances in 2017 as Director of Steering and Performance, then Director of Investments France for CNP Assurances in 2021, before becoming Chief Risk Officer in 2023.

Octave Klaba,
Founder & Chairman of the Board of Directors OVHcloud

Born in Poland, Octave Klaba graduated in engineering from ICAM Lille in 1999, and at the same time created OVHcloud for a very simple reason: no supplier was capable of meeting his expectations! 23 years later, OVHcloud is now the European leader in cloud computing, with 33 data centers on 4 continents, offices in 19 countries, over 2,400 employees and more than 1.6 million customers worldwide. OVHcloud is based in Roubaix, northern France. As Founder and Chairman of the Board, Octave focuses on strategy, R&D and corporate culture. Today, in the face of the American or Chinese giants, OVHcloud represents the alternative in the Cloud throughout the world, promoting SMART products and services: simple and fast to implement; multi-local and close to everyone throughout the world; accessible and predictable in terms of price; reversible, open and interoperable; transparent and responsible. Passionate about open organizations, Octave not only promotes transparency and collaboration within his company, but these elements are also integral to his vision of an open and reversible Cloud. Octave's vision is summed up by OVHcloud's motto: "Innovation for Freedom".

Isabelle Laforgue,
Head of  Innovation & Business Excellence d'AstraZeneca

In charge of all AstraZeneca France teams involved in the innovation ecosystem, digital data and solutions, and organizational transformation.
Isabelle Laforgue began her career in 2006 at SFR, where she held several positions in strategy and finance. As Chief of Staff to the CEO in 2012, she steered the development of SFR's transformation plan, in an intense competitive environment, to reposition the operator on customer experience issues.
In 2015, she joined Econocom, a digital services company, as Transformation Director, where she designed and rolled out the internal digitalization plan for the Group's 10,000 employees.
In her last position, Isabelle was Executive Vice President Operations & Finance at Owkin, a start-up specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) applied to healthcare, which she helped to structure for sustained growth.
Isabelle is an independent director of Coface, a listed credit insurance company.
She is a graduate of École Polytechnique and École des Mines de Paris.

Damien Launoy,
Managing Director of 115K, the LBP Group's innovation fund

A graduate of HEC Paris, a Magistère in Banking and Finance and the Institut de Droit des Affaires at Panthéon-Assas University, Damien Launoy has over 10 years' experience in venture capital and a cross-functional vision of the innovation financing chain in France. As an entrepreneur, early stage VC (Generis Capital) and late stage VC (Bpifrance), Damien Launoy has completed dozens of deals and sat on the board of more than 15 startups. At the beginning of 2022, he joined La Banque Postale as head of investments for 115K, the Venture Capital fund of the La Banque Postale Group. He was appointed Managing Director of 115K in early 2023. Damien Launoy is also a lecturer at the Ecole Polytechnique on the subject of venture capital, and a jury/mentor in a number of programs.

Christine Lebreton,
CSIO and Head of Social and Health team and co-Head of Growth team of LFDE

A graduate of ESCP Europe, Christine began her career in 1989 with Ernst & Young. In 1991, she joined Oddo & Cie as a European equity analyst, before taking on the same role at Crédit Lyonnais Asset Management. She continued her career as an equity manager, notably of a global healthcare fund, at Natixis AM in 2000, before becoming equity manager and head of responsible European equity and impact investing at Mirova in 2012. In 2014, she joined LBPAM as an equity manager, then Tocqueville Finance in 2020. She then became deputy head of equity management. Since 2024, the year Tocqueville Finance and LFDE merged, she has been CSIO and Head of Social and Health team and co-Head of Growth team of LFDE

Julien Maldonato,
Digital Trust Leader Partner, Deloitte

Julien Maldonato, Partner and Leader of Innovation & Digital Trust at Deloitte, is shaping the digital future of industries in France. For over 20 years, he has been helping organizations create new ventures and redefine their business models to make them more sustainable and adaptive. An expert in disruptive technologies, he excels at articulating the dynamics of complex systems (neural networks, decentralization, homeostasis, etc.) to generate large-scale transformations.

At Deloitte, he leads services that cover the entire spectrum of innovation: from strategy to the design of new solutions, including digital transformation and sustainable innovation. Passionate about the startup ecosystem, he catalyzes strategic alliances between finance, technology, and other industries, supporting entrepreneurs in their quest for impact.

An engineer from Mines, Julien began his career in Silicon Valley before joining IBM and then Deloitte. Today, he works towards a more sustainable and resilient finance sector. As a judge for the LBPAM Innovation Awards 2024, he is committed to supporting visionary startups that are reinventing the economy of tomorrow.
 

Stéphane Nières-Tavernier,
Fund manager, LFDE
 

A graduate of HEC and the Centre de Formation à l'Analyse Financière, Stéphane Nières-Tavernier has over 20 years' experience in financial management. He began his career in 1998 at BNP Private Equity (Banexi), then moved to Equity Research at IXIS Midcaps in 2001, before joining EXANE BNP Paribas in 2006. In 2008, Stéphane Nières-Tavernier became European Equity Manager at Montpensier Finance. He joined Tocqueville Finance in 2018 and LFDE in 2024.

Patrick Pansier,
Head of Data, Digital & Innovation, LBP AM
 

A 1997 graduate of L'EERIE IMT Mines d'Alès, Patrick Pansier began his career at Dexia AM in 2001 as Developer, then Front Development Manager for alternative management. In 2007, he was appointed Head of IT Investment & Risk Management for both traditional and alternative asset management. In 2011, Patrick Pansier joined Exane BNP Paribas as Head of IT Postrade, and in 2017 became a member of the Exane Group Architecture Committee, where he was in charge of the operational efficiency project implementing a digital workforce based on robots and unstructured data management systems.
Since 2021, Patrick Pansier has held the new position of Digital, Data and Innovation Director at LBP AM, to take charge of IT and develop digital transformation. Since 2017, Patrick Pansier has hosted round tables at AM Tech day and the BigData trade show. He was a jury member at Fintech For Tomorrow in 2021 and 2022.

Thomas Rivron,
Investment Director, Abeille Assurances

Thomas Rivron has been Chief Investment Officer of Abeille Assurances since April 2022. He has over 20 years' experience in the insurance, finance and actuarial sectors. Before joining Abeille Assurances, he was head of investment management, ESG and capital management at Natixis Assurances, which he joined in 2014. From 2010 to 2014, Thomas Rivron was part of Natixis' trading room's interest rate and credit activities, where he was responsible for building offers for insurers. From 2006 to 2010, at the BPCE Group's finance department, he was in charge of actuarial and ALM pensions, and administrator of the Caisses d'Epargne pension fund. Previously, he worked in actuarial consulting at Deloitte and Willis Towers Watson between 2002 and 2006. Thomas began his career in London with BNP Paribas' market risk team in 2000. 
Thomas holds Master's degrees in Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, as well as a Bachelor's degree in Management from Paris Dauphine University.

Antoine Rostand,
Co-founder and Chairman of Kayrros 

Antoine Rostand is the Co-founder and President of Kayrros, a technology-driven analytics company based in Paris. Kayrros is a world leader in satellite in satellite-based environmental intelligence. Kayrros delivers real-time data, providing strategic decision support to governments and companies to help them anticipate the risks associated with climate change, and monitor and influence the influence the evolution of the energy mix. Previously, Mr. Rostand created Schlumberger Business Consulting SBC, an entity of the eponymous and was Chairman of Electronic Data System (EDS) France. Mr. Rostand is a graduate of École Polytechnique.

Elisa Steccaglia,
Principal, XAnge

Elisa is aVC Principal at XAnge, where she focuses on Fintech, Cleantech and B2B SaaS. Since joining XAnge in 2021, she has led investments in Bigblue, Neobrain, LegalPlace, Carbonable, Homaio and sits on the board of Silvr and JOIN. Prior to joining XAnge, Elisa worked for six years at Omnes Capital,a French private equity firmShe began her career in mergers and acquisitions in Milan.Of Italian origin, Elisa graduated with honors from Bocconi University, with a master's thesis on credit risk modeling for mortgage-backed securities (MBS).

Frédéric Tardy,
Director of Financial Services , Microsoft France

Frédéric Tardy is General Manager of Microsoft France, and a member of the Management Committee, in charge of the Financial Services entity. 
Frederic has worked in the banking and insurance sector for 30 years. He began his career in operational management at BNP Paribas in Europe, then in the United States. He continued his career within the Group as Global Head of E-Business Personal Finance and CEO of the Silicon Valley Innovation Lab.
He then developed his expertise in the insurance sector at Axa as Group Sales and Marketing Director, member of the Asia Executive Committee, in charge of Digital and Data Science and member of "AXA strategic Venture", then at Zurich Insurance as Group Marketing Director. Most recently, he headed the financial services strategy of PPF (Fintech and Insurtech portfolio of 140 million customers in Asia, Europe and the USA). 
Passionate about innovation, he has been mentoring entrepreneurs via the charity Endeavor.org in Africa and Asia for the past 15 years.

Philippe Tibi,

Chairman of the Executive Committee of the "Scale-up Financing" project

A graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and a telecommunications engineer, he is currently leading an initiative on behalf of the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance to finance France's future technology leaders. Vice-Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Fonds de Réserve des Retraites (FRR) and Director of Vigie, he began his career at Atos, then joined UBS as Chief Technology Officer, where he held various positions in London and Paris in the technology and markets sectors, before becoming Chairman and CEO of UBS France. Founder of Pergamon Campus, he is a former Chairman of the French Financial Markets Association (AMAFI) and Chairman of the MEDEF Monetary Committee. He teaches strategy and finance at Shanghai Jiaotong Polytechnic and AUEB Athens.