Dassault Systèmes recently appointed Al Bunshaft as Senior Vice President of Global Affairs for North America. Al will take the lead in growing the company’s position and thought leadership in academia, corporate citizenship, government relations and national consortiums.
We had the chance to catch up with Al and talk about his new mission and a few of the key issues impacting North America that Dassault Systèmes will focus on under his leadership.
1) What is the role of Global Affairs in today’s corporate environment?
Al Bunshaft: Forward thinking companies understand that they must connect their leadership team and organization to a diverse set of external stakeholders including legislative, policy, business and cultural leaders both to grow their business and to participate in the world as a corporate citizen. We are leveraging 35 years of experience in delivering innovative solutions that transform industries to reach new participants in the industry ecosystem, and become much more than just a supplier of software. In this way we develop unique insights into specific industries, partnering with the leaders to create the future.
Let’s look for example at the evolution of manufacturing in the United States and the role of the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation. Our company has been involved across this network of national institutes in various capacities. Over this past year we have become founding members of the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI), an organization focused on advancing the state-of-the-art related to advanced materials.
We have also partnered with the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR), working closely with Wichita State University and their partners. The goal is to create an institute focused on research, transfer technology and enhancing education for the purpose of advancing the nation’s aviation industry, and to assist non-aviation industries that may benefit from aviation-related technologies.
I’ve used manufacturing an example, but we take this same approach across the 12 industries that we focus on. The role of the Global Affairs organization is to help facilitate the right networks of relationships to make these projects impactful for both our company and the partners involved.
2) You’ve been an advocate and leader in STEM-related (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) initiatives for many years. What role do tech companies in general and Dassault Systèmes in particular play in supporting STEM education?
Al Bunshaft: The world, and specifically the United States, has a real challenge to generate the needed quantity of STEM-literate workers in the coming years. The need for innovative, technology-literate workers crosses every industry.
As an example, by working with other leading global companies, Dassault Systèmes has contributed to the development of a model called STEM 2.0 which defines an employer-driven view of the required skill set for 21st Century STEM workers.
We run a yearly summer program for exposing high school teachers to STEM jobs and career paths called Teachers At Dassault Systèmes. We regularly host schools at our facilities to expose students to the exciting work we do and to inspire students to follow STEM career paths.
We are also proactive in the business, educational and political spheres, working to influence employer-educator collaboration, approaches to curricula and policy decisions. To help inform these positions we are active members of organizations like the Mass High Tech Council , many university advisory boards, we work closely with many city and regional chambers, and I hold a seat on the Massachusetts Governor’s STEM Advisory Council.
In the end, we as well as our customers depend on a robust, world-class pipeline of future workers in order to continue to fuel our innovation and growth. This innovation and growth fuels not only companies, but cities, regions and nations. This is the ultimate motivation for our work in this domain.
3) What are some ideas, technologies or policies that you’ll be influencing that will make the world a better place?
Al Bunshaft: Dassault Systèmes products have been used for 35 years to create the future in wide ranging fields. Today our clients are inventing the future of transportation, modeling and simulating future cities to inform their decision making, developing clean energy alternatives, advancing the field of medicine, and many other unimaginable innovations.
One particularly instructive list to look at is the National Academy of Engineering’s list of the Grand Challenges for the 21st Century. Here at Dassault Systèmes we are working with our collaborators in all of these areas and many more. Our solutions are helping to create the future in fields like materials science, sustainability, medicine, and to provide clean water to a growing global population.
Our stated corporate purpose is to provide 3D virtual universes, capable of harmonizing product, nature and life. The list above clearly demonstrates that our world needs these capabilities. Our mission is to deliver the needed tools to fuel invention and innovation and to contribute to making our world a better place.
4) If you could work on solving any problem in the world, what one problem would it be?
Al Bunshaft: I want to answer this from both a business and a personal perspective. I believe that one of the greatest challenges we have in our country is the growing income inequality and related lack of opportunity for many of our young people. I believe that the key to changing this is equal access to quality education. I have been personally involved with schools for over 30 years and here at Dassault Systèmes our company is committed to positively impacting STEM/STEAM education. This is not an overnight fix, but this work will ultimately serve our country, our client base, and our own talent needs while enabling a superior quality of life for the next generation.
Biography:
Al Bunshaft joined Dassault Systèmes in 2010 from IBM, where he enjoyed a 25-year career, culminating in his role leading its Product Lifecycle Management team. Currently, he serves as a board member of the Massachusetts High Technology Council and the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at University at Albany. He is co-chair of the STEM Innovation Task Force Al is also a member of the Olin College of Engineering President’s Council and was recently appointed to the Massachusetts STEM Advisory Council.
A common thread in Bunshaft’s career has been his expertise in visualization, computer graphics and engineering-related software tools. Since doing his post-graduate work at the National Science Foundation’s Center for Interactive Computer Graphics he has led efforts to introduce new processes into far ranging industries.
