Philippe Dewost appointed director of Leonard, the VINCI innovation and foresight platform

4 September 2017 - 8:40 am - Appointments

Philippe Dewost has been appointed director of Leonard, VINCI's new Group-wide innovation and foresight platform. He took up his duties on 1 September and reports to Pierre Coppey, Executive Vice-President of VINCI.

Philippe Dewost, a graduate of the École Normale Supérieure (Ulm), is a Corps des Mines engineer and holds an MBA from the Collège des Ingénieurs.

He is a co-founder of Internet service provider Wanadoo and notably re-launched Orange France Telecom's home devices business.

He also served as CEO of imSense ltd, a British startup based in Cambridge. The company, which was acquired by Apple in 2010, developed and patented one-of-a-kind imaging technologies that are now used more than 500 million times a day across most Apple products.

Starting in 2011, Philippe Dewost headed the Digital Economy section of the Investments of the Future Programme at Groupe Caisse des Dépôts (CDC). At the end of 2015, Philippe Dewost also launched LaBChain, a CDC Blockchain initiative.

Philippe Dewost was the prime mover behind La French Tech, the government's French startup ecosystem initiative, and is also Honorary President of the Centre des Hautes Etudes du Cyberespace (CHECy).

"Philippe has more than 20 years of experience in Internet and mobile ecosystems within large tech and telecoms groups and startups. This expertise will be of invaluable help in developing Leonard, the new VINCI open laboratory focused on the future of cities and infrastructure," said Pierre Coppey, Executive Vice-President of VINCI.

"With Leonard, VINCI is offering me a chance to contribute to the digital transformation of durable structures and move from bytes to concrete. I am honoured and proud to have this opportunity to work with them over the long term to write the digital record of the builders," said Philippe Dewost in taking up his new position.

About Leonard
Leonard is VINCI's new Group-wide innovation and foresight platform. Set up to invent and serve the Group's future business activities, Leonard is responsible for tracking emerging trends in VINCI's business activities and markets, identifying long-term challenges and goals, pinpointing opportunities for change in the Group's businesses and organisational structure, identifying new growth drivers and developing innovative project incubation and acceleration programmes open to both Group employees and startups. To host these programmes and foster meetings with the full range of innovators in VINCI's businesses, Leonard will inaugurate a 1,200 m2 space in Paris in November. leonard.vinci.com | twitter.com/WeAreLeonard

 

About VINCI
VINCI is a global player in concessions, energy and construction, employing 280,000 people in more than 120 countries. We design, finance, build and operate infrastructure and facilities that help improve daily life and mobility for all. Because we believe in all-round performance, we are committed to operating in an environmentally, socially responsible and ethical manner. And because our projects are in the public interest, we consider that reaching out to all our stakeholders and engaging in dialogue with them is essential in the conduct of our business activities. Based on that approach, VINCI’s ambition is to create long-term value for its customers, shareholders, employees, partners and society in general.