The experience economy, accelerated by the pandemic, triggers new categories of expectations from citizens, patients, learners and consumers. Tomorrow's mobility is no longer a matter of vehicles. It’s a matter of desirable, sustainable mobility experiences. Tomorrow's healthcare is much more than therapeutics. It’s about the patient journey and precision medicine. Tomorrow's cities are not only a collection of buildings, streets and facilities. It’s about quality of life and quality of service. To support these transformations, we need to take a more holistic approach. I believe the innovators of today and tomorrow have to think in terms of "universes", that is to say in terms of organic systems of systems that create, produce and play an experience in a circular economy. We can make this a reality through virtual twin experiences based on modeling and simulation, real world evidence and immersive virtual reality. I truly believe the ongoing transformation toward a sustainable economy will mark this century.
Bernard Charlès has been Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dassault Systèmes, since January 2024. He served as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer from 1995 to 2022, and was Chairman & CEO in 2023.
Charlès started his career in the company in 1983 to develop new design technologies. In 1986, he founded a dedicated New Technologies, Research and Strategy department, and in 1988 was appointed President of Strategy, Research and Development.
He has helped instill a culture of ongoing innovation to further consolidate Dassault Systèmes’ scientific capabilities and make science part of the company’s DNA. The inspiration behind digital mock-up, product lifecycle management and 3DEXPERIENCE®, he firmly believes that virtual technology is about making possible the impossible: 3DEXPERIENCE universes are the most powerful vehicle for testing concepts and creating the future, bringing dream and reality together, and stretching the limits of science and imagination to drive progress in society.
Charlès has positioned Dassault Systèmes as the preferred partner for sustainable innovation in three major sectors of the economy: Manufacturing Industries, Life Sciences & Healthcare, Infrastructure & Cities. The company, established in 1981 and world leader in virtual worlds, was recognized as one of Forbes’ "World’s Most Innovative Companies".
Bernard Charlès is co-author with philosopher Pierre Musso of The Industry Renaissance, which discusses the power of virtual universes to sustainably transform industry.
He is a foreign member of the US National Academy of engineering and a member of the French Academy of Technology. He holds the rank of Commander in the “Légion d’honneur” (French Legion of Honor). He is a graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure engineering school in Cachan and has a PhD in mechanical engineering majoring in automation engineering and information science. He also holds an agrégation — the most senior teaching qualification achievable in France (specializing in mechanical engineering).
Patrick JOHNSON is Executive Vice President, Corporate Research & Sciences at Dassault Systèmes. His mission is to define the scientific bases of the company’s solutions and invent disruptive technologies for the Industry Renaissance.
After joining in 1996, he held various positions in R&D, from Product Lifecycle Management foundations to product design for the CATIA flagship brand. In 2001, leading the Artificial Intelligence department, he contributed to important new practices now adopted in the industry for knowledge & know-how capture and automation.
Head of Research in 2004, he initiated many strategic technologies, resulting in key innovative products and patents and significantly grew the innovation ecosystem promoting multiple public/private partnerships with prestigious research institutes.
Finally, he launched a new diversification field for the company, with the BioIntelligence European research program, resulting in an innovative modeling, simulation and big data application suite for the life sciences sector, and the creation of the BIOVIA brand.
Mr. Johnson is based at 3DS world headquarters near Paris and is a member of the National Academy of Technology as well as of the scientific board of INRIA.
Frances Arnold is the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology. Arnold pioneered directed enzyme evolution, for which she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2018; she has used directed evolution to solve problems in alternative energy, chemicals, and medicine. Arnold received the Charles Stark Draper Prize of the US National Academy of Engineering in 2011, the US National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Obama in 2013, and the Millennium Technology Prize in 2016. She has been elected to the US National Academies of Science, Medicine, and Engineering and was appointed to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 2019. She co-founded three companies in sustainable chemistry and renewable energy (Gevo, Provivi, Aralez Bio) and serves on several private and public company boards, including Alphabet and Illumina. Arnold earned a B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
Prof. Neil Gershenfeld is the Director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, where his unique laboratory is breaking down boundaries between the digital and physical worlds, from pioneering quantum computing to digital fabrication to the Internet of Things. Technology from his lab has been seen and used in settings including New York's Museum of Modern Art and rural Indian villages, the White House and the World Economic Forum, inner-city community centers and automobile safety systems, Las Vegas shows and Sami herds. He is the author of numerous technical publications, patents, and books including Designing Reality, Fab, When Things Start To Think, The Nature of Mathematical Modeling, and The Physics of Information Technology, and has been featured in media such as The New York Times, The Economist, NPR, CNN, and PBS. He's been called the intellectual father of the maker movement, founding a growing global network of over one thousand fab labs that provide widespread access to prototype tools for personal fabrication, directing the Fab Academy for distributed research and education in the principles and practices of digital fabrication, and chairing the Fab Foundation.
Claire Biot is Vice President, Life Sciences Industry, Dassault Systèmes, where she is responsible for helping companies digitally transform their approach to scientific innovation by using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to catalyze the next generation of therapeutics. Claire was also recently appointed to the Board of Directors at Mauna Kea.
Previously, she was the manager of industrial methods at the biopharmaceutical company LFB, then head of the division, health product pricing, and reimbursement at the French Ministry of Health. Most recently, she was managing director of Agence générale des équipements et produits de santé (AGEPS), France’s central agency for health products and technologies, and a subsidiary of Greater Paris University Hospitals (AP-HP).
In addition to engineering degrees from France’s Ecole Polytechnique and the Corps des mines program, Claire Biot earned a Master of Science degree in life sciences from the Watson School of Biological Sciences in New York, and a doctorate in immunology from the Institut Pasteur. She has also been an active member of several World Health Organization working groups.
Alice STEENLAND joined Dassault Systèmes in 2020 as the company’s first Chief Sustainability Officer. Previously, she was the founding Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer at AXA Group, where she helped the company rise to a leading position in global sustainability rankings, thanks in part to a pioneering responsible investment strategy including the landmark decision to divest from coal and, later, tobacco. Prior to joining AXA, she led the investor research arm of Vigeo (now a subsidiary of Moody’s), worked in the business consulting unit of Arthur Andersen, and acted as an independent consultant in the field of strategic planning for Save the Children USA.
Alice currently serves as a board member of ShareAction and Arvella Investments, as a lecturer at France’s Ecole Polytechnique, and as an advisory committee member at the Yale School of Management, the impact fund Giant Ventures, and the leading French sustainability think tank IDDRI. Alice Steenland received her bachelor’s degree in human biology from Stanford University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.
