The executives leading the European Software Association

Jeremy Roche is chairman of the European Software Association, a trade organisation representing the European software industry which he helped establish in 2005. Its aim is to become the industry’s principal interface with European Union institutions, the media and the general public, and at the centre of best practice and cooperation across the business community — the same mandate described on our About Us page.

Jeremy is chief executive officer of CODA plc (AIM: CODA), responsible for all group operations including the global consulting and product development functions, ensuring the products and services they deliver to customers are of the highest quality.

Since CODA’s acquisition by Science Systems in 2000, Jeremy has been a driving force behind the company’s success and global expansion, and has successfully led CODA plc through a subsequent demerger which saw the company list independently on the AIM market in London. It now has direct operations in 14 countries around the world.

Jeremy began his career at IBM, after which he joined the software house Lychgate UK, where he held a number of senior systems engineering and sales roles. He joined Science Systems (now SciSys) as commercial director in 1990 and, following the acquisition of CODA in March 2000, was appointed to head up the product strategy and research and development functions of the CODA Group.

Jeremy graduated from Thames Polytechnic with a degree in business studies in 1987.

Eilert Hanoa is Chief Executive Officer of Mamut ASA. He founded Mamut in Norway in 1994 with the vision of making the everyday operations of small and medium-sized businesses easier and more efficient. In 1994 the market was dominated by companies offering expensive and demanding solutions which were not designed for small businesses. Mamut, at that time under the name Guru Software, aimed to develop complete and favourably priced solutions specially designed for small and medium-sized businesses.

Hanoa, born in 1970, established his first IT company at the age of 16. Today Mamut has 400 employees and more than 300,000 customers in 16 European countries — the scale that informs Mamut’s voice in ESA’s Workgroups on SME-focused policy.

He is Chairman of ICT Norway, Member of BASDA’s General Council and Leader of BSA Norway.

Chris Ouwinga (1955) co-founded Unit 4 in 1980. In 1983 he was promoted to assistant director and became responsible for technical issues. In 1986 he was appointed CEO of Unit 4. Under his leadership, Unit 4 has expanded to become one of Europe’s leading suppliers of secure e-business software.

Patrick Bertrand is Chief Executive Officer of CEGID Group (a listed company), the French leading provider of management software for midsized companies and CPAs. He joined CEGID in 1988 as CFO, then acted as Deputy General Manager. He was named CEO in 2001.

Together with Jean-Michel Aulas, Chairman and founder of CEGID, he is focused on developing the company through innovation, organic growth and numerous acquisitions during the last five years.

He is deeply concerned with building a European group that takes advantage of the defragmentation of the market and CEGID Group’s very high expertise in the mid-market and with CPAs.

Before joining CEGID, Patrick Bertrand was CFO of Eurafrep, an oil & gas research company (mainly based in the north of Europe, Indonesia, Denver and Calgary), listed on the Second Market in France and an affiliate of the Lazard Group. Previously, he worked for a bank, an affiliate of the French groups TOTAL and Pechiney, where he served as assistant sales manager in the corporate companies department.

Patrick Bertrand was born (August 1954) in Lyon, France. He graduated from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, and also holds a law degree from Paris University.

Patrick and his wife, Marie-Dominique, live in Lyon and have three children. Outside work, Patrick supports start-ups across sports, IT and services. After university, he co-founded a small venture capital company with university colleagues in the early eighties. He was previously Executive VP of the French CFO association and remains a member of its Board of Directors. He is also a board member of the local association Lyon Place Financière et Tertiaire, whose aim is to promote Lyon as an active business hub.

He acts as Vice-President of AFDEL, the French Software Association, and is a Member of the Board of the European Software Association — see the Association’s wider mission and membership base.

Vladimír Kovár (1962) studied at Prague Technical University, Faculty of Nuclear and Physical Engineering, specialising in mathematical engineering, graduating successfully in 1985.

After finishing his studies he worked for two years at the Economical University of Prague as a system programmer on EC1045, before joining KOOSPOL Praha, where he held the position of chief programmer.

Three years later, in 1990, he founded the software company Unicorn, which under his leadership experienced dynamic development to become one of the most accomplished players in the ICT market. Today Vladimír Kovár is Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Unicorn — a modern, dynamic and successful Czech company operating not only domestically but also in foreign markets. Last year Unicorn’s dynamic growth reached a record EUR 26.9 million.

Apart from his managerial abilities, Vladimír Kovár also has technical skills, and takes part in the technical details of key projects for Unicorn’s significant customers such as Česká spořitelna, Komerční banka and Všeobecná stavební spořitelna Komerční banky.

Vladimír Kovár is married and has four children: Barbora, Vladimír, Jan and Anezka. Besides his favourite hobby Unicorn, he likes composing songs and playing the guitar, and his musical passion drove him to form his own band, Unicorn Group. In his free time he enjoys swimming, skiing, mountaineering, cycling, playing tennis and sailing.

A “pioneer” at Dassault Systèmes and part of the original development team that launched CATIA, Philippe Forestier was appointed Executive Vice President, Alliances, Marketing and Communications on January 1, 2003. He is responsible for Dassault Systèmes’ strategic alliances, as well as worldwide marketing and communications.

Mr. Forestier joined Dassault Aviation in 1974, working on the R&D team formed to develop CATIA. In 1981, he transferred to the newly-created Dassault Systèmes, where he continued in R&D until 1984, when he became manager of the new Marketing and Technical Support division.

In 1988, he became R&D Director of Industrialization and Customer Support for Dassault Systèmes’ entire product range, and in 1993 became Director of CATIA-CADAM Marketing and Services.

Mr. Forestier was assigned to the United States in 1995 as Vice President of Americas Market Development. In 1996 he became head of Dassault Systèmes of America.

In 1999 he was appointed Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for small and medium sized businesses (SMB) worldwide. He returned to France at the end of 2001.

Philippe Forestier is a graduate of France’s prestigious École Nationale Supérieure de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace. He is married with three children.

Liautaud is chairman and chief strategy officer of Business Objects. As chief strategy officer, Liautaud focuses on advising CEO John Schwarz and the executive committee on business strategy.

Liautaud co-founded Business Objects in 1990, and was chief executive officer until September 2005. He took the company public on NASDAQ in September 1994, making it the first French software company listed in the United States. Since that time Liautaud led Business Objects through 12 successful years of growth and profitability, making the company one of the 25 largest software companies in the world, and the clear leader in the business intelligence market. Liautaud’s key accomplishments include:

• Time Magazine Europe’s Digital Top 25 of 2002
• BusinessWeek Europe Stars of Europe of 2002
• One of the Top 10 CEOs in North America, Chief Executive Magazine, 2001
• Author of e-Business Intelligence: Turning Information Into Knowledge Into Profit, translated into nine languages and sold more than 50,000 copies worldwide

Prior to Business Objects, Liautaud served as marketing manager for Oracle in France. Previously he was the deputy scientific attaché for the French Embassy in Washington, D.C. Liautaud has a master’s degree in engineering from École Centrale (France) and a master’s degree in engineering management from Stanford University.

Andrew Yeoman is the EMEA Managing Director of Trimble MRM, where he is focused on growing the business through organic and acquisitive activity while maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction and profitability. Since joining the business in 2005, the company has widened its product offerings to encompass all aspects of Mobile Resource Management.

Andrew has 22 years’ experience in the software industry and has held executive positions with companies on both sides of the Atlantic. He has a successful background working with turn-around and start-up companies, and relishes the challenge of demanding situations.

Born in June 1964, Andrew lives in the UK with his wife and three children.

Full biography to follow. In the meantime, see the wider board and Association mission on our About Us page, or browse the full photograph gallery of the board.