Climb #04

Lydia Babaci Victor Graduated with a Master in Financial Engineering, Lydia Babaci-Victor began her career in 1991 in Natixis group. She joined VINCI Park in 2009 and then VINCI Energies in 2014 to create and direct the new Development and Innovation Pole. Her current assignment takes her around the world to encourage the emergence of innovative projects within the entities of VINCI Energies. Lydia’s role is to promote open innovation and the startup spirit », with the aim for it to then irrigate the entire group.

Alistair makes early-stage companies improve their go-to-market strategies, and works with some of the world’s largest firms on business model innovation. He also helps governments understand the impact of technology on society, ethics, and resiliency.

As an entrepreneur, Alistair co-founded Coradiant; the Year One Labs accelerator; and a variety of other startups. He has also launched and chaired some of the world’s leading conferences on emerging technology, including Startupfest, Strata, Cloud Connect, FWD50, Bitnorth, and more.

Alistair is the author of four books on technology and entrepreneurship, including the best-selling Lean Analytics, which has been translated into eight languages and is in its tenth printing in China. He speaks internationally on topics such as data science, innovation, scaling startups, digital government, AI, and applying critical thinking to technology. A graduate of Dalhousie University, he has also been a visiting executive on data science and critical thinking at Harvard Business School.” .

Leila Janah is the Founder and CEO of Samasource and LXMI, two companies that go beyond charity to give work to low-income people around the world, using cutting- edge social enterprise models in technology and luxury skincare, respectively.

She is the author of the book
Give Work, published by Penguin/ RandomHouse in September 2017. Leila and her team’s work and impact have been featured widely in the press. She lives in San Francisco.

Entrepreneur, innovation consultant and blogger, Samir Abdelkrim is also the founder of StartupBRICS.com, the first French-language media specialized in innovation in emerging countries.

Samir Abdelkrim spends 8 months per year exploring entrepreneurial ecosystems in Africa (of which he has already traveled 20 countries), to meet the best startups on the continent. He connects the most promising entrepreneurs with investors and large groups, or make them gain visibility in major national titles such as the Huffington Post, Les Echos or Le Monde where he is a tech columnist specialized in African startups.

From Senegal to Botswana via Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Madagascar or Kenya, Samir Abdelkrim has already met a hundred startups as part of his #TECHAfrica project, a field experience and a human adventure to meet those who make the heart beat of Africa 2.0, experience from which he will draw a book in preparation, Startup Lions.

Dr. Jonathan Reichental, is the former Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the City of Palo Alto, and a multiple award-winning technology leader whose 30-year career has spanned both the private and public sectors. In 2017, he was named one of the top 100 CIOs in the world and in 2016 he was named one of the top 20 most influential CIO’s in the United States.

He is recognized as a global thought leader on a number of emerging trends including urban innovation and blockchain technology. In 2013 he was recognized as one of the 25 doers, dreamers, and drivers in government in America. He also won a best CIO in Silicon Valley award and a national IT leadership prize.

His innovative work in government has also been recognized by the White House. Dr. Reichental works with his teams to apply technology innovation in organizations to create new value and to enable work to be more meaningful and fun. He is an adjunct professor at several universities including the University of San Francisco. He is a popular writer and online host, producing several highly successful online courses with LinkedIn Learning. He co-authored The Apps Challenge Playbook and he is a frequent public speaker on a wide range of technology and business-related topics. He co-hosts the popular podcast, Drinking Wine Talking Tech.

Nathalie is a pioneer, driven by a taste for innovation through digital transformation. Innovation with positive impact on humans. She believes that disruption is not just about changing technology, but also about changing the logic of a business.

She was born in Marseilles, France, and while remaining strongly attached to her roots, she firmly believes in a global-local approach: she indeed spent 10 years abroad, speaks 4 languages, and pursued all her career at international level. This commitment was recognized with her nomination as the “International Woman of the Year” by the “Trophée des Femmes de l’Economie PACA & Monaco 2017”. She’s a graduate from Stanford GSB, Middlesex University and Kedge BS; she’s also Advisor to the President of the Chamber of Commerce of Marseille Provence,  and President and Board Member of a number of organizations;

Nathalie has been working for IT worldwide leaders over the last 22 years: Cisco, Sun/Oracle, Intel, which enabled her to always be at the forefront of market (r)evolutions, new business models and transformational technologies (such as Cloud, BigData, IoT, AI, etc..); her expertise in these domains was recognized in 2017 by Voxfemina Expertes au Féminin & TF1 with the prize “Femme en Vue”.

Nathalie also founded FlyingRhino with a goal to help CEOs “tame” their digital transformation, as a tool to drive business value: her role is to enable them to challenge themselves and evolve their strategies and models, in order to grasp fundamental global trends, drive innovation, and harness the power of digital transformation and international reach.

Romain Serman, graduated from IEP Paris and ENA, started his first career as a diplomat. He mostly dealt with international crises during his posting at French Mission to the UN in New York and as Advisor for Africa at the President's Office, Elysée. Between 2010 and 2014, he was the Consul general of France in San Francisco where he felt in love with entrepreneurs and the tech industry. He started his second career in 2014 when he opened the US office of Bpifrance in San Francisco. 

Alexis is currently director of Data Science and Machine Learning
at salesforce where he is leading a team of data scientists and engineers delivering Intelligent services for Einstein platform. Alexis has over twenty years of engineering and management experience including 13 years at Sun Microsystems/Oracle, three startups and two systems integrators.

Over the years, Alexis has worked on dozens of successful software products from inception, definition, design to implementation.

For the last six years, Alexis has focused focusing on large scale (10s of TBs of data and billion records) data science and engineering
using technologies including data engineering, entity resolution, distributed graph processing, machine learning, natural language processing and deep learning. Alexis started teaching himself to program when he was twelve, became an avid 68000 programmer and then pursued a Master’s Degree in CS with a focus on Cognitive Sciences when AI was about expert systems and has done countless online trainings and learning over the years.

Alexis’ speaking experience include dozens of conferences.

Hela is a recognized leader in the Single Family Office space globally. She has been working with Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW) families and their Single Family Offices for the last 23 years.

Hela is a seasoned Impact Investor and an independent Senior Advisor to UHNW families and their Single Family Offices with respect to their Impact & Sustainable Investing activities across all asset classes. Over the past 23 years, Hela held a number of leadership  positions in leading banks & asset management firms (Citi, SocGen, BlackRock) managing substantial Wealth & Asset Management & Private Equity businesses.

She also founded a specialist Family Office Investment & Advisory
Firm facilitating co-investment & private equity transactions in family businesses across EMEA.

Hela was Managing Director of the BlackRock Family Office Partners business in EMEA, with senior responsibility of relationships with Ultra High Net Worth families across EMEA, particularly in the UK, Scandinavia & Switzerland.
She joined BlackRock Family Office Partners business in 2014, having previously run her own Family Office Advisory & Investment Firm for 3 years. She also held leadership roles at Citi (14 years) and Societe Generale (3 years), working with UHNW families and Single Family Offices across EMEA and sourcing and executing investment ideas across asset classes for her clients. Hela is passionate about working with families and one of a few people who have been able to build a reputation as a trusted advisor at the highest levels with a significant number of global UHNW families. Hela is currently pursuing impact & sustainable investing endeavours with several large families with whom she’s built deep and trusted relationships over the past 23 years. She acts as a Strategic Advisor, guiding a number of UHNW families and their senior family office staff as they embark on their impact investing journey and partnering on a deep level as they articulate their vision, determine their engagement strategy and develop, execute & evaluate their impact investment strategy.

Hela has a Masters in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science & Automation from Supélec (French Grande Ecole) as well as a Masters in Finance (Distinction) from London Business School.

Passionate about digital creativity, Yohann launched his first experimental sites at the age of 16 before taking part in the creation of 4 startups in the fields of web design and digital marketing.

He founded SmartData in 2010, a digital data processing entity, and in 2011 his extension of programmatic media buying Tradelab.

The Tradelab technology platform is today the largest independent programmatic media buyer in France, and one of the top 3 Europeans (source: SRI, 2017), with 200 employees in 6 international offices.

He's a connector in the ecosystem of mobility, between corporate firms, startups, labs and cities.

Expert for European Commission, for ADEME (French Agency for Environment & Energy), advisor for several corporate firms, Gabriel leads la Fabrique des Mobilités, the 1st public accelerator for creating a new common culture. Writer, speaker and teacher, he aims to inspire major transitions in the field of mobility.

Gabriel has an in depth knowledge of the mobility field, and an unparalleled ability to understand its driving forces and evolution. His analyses are a must read to anyone wanting to get an insight into the future of mobility. Y.Leriche, Transdev - Chief Performance Officer

His vision and knowledge is quite impressive and he knows initializing paths to drive the mobility ecosystem towards sustainable concrete solutions D.Levent, Renault - Creative Team Dir.

Gabriel is the archetype of Linchpin described by Seth Godin. At the same time author, facilitator & connector, it plays a vital role of "bridge" between men, business & areas S.Schultz - 15Marches

Future of transportation, industrial ecosystem, startups advices and corporate firms transitions, Bicycle & Walk, Engines, fuels and energies for transportation, Urban mobility, ITS, collective intelligence, platform economy.

As a lawyer then investment
officer, Isadora has a strong
record in structuring and financing innovative and inclusive businesses in emerging countries (mainly Africa and Latin America), especially in the field of education and innovative funding at the French Agency for Development. Acting as advisor  and digital learning team leader now, she is designing accelerator  programs and innovation initiatives to boost the development of impactful businesses in Africa.


She strongly believes that entrepreneurs in emerging markets build new ways of doing business, where frugality meets massive digitalization, producing inspiring inclusive models.

A trilingual (English, French, Italian) American national and French Resident who received her International Business and International Economics degrees from the American University of Paris (AUP), her MBA at
École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (ENPC) and her DEA degree in Strategic Management
at the Sorbonne. Currently
founder and Managing Director
of an International Strategic Management Firm, Audra maintains two streams of specialization: Entrepreneurship-Business Planning and Pitch Coaching- Investor Ready Programs. She has over ten years of experience in strategic management, business development, business and marketing plans, and product development in a wide range of industry sectors. She consults
for international organizations
such as OECD, UNEP, UNIDO and the European Commission, gives conferences and teaches courses
on Entrepreneurship, Business Plan Development, and Entrepreneurial Finance to the Grandes Ecoles such as ENSCP, X, ParisTech, CELSA.

She manages entrepreneurship programs using a unique interactive pedagogical approach to the steps taken in creating a professional business plan and pitching to potential investors and participates on a number of business plan competitions annually as a jury member on a national and international level. Besides being involved in the promotion of Women Entrepreneurs, she is increasing greater awareness for Women Business Angels in the MENA region, Chair of the Mentoring Taskforce within the AmCham Women Leadership Committee
and is an accredited Mentor for the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, the Tony Elumelu Foundation, BiD Network and Venture Capital for Africa. Audra, a former professional classical ballet dancer, is also continually pursuing performing arts initiatives.

Entrepreneur now co-founder and General Partner at The Refiners Seed Fund, Kwarter (2011) blueKiwi Software (2006 sold to ATOS) & groupe Reflect Web Agency (1996 now Emakina).

As an entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in strategic management, Carlos has amassed a successful track record of innovative startup growth. At 23, Carlos co-founded Reflect Digital Agency in Paris. After Reflect was acquired by the Emakina group, he went on to form blueKiwi, which became a European leader in Social Enterprise Software and has been sold to ATOS in 2012. From 2011 to December 2015, Carlos focused on building Kwarter, a San Francisco based company determined to revolutionize how people interact with Live TV programs. 

In 2016, Carlos decided to help foreign founders succeed here because he strongly believes they can see things from a different perspective and create amazing global startups no matter where they come from. Carlos is now managing The Refiners, a Cross Border Seed Fund Program based in San Francisco that helps international startups thrive in Silicon Valley.

In September 2012, Carlos founded a group calling themselves “Les Pigeons” who quickly shot to 75,000 members, set up as a protest against Hollande’s planned doubling of capital gains tax to 60 percent. 

Born in 1973, the guitar player and rock’n roll lives now in San Francisco since 2010.

A seasoned European Sales senior Executive, Marcel has substantial field experience helping IT and Telecom startups in the US and EMEA. Marcel has a broad range of experience in all aspects of sales, marketing, communication and management with direct experience with Fortune 500 enterprises and startups. During the course of his career he has held VP roles most notably as VP EMEA Corvis, where he grew the team and business to an outstanding success. Of French-Algerian and British origin, Marcel launched his career after completing a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science from Portsmouth Polytechnic UK and holds an M&A executive program credentials from INSEAD.

Marcel most recently left CISCO after 35 years in IT and Telecom Sales to start his new venture as a Business Angel with SBA to help startups with seed money, VC connections and Business development.

A self-proclaimed Serial Entrepreneur, Marcel loves new Challenges in sharing his 30 years IT& Telecom experience with IT VC firms and new High-tech Start Ups Ready to expand their Sales & Mktg success across EMEA, USA and APAC.

Over his career, Christophe has been successfully growing and managing multi-size sales and marketing organizations [10-400hc] and revenue [€4-800m], both in North-America and Europe within fast pace high-tech environments; digital software, location based services and mobile computing.

Christophe started his career in 1984 out of San Francisco, creating his first start-up in the field of personal services acquired in 1986 by its French partner. 2 years later, he moved back to Europe and through the 90’s hold marketing and sales management positions at Adobe Systems, co-founding the French, Italian and Spanish subs and Fractal Design as European MD. In 1998, Christophe co-founded Opteway, a location based services company, #3 worldwide LBS player on year two and acquired by Visteon in 2003. Soon after, he joined Carphone Warehouse to lead and revamp the B2B business unit, successfully sold to Econocom in 2007. During the same year, Christophe embarked with Blackberry as French CEO then VP for the Western Region. In the first 2 years business grow from 300 to 800m and hold number 1 position in France and Benelux in 2011. In 2014 and up until late 2016, Christophe was Vice President & Managing Director, in charge of the Start-up and Small-Business activity at Sage Group plc (France, Belux, Maghreb).

Today, Christophe is acting as mentor and senior advisor for several high-tech start-ups and is an active member of Réseau-Entreprendre and Moovje, 2 key French entrepreneurial networks.

Christophe graduated from ISCA, Paris and holds a BOS certificate from INSEAD.

Reza is a general partner at Partech Ventures, based in the SF office. In this role, Reza focuses primarily on the infrastructure, datacenter and enterprise markets. Widely regarded as a transformational pioneer, Reza has built his career and reputation by joining early stage ventures and leading them to a successful exit, but also by working in large groups to help them transition to new business models.

Reza started his career in 1998 as employee #10 at VMware, and left the team to create his company, Twingo Systems. Twingo Systems was acquired by Cisco Systems in 2004. After this successful exit, Reza joined Akimbi Systems as their VP for International Business. Akimbi was acquired by VMware in 2006, where Reza then served as Senior Director of Products and Marketing for the EMEA region (VMware’s second largest region). During his tenure, VMware EMEA sales grew from $250M to $1B. Eager to reunite with early stage companies, Reza joined Nimbula, a provider of private cloud infrastructure management software, as VP of Sales and Marketing. In this role, he contributed to the successful acquisition of Nimbula by Oracle in 2013.

Before joining Partech in April 2016, Reza was head of Marketing at Cumulus Networks, a company that designs and sells Linux operating systems for networking hardware. Reza holds an MBA degree from HEC in Paris.