4 Questions to Florence Verzelen – Executive Vice-President, Dassault Systemes (DSY). “…there are two critical levers to foster the growth of European Tech champions: creating a European capital markets ecosystem and facilitating collaboration between the public sector and the private sector”

In celebration of Women’s Day on 8 March 2025, we are excited to launch the first 2025 edition of our series “4 QUESTIONS TO Inspiring women”. Florence Verzelen, the Executive Vice President in charge of Industry, Marketing, and Sustainability at Dassault Systèmes is a key leader in industrial transformation, sustainability, and AI integration.

We had the privilege of meeting with her to discuss AI’s role in the software industry. She emphasized Dassault Systèmes’ long-standing expertise and the importance of developing industrial use cases with clean data. Florence also shared valuable insights into Europe’s challenges in nurturing tech champions and the ongoing efforts to improve gender diversity in the tech industry.

There are only a handful of European Tech companies of meaningful size in the public market. Why is that? What can Europe do to catch with the US?

We at Dassault Systèmes are very lucky to have a long-term shareholder. The Dassault family controls the company with 40%* of the capital. In addition, the former chairman, Charles Edelstenne, also owns 6% of the capital. This ownership structure protects us from any acquirer and allows us to implement a long-term strategy with complete peace of mind.

I think there are two main issues hindering the emergence of European Tech champions.

The first is the lack of venture and growth capital on a scale comparable to what exists in America. We have in Europe a good pipeline of startups with great technical innovation. Unfortunately, they don’t find the capital to grow in Europe and are very often forced to move to America.

The second is European regulation, which often stifles innovation. This is particularly true in the pharmaceutical and biology fields. As a result, it is often easier to move R&D to America to facilitate the required approval process.

Last but not least, collaboration with the public sector, particularly universities, is much slower in Europe than in the US. For example, it took us two weeks to create a PhD program with MIT, whereas a similar program with a French Grande Ecole took two years!

In summary, there are two critical levers to foster the growth of European Tech champions: creating a European capital markets ecosystem and facilitating collaboration between the public sector and the private sector.

What can Europe do to catch up with the US? Do the Draghi / Letta reports provide any actionable measures?

The Draghi report has identified one major issue: the cost of electricity. Electricity is twice as expensive for industrial users in Europe as it is in the US.

The other significant issue identified is that European IP is essentially centered around legacy manufacturing industries (cars) and often consists of incremental improvements to existing technologies. Europe is lagging in terms of breakthrough technological innovation.

The solution will probably come from national strategies funded by each government rather than a Europe-wide effort. It will likely involve some specialization by country (nuclear in France, robotics in Germany, for example).

How have you integrated AI into your business model? Is AI a lethal threat for the software industry, an opportunity, or both?

We at Dassault Systèmes have been involved in AI for over twenty years. It is the backbone of the solutions we provide for our clients.

Last year, the focus was on LLMs, which are useful tools for the public and have applications for us, such as developing a comprehensive workers instruction.

The real critical path is to identify and develop industrial use cases for our clients. The key factor is access to clean data. We have been able to develop those cases when we have our own data. But some of our clients need help to clean the data and make it AI-ready. This will allow them to optimize industrial processes.

More generally, I am convinced that Gen AI will accelerate progress in areas such as nuclear fusion without waste or the development of new materials or molecules.

Tech is notorious for being less open to women, with a few notable exceptions (Ruth Porat, Sheryl Sandberg, Safra Catz), than other industries. What is your perspective, and how is it evolving?

We had a gathering of senior women in tech this year at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, and there were 25 of us. The good news is that 10 years ago, there would have been only 10!

I think the key to increasing the number of young women embracing engineering studies from a very early age. We need to encourage them by demonstrating that it is an exciting and vibrant industry and that it can be women friendly.

When I graduated from École Polytechnique, 18% of the class were women. Twenty-five years later, the percentage is stable. Progress has been slow!

The other avenue to improve the representation of women in the tech industry is retraining over the course of a career. If we accept that most of us will change careers several times in the future and will have to retrain, herein lies a fantastic opportunity to direct women towards the tech industry.

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