Francois Laborie

Francois is President of Cognite North America, overseeing Cognite’s expansion and operations in the US and Canada. Francois has had an extensive career in the technology industry, serving in both research and executive roles. Before shifting to lead Cognite North America, Francois managed Cognite’s overall marketing activities, including product marketing and the Cognite partner network, as Chief Marketing Officer. Francois has been at the heart of the transformation of the media industry through technology. He spent 11 years as COO and CCO of Vizrt, where he focused on disrupting journalism by empowering media content creators with visual storytelling tools. Before that, Francois managed research projects on collective decision-making and human-computer interfaces at the Airbus Group Corporate Research Center. Francois has master’s degrees in computer science and engineering from the National Institute of Applied Sciences and a Ph.D. from the Toulouse Computer Science Research Institute.

Francois’s experience from fast-paced technology organizations and his thorough understanding of industrial research processes make him a confident and knowledgeable speaker on the topics of industrial digitalization and technology transfer and adoption. He can speak with confidence about the latest technology trends, connecting them to commercial outcomes for the industry and predicting future business models. Francois’s expertise in human-computer interfaces and his experience of working with some of the world’s leading energy companies make him an excellent speaker on the topic of how the industry can adopt digital tools to augment the intelligence, productivity, and safety of its workers.