Governance

Erik Maris

Chairman of the board

Erik Maris is Advisory Partner at Advent International Ltd since November 2020. Erik is also a member of the advisory board of both Espérance Banlieue and Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale.
Before joining Advent, Erik co-founded in 2010 one of the most reputable French investment banks: Messier Maris & Associés. As a specialist in complex and cross-border transactions, he conducted more than 100 operations.
Prior to that, Erik spent 19 years as Managing Partner and Co-Managing Director of Lazard France, which he joined in 1991 after a first job at Morgan Stanley.
Erik is a graduate of the HEC business school in Paris.

Dominique Cerutti

Member of the board

Starting June 2015, Dominique Cerutti spent 5 years as Chief Executive Officer of the Altran group. He was also Chairman of the Altran Board from June 2015 to April 2020, until the acquisition of the company by Capgemini.

Before joining Altran, Dominique Cerutti was CEO and Chairman of the Managing Board of Euronext, the leading pan-European exchange. He was previously President and Deputy CEO, and a board member of New-York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the world’s leading exchange Group.

Dominique Cerutti also spent over 20 years at IBM in an international career, where he contributed to the company’s strategic transformation. He held various Board positions at LCH-Clearnet, Euromed Business School, New-York Stock Exchange, Altran, Euronext, and Genes’ink.

Since March 2021, he has served as Chairman of the Board of Adarma, one of the UK’s leading independent security services companies.

Jean-François Cirelli

Member of the board

Since the end of 2015, Jean-François CIRELLI is the Chairman and Senior Adviser of the French, Belgian and Luxembourg subsidiaries of Blackrock.

Jean-François is also a senior advisor with Advent International and McKinsey & Company.

Before joining Blackrock, Jean-François was Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of GDF SUEZ (now known as ENGIE), where he was directly responsible for all energy activities in Europe between 2012 and 2014. Prior to its merger with Suez, Jean-François was Chairman and General Manager of Gaz de France, a position he held from 2004. He also served as Chairman deputy of the Board of Directors of the Belgian subsidiary Electrabel.

Jean-François began his professional career in the French administration by joining the Treasury Department of the French Ministry of Economy and Finance in 1985. He was successively in charge of housing policy, the General Secretariat of the Paris Club (sovereign debt rescheduling) and financial market regulation. He was also Alternate Director for France at the IMF.

In 1995, Jean-François was appointed economic advisor to the French President where he remained until 2002. In 2002, he was appointed Deputy Director of the Cabinet of the Prime Minister Jean-Pierre RAFFARIN, in charge of economic, industrial and social matters.

Jean-François is a graduate of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and holds a law degree. He is a former student of the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (1983-1985). Has been awarded Officier de la Légion d’Honneur and Officier du Mérite.

John Hynes

Member of the board

After starting his career as an aviator in the United States Navy, John transitioned into the aerospace and defense industry, where he has been a senior leader with some of the industry’s preeminent companies. He ran ManTech’s security and mission assurance organization, was General Manager of SAIC’s mission support business, and senior Vice President of TASC’s defense and civil group before being appointed COO and then CEO. Following TASC’s acquisition by Engility, John became president and COO of the combined business. He went on to be CEO of Applied Insight, and now serves there as Executive Chairman. John is also a member of the Board of Directors of Peraton.

Until recently, he was on the advisory board of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance and on the board of the Capital Area Food Bank. He is a graduate of the US Naval Academy and George Washington University, and a recipient of the Federal 100 Award from Federal Computer Week.

Thierry Sommelet

Member of the board - Representative of BPIFRANCE INVESTISSEMENT

Thierry Sommelet is Managing Director within the Capital Development Department of Bpifrance Investissement, in charge of the technology, media and telecom sector. Thierry Sommelet has twenty years of private and public equity investment experience in the telecom and technology sectors, with Caisse des Dépots et Consignations where he was responsible for investment in telecom networks, and with Fonds Stratégique d’Investissements where he realized several transactions in the semi-conductor, technology and Internet sectors. Before that, Thierry Sommelet held several positions in capital markets with Crédit Commercial de France, in Paris and New York, with Los Altos based Renaissance Software (now part of Sungard) and with media company InfosCE. Thierry Sommelet graduated from ENPC civil engineering school in Paris and holds an MBA from Insead.

Thierry Sommelet is also the permanent representative of Bpifrance Participations on the Board of Directors of Orange SA and Technicolor SA, and a director of Worldline SA and Soitec SA.

Juliette Assemat

Member of the board

Juliette Assemat is an Assistant Director at Advent International SAS. Juliette joined Advent in 2020. She previously worked for KKR within their European Private Equity team based in London. Before joining KKR, she worked for Apax Partners in the Healthcare Private Equity team based in London. Previously, she worked for Lazard in their New York and London offices.

Juliette holds a MSc in Management from ESSEC Business School in Paris and a Law degree from University of Pantheon-Sorbonne.

Selim Loukil

Member of the board

Selim Loukil is Managing Director and Head of Portfolio Support Group in Europe at Advent International Ltd. Selim joined Advent in 2012 as part of the Portfolio Support Group to help improve portfolio company performance.

Before joining Advent, he has spent 5 years in operating roles at HMY (shop-fitting business), a Portfolio company of Sagard Private Equity. At HMY, Selim was Chief Transformation Officer then CEO of a Division he had to turnaround. Prior to joining HMY, he spent 8 years as a management consultant, with Bain & Co. in France and the US and earlier with Cap Gemini, working on numerous growth, performance improvement and business transformation projects in the manufacturing, retail, and technology sectors.

Selim began his career as a Sales Development Manager in the chemicals industry for Rhodia in Italy.

Selim graduated from Ecole Centrale, France with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and has an MBA from HEC Business School in Paris.

Hadrien de Bardies

Member of the board

Hadrien de Bardies is a Director at Advent International SAS. Hadrien joined Advent in 2012. He previously worked for Blackstone within their European Private Equity team where he was involved in the execution, sourcing and monitoring of deals.

Hadrien holds a business administration degree from HEC Business School in Paris.

Pierre Barrial

President & CEO

Pierre BARRIAL is IDEMIA’s President & Chief Executive Officer.

Pierre has more than 25 years of experience and knowledge gained across multicultural and international environments in different industries (IT, Security), serving both the governmental and enterprise markets.

Pierre began his career at Bull Group where he held multiple sales and management functions between 1995 and 2006 to develop business in France and Africa. In 2006, he became Chief Executive Officer of Bull Italy, the second largest subsidiary of the Group. From July 2007 to June 2012, Pierre was Managing Director of the Central & Eastern Europe business, serving both government and enterprise sectors, where he successfully repositioned the offering on High value products, Solutions and Services. In August 2012, he became Director of Strategy, Development and Corporate Functions of Latin America and served as General Manager of Hispanic America.

Pierre Barrial joined Oberthur Technologies in 2013 as President of the Latin America region, before being appointed Executive Vice President of the Mobile Network Operator Business Unit. In January 2018, following the coming together of Oberthur Technologies and Morpho into the new IDEMIA Group, Pierre became the Executive Vice President of the Financial Institutions Business Unit, the largest activity of the Group.

In 2019, Pierre was appointed Chief Executive Officer of IDEMIA’s Secure Enterprise Transactions division, composed of IDEMIA’s transaction-based businesses (Financial institutions, Mobile operators, Automotive manufacturers…).

In July 2020, Pierre was appointed as the President & CEO of IDEMIA.

Born in 1972, Pierre BARRIAL graduated from the Paris School of Business in 1994, with a Bachelor in Business Administration.

Astrid Warren

Chief People Officer

Astrid Warren has been the Chief People Officer at IDEMIA since 2021. Based in Switzerland, Astrid is a South African national human resources executive with over 20 years of experience mostly in the high-tech sector as well as in global environments.

Before joining IDEMIA, Astrid was Senior Vice President Human Resources for SITA, the world’s leading specialist in air transport communications and information technology and a company recognized by Forbes as 2020 Best Employers. Before that, Astrid spent 13 years at Microsoft, where she held a number of senior HR leadership roles, such as head of HR for Microsoft Middle East & Africa, in Turkey.

Prior to joining Microsoft in 1997, Astrid held roles as Responsible for the Human Resources function at Altron and Human Resources Manager at Standard Bank of South Africa.

Didier Fontaine

Chief Operating Officer & Chief Finance Officer

Didier Fontaine is IDEMIA’s Chief Finance Officer (CFO) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) in charge of Finance, Legal, Strategy, M&A, IT and Purchasing since October 2020.

Didier Fontaine holds over 35 years of top management experience with several major international groups.

Following a career as a top-class athlete, Didier began working in the banking industry, where he occupied various positions across France, Canada and Brazil for almost ten years. Didier then held a number of management roles in treasury, finance and IT, with Schlumberger (from 1995 to 2001) followed by Faurecia (from 2002 to 2005).

In 2005, Didier Fontaine began a new chapter in his career, carrying out various senior executive roles working to develop and enhance the value of several companies. He was pivotal, for instance, in transforming Plastic Omnium during the 2008 economic crisis as Executive Vice President, Finance and IT.

In 2012, Didier Fontaine joined Constellium as Chief Financial Officer and Head of Purchasing and IT. During his tenure with Constellium, the company successfully floated on the New York Stock Exchange in 2013. After having served, from 2016 to 2018, as Zodiac Aerospace’s Administrative and Financial Director with responsibility for legal affairs, IT and purchasing, where he played a big part in the Zodiac Aerospace/Safran merger, Didier was named Group Chief Financial Officer of Verallia Packaging, where he successfully oversaw the company’s 2019 listing on Euronext. At Verallia Packaging, he also managed M&A, IT, purchasing and supply chain.

Didier FONTAINE graduated from Sciences Po Paris in 1985.

Julia Schoonenberg

Executive Vice President, Financial Institutions

Julia Schoonenberg is Executive Vice President of IDEMIA’s Financial Institutions Business Unit.

With more than two decades of experience at IDEMIA in both Mobile Operators and Financial Institutions Business Units, Julia has a highly successful track record of building and leading international teams across numerous geographies, including Russia and the CIS, the Middle East and Africa, Asia and Europe. During her time in the Financial Institutions Business Unit, she has successfully executed a number of leadership roles, both in mature markets such as the UK and in growing markets such as the Middle East, the CIS and Africa, where she has driven strong economic growth. Julia was appointed Executive Vice President of the Financial Institutions Business Unit in November 2021.

Julia is a graduate of Oxford University.

Donnie Scott

Chief Executive Officer, North America, Identity & Security

Donnie Scott, CEO of IDEMIA I&S North America, is a 20-year veteran of the public security and IT solutions industry. Prior to IDEMIA, Donnie served as Industry Sales Leader at DXC Technology, an IT services company where his team generated more than $1 billion in sales and 20% growth over a three-year period for its National Security Business. Before that, Donnie was a sales leader at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP, and Electronic Data Systems.

In addition to his role as CEO, IDEMIA I&S North America, Donnie currently serves as the Treasurer of the International Biometrics and Identity Association (IBIA).

Based in Reston, Virginia, Donnie is known as a collaborative leader of teams that enable clients to achieve their mission and business objectives. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Virginia and speaks frequently on biometrics and emerging technologies.

Matt Cole

Executive Vice President, Public Security & Identity

Matthew Cole is Group Executive Vice President for IDEMIA’s Public Security and Identity (PSI) Business Unit.

A graduate of Oxford Brookes University, Matthew holds a Masters of Business Administration and is also a Chartered Certified Accountant. In 2003, he joined Cubic Corporation, the world leader in smart and contactless payments for transportation. During his time at Cubic, Matthew held several senior finance positions before successfully heading up the company’s Asia-Pacific operations and subsequently, Cubic’s global Strategy and Business Development. In 2015, he became President of Cubic Transportation Systems. Prior to joining Cubic Corporation, Matthew held several positions with blue-chip multinational firms including Endemol, British Airways, Mitsui, First Choice and Schlumberger.

Matthew joined IDEMIA in January 2020 as CEO of the Secure Enterprise Transactions (SET) Division. He was appointed to his current role as Group Executive Vice President for IDEMIA’s Public Security and Identity (PSI) Business Unit in September 2021.

Fabien Jautard

Executive Vice President, Connectivity Services

Fabien Jautard is the Executive Vice President of IDEMIA’s Connectivity Services Business Unit.

An industry veteran with over 20 years of experience working in private companies and private equity, Fabien has a successful track record leading global technology strategies with a strong focus on value creation, innovation, and services.

Fabien began his career in Bull, a French based IT group, supervising the launch of the French national Healthcare projects as well as various Banking institutions projects. Since joining IDEMIA, Fabien has held various roles within the mobility and connectivity businesses. He previously managed the Telecom Business in APAC region as Senior Vice President, where he contributed heavily to various transformation plans of the company to become a worldwide global leader of the Digital security and identification technologies in the Mobility space. He has also served various positions within the group as Director of Business Operations & Marketing as well as Director of Solution Business line.

Fabien was appointed Executive Vice President of the Connectivity Services Business Unit in January 2018.

Jean-Christophe Fondeur

Chief Technology Officer

Jean-Christophe Fondeur has been the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of IDEMIA since the creation of the Group in 2017. He is responsible for IDEMIA’s central technology group, driving technological innovations with a specific focus on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, biometrics, large-scale distributed systems, analytics solutions, cloud architectures and smart devices.

Under Jean-Christophe’s leadership, IDEMIA regularly confirms the robustness of its technologies, participating in U.S. National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) benchmark testing for iris, face, and fingerprint biometrics, always ranking in the top. He has also implemented several major institutional and academic partnerships for the Group to ensure that IDEMIA is always developing cutting-edge solutions to secure identity while guaranteeing private data privacy at all times.

Before IDEMIA, Jean-Christophe led Morpho’s research activities and was involved in the development of digital fingerprinting and face recognition algorithms, multi-biometric systems for the crossing of frontiers and scalable architecture design for very large biometric systems used by the FBI and UID (Unique Identification Authority) in India.

Jean-Christophe has created over a dozen patents and is a senior member of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers). He holds engineering degrees from l’Ecole Polytechnique and Telecom ParisTech and is a frequent speaker at scientific conferences around the world.

Matthew Foxton

Executive Vice President, Branding and Communications

Matthew Foxton has been the Executive Vice President Branding & Communications of IDEMIA since January 2014.

Since receiving a post-graduate diploma in adult education from the Royal Society of Arts, Matthew has spent most of his career in France in various communication and marketing roles. A specialist in communication and corporate branding, Matthew has acquired a strong background in corporate brand repositioning working for international companies such as Matra Marconi Space, Sema and Novell. Before joining IDEMIA, Mathew served as Executive Vice President Strategy & Marketing for Bull Group.

In January 2021, Matthew was appointed Regional President of India in addition to his role as EVP Branding & Communications. He is based in Noida.