Olivier Ezratty, consultant and author
olivier(at)oezratty.net, https://www.oezratty.net, @olivez
What I am doing
I advise and train businesses and public services in the development of their innovation strategies around deep techs and, in particular, quantum technologies. I bring them a 360° understanding of scientific, technology, marketing as well as ecosystems development. In some places, this role is tagged as “technology strategist” but I don’t like it much.
Since 2005, I carried out various missions in different verticals such as the media and telecoms (Orange, Bouygues Télécom, TDF, Médiamétrie, BVA, Astra), finance and insurance (BPCE group, Caisse des Dépôts, Société Générale, Swiss Life, Crédit Agricole, Crédit Mutuel-CIC, Generali, MAIF), industry and services (Schneider, Camfil, Vinci, NTN-STR, Econocom, ADP, Air France, Airbus) and in the public sector (Ministry of Defense, CEA, Météo France, Bpifrance, Business France, Douanes Françaises, Inria, European Union).
My contributions are also based on a strong investment in the innovation ecosystem, particularly in the entrepreneurial world:
- Quantum computing and artificial intelligence trainer at Capgemini Institut.
- Member of the Scientific Council of ARCEP (telecommunication regulator) since 2015.
- Expert and speaker at IHEDN in the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 promotions.
- Expert with Bpifrance, particularly for quantum technologies projects due diligences.
I lecture in various universities such as CentraleSupelec, Ecole des Mines de Paris, Télécom Paristech, EPITA, Les Gobelins, HEC, Neoma Rouen and SciencesPo, on quantum technologies, artificial intelligence as well as innovation and product management, in French and English as needed.
Author
I am the author of many freely distributed ebooks, like Understanding Quantum Technologies (September 2021, the first one in English, 800 pages). It is the fourth edition of Comprendre l’Informatique Quantique (September 2018, 2019 and 2020). I also published Les usages de l’intelligence artificielle (2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021) as well as the CES Las Vegas Report, each January from 2006 to 2020, and the Startup Guide, which became a reference in France with more than 400,000 downloads, updated every year since 2016 (23rd edition and 13th year in 2019). All of this was and is still published for free on my blog “Opinions Libres” (www.oezratty.net) which deals with technological innovation from the scientific, technological, entrepreneurial and innovation public policies.
I am also the co-initiator in 2012 of Quelques Femmes du Numérique ! (“some digital women”, www.qfdn.net) which became an association in 2016, and aims to increase gender balance in digital professions, by raising awareness among young people about these professions. I am the portraits photographer for the initiative and I also developed their new web site launched in April 2021.
Before
I was initially a software engineer and developer, starting in 1985 at Sogitec, a subsidiary of the Dassault group, where I was consecutively Software Engineer, then Head of the Research Department in the Communication Division. I initialized developments under Windows 1.0 in the field of editorial computing as well as on SGML, the ancestor of HTML and XML.
Joining Microsoft France in 1990, I gained experience in many areas of the marketing mix. I launched the first version of Visual Basic in 1991 and Windows NT in 1993. In 1998, I became Marketing and Communication Director of Microsoft France and in 2001, Director of the Developer Division, which I created in France to launch the .NET platform and promote it to developers, higher education and research, as well as to startups.
Education
I am a software engineer from Centrale Paris (1985), which became CentraleSupelec in 2015.
Pictures of me can be found here.
