Earlier this month, we were pleased to announce that Raoul Jacquand has been named CEO of Dassault Systèmes’ GEOVIA Brand, after the retirement of long-term GEOVIA CEO, Rick Moignard.
Raoul Jacquand brings 20 years of experience in the geoscience and technology industries to Dassault Systèmes. Prior to joining the company, he was Executive Vice President, Geomarkets Sales & Marketing at CGG, a fully integrated geoscience company providing geological, geophysical and reservoir capabilities for clients in the global oil and gas sectors. Before this, he worked for more than a decade in international telecommunications at Nortel, holding senior-level engineering and marketing positions. Raoul Jacquand is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique in France and earned his MSc degree in signal processing and digital communications from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications in Paris.
We recently sat down with our new CEO and asked a few questions to get to know him and understand his vision for the future of GEOVIA.
Why did you choose to join Dassault Systèmes? Specifically, the GEOVIA brand?
My interest in joining Dassault Systèmes was primarily fueled by the inspirational vision of the company, its ambition supported by powerful innovations, and its reputation for delivering results. By creating the GEOVIA Brand, the company made clear its intentions to bring to the geosphere the same transformational technologies which have proven successful in the product space. The combination of the Dassault Systèmes portfolio and the legacy Gemcom brand, known to be a market leader in geology and mine planning software, made joining GEOVIA a particularly motivating prospect: there are high expectations for GEOVIA to thrive and expand its perimeter, and I am truly excited by the opportunity to contribute, at my scale, to this endeavor.
What excites you about the Mining Industry?
The Mining industry is at the roots of so much of what we take for granted in our daily lives, and people may have forgotten the pivotal role it plays in our modern societies. Without mineral resources, economic or social development would not be possible. The act of mining, itself, gives us the opportunity of a close encounter with our natural environment, with the responsibilities for sustainable exploitation that come along with that: I am therefore especially interested in the role that technology can play, to ensure that a millennium-old human activity can continue to fuel the progress of society in a context of demographic growth yet in a manner respectful to our planet.
What do you see as the most important issue for the Mining Industry right now? How does GEOVIA address this?
The industry seems to be reaching a turning point as it recognizes the need to embrace new practices (hence adopt new technologies) to address the challenges of sustainable, safe and profitable operations. There is a genuine intention to move away from being a very cyclical and risky environment, to, instead, one that establishes stable and predictable business models, attracting both investors and young professionals. The GEOVIA mining applications are a first step in providing our clients with the necessary software tools to reduce risk, increase productivity and exploit their assets over the long-term. Combined with additional elements from the Dassault Systèmes portfolio, and enabled by the power of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, they will help reveal the impact innovative technology can have onto the Mining business.
A decade from now, where do you see GEOVIA?
This is the crystal-ball question… to which I’ll answer by picturing what I would like GEOVIA to become, a decade from now: a Brand which has reached maturity, fully leveraging the breadth of core Dassault Systèmes technologies. It will have extended its market reach and reputation across a wider set of natural resources, and will have succeeded in establishing a continuous set of powerful 3D modeling applications from the subsurface to the surface of the earth.
As the new CEO, you recently went on a whirlwind tour of all of the GEOVIA worldwide offices…what did you take away from your travels?
As I traveled across the various GEOVIA offices worldwide, I was impressed by the passion that animates the GEOVIA population: there is almost a sentimental attachment to the mining world—an authentic desire to help our clients be successful in what remains a “tough job” with a “can-do” attitude that most likely mirrors the work culture encountered at the customer mine site level.
Bonus Question
What is one unique thing that you like to do in your spare time?
There are too many things I’d like to do in my spare time, which by definition, is too short! So if I had to pick one, it would be running—one of the most basic human function, yet one which opens so many possibilities: discovery of new places, social interactions, and a healthy complement to intellectual activity. I’ve never come back disappointed by a run, and have always appreciated the positive thinking and energy it actually brings.
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Raoul Jacquand
Latest posts by Raoul Jacquand (see all)
- Bringing Science to the 3DEXPERIENCE Mine - March 5, 2019
- GEOVIA and Sodern to Collaborate on Near Real-time Mineral Resource Assessment - March 14, 2018
- GEOVIA POWER’BY: Collaboration Across the Mining Organization - December 22, 2017
