Henri Verdier is France’s ambassador for digital affairs at the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, and since 2018 has led and coordinated France’s Digital Diplomacy. Previously, he served as France’s inter-ministerial director of digital information and communication systems (DG DINUM), and director of Etalab, the French agency for public open data. Henri was also co-founder and CEO of web-based social data mining start-up MFG Labs, and chairman of the board at digital content and services cluster Cap Digital. He is a member of ARCEP’s strategy committee and CNIL’s strategy committee and was a member of the board of directors at the Université Paris-Sorbonne. Henri was also founding director of e-learning publishing company Odile Jacob Multimedia, executive adviser on innovation in the Lagardère group, and director of forecasting at the Institut Telecom. He has co-authored several books, notably: L’Age de la Multitude, Entreprendre et Gouverner Après la Révolution Numérique (The Age of Multitude, Entrepreneurship and Governance After the Digital Revolution) with Nicolas Colin; and Le Business de la haine : Internet, la démocratie et les réseaux sociaux (The Business of Hate: Internet, Democracy and Social Networks) with Jean-Louis Missika. 

Roberto Viola is Director-General of DG CONNECT (Directorate General for Communication Networks, Content and Technology) at the European Commission. He was the Deputy Director-General of DG CONNECT, European Commission from 2012 to 2015. Roberto Viola served as Chairman of the European Radio Spectrum Policy group (RSPG) from 2012 to 2013, as Deputy Chairman in 2011 and Chairman in 2010. He was a member of the BEREC Board (Body of European Telecom Regulators), and Chairman of the European Regulatory Group (ERG). He held the position of Secretary General in charge of managing AGCOM, from 2005 to 2012. Prior to this, he served as Director of Regulation Department and Technical Director in AGCOM from 1999 to 2004. From 1985 to 1999 he served in various positions including Head of Telecommunication and Broadcasting Satellite Services at the European Space Agency (ESA). Roberto Viola holds a Degree in Electronic Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA).

Born in Toulon in 1977, Alexandre ZAPOLSKY founded LINAGORA in 2000 while still a student at the Institut National des Télécommunications.

The company he chairs is now regarded as France's leading open-source software publisher. A citizen entrepreneur and visionary, Alexandre ZAPOLSKY has been defending the idea of a "3rd Digital Way" for more than two decades, one that respects users' rights, is ethical, inclusive and sustainable, and is capable of providing an alternative to the American (GAFAM) and Chinese (BATX) digital giants.

Passionate about the challenges of digital sovereignty, he never stops trying to convince people that a different digital world is possible. For him, there is no fatality: France and Europe can build their digital autonomy. To this end, he takes part in numerous seminars and conferences in France and around the world, to share his convictions and the solutions for achieving them. In France, Alexandre ZAPOLSKY is one of the leading figures in the digital sector.

LINAGORA, his company, offers TWAKE, a complete Digital workplace solution that is enjoying growing success, as well as a full range of software: LinSHARE (file sharing), Twake Mail (collaborative messaging solution), LinTO (voice to text transcription platform). In addition to its software offering, LINAGORA supports its major customers in the public and private sectors in their software usage strategy through its consulting, support and professional services offerings.

Since AI technology is currently eating the world, along side with key strategic partners, in summer 2023, LINAGORA launches the Open LLM France community with the aim to bring together the vital forces of academia and industry, with a view to developing a French, sovereign, truly Open Source LLM based on open, public learning data corpora and algorithms documented under a free, non-restrictive license. This LLM is called CLAIRE.

Headquartered at La Villa Good Tech, 37 rue pierre poli, 92130 Issy-Les-Moulineaux, France, LINAGORA is present throughout France. The company, which also has offices in Canada, Russia, Vietnam and Tunisia, sells its software worldwide, either directly or in SAAS mode.