Jean-François Boittin is the Minister Counselor for Economic and Commercial Affairs at the French Embassy in Washington DC since November 2010.

Prior to that, he was the Minister Counselor for Economic and Financial Affairs at the French Embassy in Berlin from July 2006 to November 2010 and the Minister Counselor for Economic and Commercial Affairs at the French Embassy in Washington DC from September 1997 to June 2006.

Prior to this appointment, he served as Deputy Under Secretary at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, in Paris. Read full biography here (pdf)

Al Bunshaft is the managing director of Dassault Systèmes’ Americas organization. He brings to Dassault Systèmes more than 25 years of developing and delivering innovative enterprise solutions to customers. He has held numerous leadership positions in technology, R&D, sales, and product development. In his new role at Dassault Systèmes, Bunshaft is responsible for the structure, management and evolution of the 3000-person business operations in the United States, including the sales and development facilities of the five PLM brands residing in the geography.

Prior to joining Dassault Systèmes, Bunshaft served as global vice president of IBM PLM and led the company’s strategic partnership with Dassault Systèmes. He played a critical role in leading a number of major automotive manufacturers and aerospace companies to transition from physical to digital design, and was instrumental in the development of the first automobile designed through an all-digital process. Read full biography here (pdf)

Mr. Wood has been President and Chief Executive Officer of the Veolia Energy Group of Companies in the United States, based in Boston, Massachusetts, since November 2007. Prior to this office, he served the Veolia group in many different executive capacities over a period of 10 years.

Mr. Wood moved to the U.S. in September 2005, after completing the successful acquisition of the East Cambridge District Heating Network and associated Steam Generating Assets. Mr. Wood served as Chief Operating Officer for the Dalkia North America Companies, (a wholly owned Veolia Subsidiary company) from September 2005 until November 2007.
 
During his incumbency, Mr. Wood has successfully provided leadership in the growth of the U.S. business to become, through acquisition and successful business development, the owner and operator of the largest portfolio of District Energy (heating and cooling) networks in the U.S., with 2008 Revenue of $440 million, and a staff of 615 employees nationwide. Read full biography here (web)

Peter Der Manuelian is Philip J. King Professor of Egyptology at Harvard University, and the Giza Archives Project Director at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

In addition to Giza, his Egyptian archaeological and epigraphic site work includes New Kingdom temples at Luxor (Epigraphic Survey, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago), and the Predynastic site of Naqada. His primary research interests include ancient Egyptian history, archaeology, epigraphy, the development of mortuary architecture, and the (icono)graphic nature of Egyptian language and culture in general. He has published on diverse topics and periods in Egyptian history, but currently focuses on the third millennium BC, and specifically on the famous Giza Necropolis, just west of modern Cairo. The Harvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition excavated major portions of the site between 1905 and 1947. Professor Manuelian's "Giza Archives Project" aims to collect and present online all past, present, and future archaeological activity at Giza (http://www.gizapyramids.org).Interested in both ancient and modern graphic design-"publishing" in the widest sense of the word-he believes in bringing new technologies into his research and into the classroom.

Among his current projects are the publication of elite Giza tombs west of the Great Pyramid, a biography of Harvard archaeologist George A. Reisner, and the development of electronic tools to aid in teaching Egyptian hieroglyphic grammar. Read more at www.petermanuelian.com

Steven Eichel, partner in Choate, Hall & Stewart’s Business and Tax Group, advises clients on domestic and international business and tax planning, M&A, complex joint ventures, domestic and international equity and debt financing and executive compensation matters.

Mr. Eichel has been named a Massachusetts Super Lawyer from 2004-2010 and is listed in Best Lawyers in America. He received his LLM in Taxation from the Boston University School of Law in 1991, his JD from the Columbia University School of Law in 1985 and his BA, Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Tennessee in 1982.
 
Mr. Eichel lived in Lyon, France for over a year during high school and college, attended the Centre Scolaire St. Marc and passed his baccalauréat examination in 1978 with mention assez bien. Read full biography here (web)

Dr. Piret has extensive experience in the formation and development of technological and engineering companies. He is the Principal Appraiser for the firm and is expert at valuing technology companies.

In 2004, Newbury Piret & Co. won the M&A Advisor's national award for best Industrial Manufacturing Deal of the Year in the Middle Market. Newbury, Piret & Co., Inc. (NPC) is a boutique investment bank that provides financial advisory services to middle-market public and private companies. The firm offers mergers and acquisitions advisory, recapitalizations, Private Investments in Public Equity (PIPE), and senior and subordinated debts services. Additionally, it provides litigations, fairness opinions, intangible asset analyses, and strategy support services.

Previously, Dr. Piret was President and founder of Corion Technologies, Inc., a maker of static electricity elimination instruments for process industries, focusing on in sales, manufacturing, engineering and product development. As investment banker and CEO has negotiated private equity investment, licensing and joint venture/strategic alliances agreements. He is expert at valuing and evaluating technologies, intangibles, and companies. Read full biography here (pdf)

Jo Ann serves as the Director of Human Resources and Environmental Health & Safety for the North America Operations group of Essilor of America.  Jo Ann joined Essilor two years ago and is responsible for the company's manufacturing facilities in Chihuahua Mexico, Ponce PR, Manaus Brazil, Carbondale PA and Dudley, MA, the distribution center in Columbus, Ohio as well as Supply Chain, R&D and Engineering in both Dallas, TX and Dudley.

Essilor is a fully owned subsidiary of Paris-based Essilor International, S.A., and is the largest business unit in the worldwide Essilor Group. Essilor is the leading manufacturer and wholesale distributor of optical lenses in the United States.  In 1996, with the establishment of Essilor Laboratories of America, Inc. (Essilor Laboratories), Essilor became the first fully integrated optical company in the United States.  Specializing in ophthalmic lens production, manufacturing and distribution in addition to wholesale optical laboratory operations.

Previously, Jo Ann spent 10 years with Ford Motor Company in both Michigan and Kentucky.  During her tenure with Ford, Jo Ann served in various human resource positions throughout the organization specializing in Labor Relations.

Stephan Dietrich, Co-founder and President of Neolane Inc, is responsible for driving Neolane's strong business growth in North America. His leadership and passion have become hallmarks of his 10-year tenure at Neolane. Stephan has 20 years of enterprise software expertise and a broad range of management experience in the high-tech arena.

Stephan works directly with major Fortune 5000 clients to design, optimize and enable their best marketing relationship strategies across multiple channels.
 
A recognized thought leader, Stephan is regularly interviewed in high-level publications and has spoken at several major US and European marketing events, such as NCDM, the Annual eMarketing Conference, the European E-Commerce show, the Retail and Catalogue show and Direct Marketing events. He is often quoted by major trade publications like CRM Magazine, DMNews, Direct Marketing Magazine covering the relationship marketing industry as well as in the general business press. Previously, Stephan was president of Cubicsoft and co-founder of AGDS, a company sold to Peregrine Systems, now HP.

Stephan holds a Master of Science degree from Ecole Centrale de Paris and earned his Master in Business Administration from the College des Ingenieurs.

Perry B. Newman is the President of Atlantica Group, an international business consultancy based in Portland, Maine.  Atlantica Group assists business, government and non-profit clients in achieving their international development objectives through market research, export development, technology exchange and competitive intelligence. 

Prior to forming Atlantica Group in 2000, Mr. Newman served as Maine’s first Director of International Trade and President of the Maine International Trade Center. In 2000, he was selected by the EU to study infrastructure development in Brussels and Denmark. 

He is the Chair of the Maine District Export Council, appointed by US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke. In 2004, in recognition of his experience facilitating business in North American markets, Mr. Newman was named Canada’s first Honorary Consul to Maine. In 2010, he was honored by the State of Israel for his contributions to economic collaborations in New England. Read full biography here (web)

 After an MBA degree at Ecole Centrale Paris, I joined the Group Danone in 2000 in the French fresh dairy products division in Supply Chain where I occupied four different positions from warehouse workers management to business analysis and S&OP animation. In 2009 I joined Stonyfield, the largest organic yogurt company in the world and a Danone subsidiary at 85%, to manage the Sourcing and Supplier development for all the packaging.

As a part of its commitment for a healthy planet Stonyfield tries to be pioneer on sustainable packaging developments and thinking.

Rakesh Kapoor has been Director of Saint-Gobain’s Northboro and Worcester R&D Center since September 2004 and of External Venturing since Jan 2011.

Rakesh joined Saint-Gobain in 1994 as Research Manager for the Norton Construction Products Division of Saint-Gobain Abrasives in Worcester, Massachusetts.  He became Operations/Plant Manager of the Saint-Gobain Abrasives manufacturing facility in Gainesville, Georgia in 1997.  Two years later, Rakesh was named Director of the company’s Northboro Research & Development Center.  In 2002, he took on the additional responsibility of R&D Director of Bonded Abrasives. Throughout, 2010, Rakesh also served as R&D Director for Saint-Gobain Abrasives worldwide.  In Jan 2011, he was appointed Director for the External Venturing Organization (NOVA) which is responsible for interfacing with startups and serves all of Saint-Gobain.  Rakesh divides his time between Paris and Northboro, MA. Read full biography here (PDF)

 
Please find Mr. Hote's biography in French on the CCEF Boston web site here.