Tell us about your career path.
After completing my engineering studies, I worked in the finance departments of some British companies. I always worked in IT, surrounded by engineers, trying to help the BUs. In 2008, the economic crisis led to a separation between IT and BUs. IT had previously been considered a strategic asset, but became a cost with the crisis, leading to a negative impact on decision making. This led me to look more closely at agile methods that were poorly known in the financial sector in France. Over time, I found I was having a harder time maintaining a dynamic with IT and I saw the start-up phenomenon develop. In mid-2013, I met the founders of LaFourchette who were looking for a CTO. This was a real challenge for me because, for a pure player, computing is a core business and you need to be agile to take decisions quickly. So, I set up processes based on agility and industrialisation in order to move to scale-up mode. In 2014, LaFourchette was purchased by Trip Advisor and it was the start of a new era.
What are your priorities today?
IT is at the heart of my daily concerns. We have doubled the size of our technical teams since the Trip Advisor buyout. LaFourchette also provides an on-line restaurant reservation service for Trip Advisor in all 12 countries in which we are present. We structured our teams and created Feature Teams with a technical manager and a product manager who work closely together. We really focus on the business vision while developing the technical side. We’ve become the world leader in restaurant reservations, and digitalisation opens new channels to us. We do over 100 updates every month with agility that’s intrinsic to the way we work.
What do you expect from an event like ROOMn?
ROOMn brings together a whole panel of infrastructure, security and agility trends. It also provides an opportunity to meet all of the suppliers covering the sectors necessary to a CTO. This gives me a holistic vision of the market. Plus, the conferences and workshops encourage discussions and provide feedback. I appreciate the diversity because I need expertise on certain subjects but a more general approach on others. And the networking part provides a chance to forge ties and meet players with similar profiles.
