Corporate Governance: Key Managers

The management team comprises ten top managers in charge of the Group's operational management: R&D, Sales and Marketing, Production and Purchasing, Finance, HR, etc. completed by the managers of the commercial drone subsidiaries.

 

The biographies of Parrot's key managers are presented below.

 

Additional information is available on the Annual report / reference document: information on the compensation of the executive officers and corporate officers (Chapter 15 - Compensation and Benefits) and the management chart and the bonus share / stock option allocation policy (Chapter 17 - Employees).

Henri Seydoux founded Parrot in 1994 and has served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since its creation. Self-educated, he began his career in 1978 as a trainee with “Journal Actuel”, where he was later employed as a journalist from 1979 to 1980. In 1981, he joined the sales team at the “Matin de Paris” newspaper. Then, in 1982, he joined SSCI as an operating system software developer, before working for Microarchi from 1983 to 1984 in the same role. In 1985, he set up BBS, a company intended to market the micro archi operating system. In 1986, he created BSCA, a synthetic 3D imaging company, and became its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer from 1986 to 1990. In 1991, with three other partners, he founded and became a director in the luxury goods company Christian Louboutin.

 

---

 

Dr. Christoph Strecha is the CEO and founder of Pix4D, a global leading professional drone software company headquartered in Switzerland, with offices in the USA, Germany, Spain and China. After it first invested in 2013, Parrot today owns 95% of Pix4D.

Pix4D develops and markets software for production of survey grade 3D models, orthomosaics and analytics from images which can be used in a variety of industries. Pix4D's technology is focused on the professional processing of images aquired by any camera, it is adapted to all the leading drone equipment.

Christoph Strecha received a PhD from the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) in 2008, completing his thesis on multi-view stereo. His research interests include structure and motion techniques and city modeling. A prominent figure in his field, Christoph Strecha is still involved in the work of several Commissions of the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. He has authored numerous papers and in 2015 received the Carl Pulfrich Award for his work in computer vision and photogrammetry.

 

---

 

Henrik Battke joined Pix4D in December 2017, he is the regional managing director of Pix4D in Germany (Berlin) and drives the development of solutions dedicated to precision agriculture and emergency services.

After studying computer science and mathematics at Humboldt-Universität Berlin, Henrik Battke co-founded and led bit-side GmbH, a company in the mobile software development field, which was later acquired by Nokia in January 2009. He then became head of the Platform Services & Enterprise business at Nokia. In 2014, after the acquisition of Nokia's mapping unit by German car manufacturers, he continued in the role of senior director at HERE Technologies, the market leader in mapping technology, before joining Pix4D where his skills in software development, B2B business and team management are put to good use.

 

---

 

Jennifer Catalano joined Pix4D in May 2021. She holds a masters degree in Management studies from the University of Glasgow and she began her career in Procter & Gamble holding different positions over 9 years in IT and Marketing, in Paris, Rome and Geneva. Jennifer then
led CRM programs for Luxottica retail in North America based in Cincinnati, Ohio and more recently was Head of Events and Marketing for the Swisstech Convention Center at EPFL University Lausanne.

 

---

 

Ludovic Floret joined Parrot in December 2014. He completed a Master 2 degree in International Law in 1990 and began his career as a Corporate lawyer in major engineering groups. First in the nuclear sector at Framatome (Areva), then in water treatment at Degrémont (Suez Environnement), during which he participated in numerous projects in Asia and America. In 2003 he created the legal department of the company Souriau ( aeronautic equipment), where he participed in the international development (India, Morocco, USA) during two successive LBOs. He became legal director of Oberthur Technologies (smart card) in 2011. Ludovic has more than 25 years of experience in leading High-Tech players, with strong exerptise in contract negotiation, litigation, M & A, risk management and compliance. In addition to Legal Affairs, he manages the Group's insurance program.

 

---

 

Pierre-Elie Fort is the Human Resources Director at Parrot Drone since January 2019. He holds a dual Master of Labor Law and Human Resources and began his career in 2006 as an HR Lawyer in a media and radio group. He then dedicated himself to recruitment as a Consultant within the specialised group Michael Page. With these achievements in two key areas of the HR function, he went on to hold various position as HR Manager, first in an event agency and then, at the end of 2010, at Acticall Sitel, a global leader in customer relations. Pierre Elie Fort joined the Parrot Group at the beginning of 2015 as Legal and Social Affairs Manager before taking on the role of HR Manager in 2017.

 

---

 

Andrey Kleymenov joined Pix4D in September 2022. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from IMD in Lausanne. Andrey started his career in 1995 and worked in various sectors including banking institutions, management consulting and industrial companies.  Before joining Pix4D Andrey held leadership roles in business development, marketing and sales management in Pentair, a global water technologies company, and launched several digital ventures in Switzerland.

 

---

 

Lorenzo Martelletti is Pix4D's Chief Commercial Officer, which he joined in 2012 just after the company was founded. He is responsible for sales, marketing, customer services, user experience and revenue operations globally, leading Pix4D's largest business unit with a team spread across multiple countries.

Lorenzo Martelletti holds a Master's degree in Environmental Engineering from Università degli Studi di Firenze (Italy) and a Certificate in Technological Entrepreneurship from Santa Clara University (USA) obtained through a Fulbright scholarship. During his professional career, Lorenzo Martelletti has worked in academia at Università degli Studi di Firenze and EPFL, as well as in start-ups that he joined as co-founder or early employee. He is an expert in geospatial and drone technologies and markets.

 

---

 

Olivier Maury joined Parrot in November 2015 and was named CFO in 2017. He began his career in management control at Valeo before joining Pechiney as manager of the internal audit department. In 2004, he joined Imerys where he held the positions of head of finance for various BU, then head of strategy & business development for a branch of the group. Olivier Maury is a graduate of EBP-KEDGE Bordeaux and of the Fachhochschule Münster in Germany.

 

---

 

Jeff Muller is Director of the Enterprise Cloud Platform, responsible for the expansion of Pix4D's mobile and cloud-based photogrammetry product lines. Jeff Muller has over 20 years of entrepreneurial and management experience in sonar imaging, computer vision, and geospatial software applications. Prior to joining Pix4D in January 2019, he worked as a technical coordinator for the Human Brain Project, working to develop a European infrastructure for large-scale neuroscience research.

 

---

 

Chris Roberts joined Parrot in 2006, establishing the business & subsidiary in the UK as Managing Director, since then Chris has experienced multiple roles & businesses for Parrot around the world including VP Europe, CEO ANZ, VP JAPAC & since 2016 Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, with responsibility for the global Parrot Drones business operations and subsidiaries. Chris is a globally experienced proven senior executive level leader, entrepreneur and business transformer with +30 years Hi-Tech experience across UAV, premium consumer electronics, telecoms & automotive sectors. Internationally seasoned with missions based in APAC, Europe, UK & the USA at an executive general management level in sales, marketing & operations. Chris founded and was CEO of a successful start-up company specialising in enterprise sales and technical solutions for automotive electronics & mobile communications. Chris graduated with a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Adelaide (Australia) with high performance in strategic management, global branding and business performance improvement.

 

---

 

Elise Tchen Thebault joined Parrot in 2000 to oversee product manufacturing as the Chief Industrial and Quality Officer. She has transformed this department into an industrial division capable of sustaining strong growth. Since September 2006, Elise has been heading up Parrot's Asia-Pacific subsidiary, in Hong Kong and Shenzhen and is also responsible of the Purchase department. She has developed an entity covering both the industrial section and component sourcing. This entity is enabling the Group to be as close as possible to suppliers in order to ensure effective control over quality and reduce the costs of the products manufactured. After graduating from ENSEM in Nancy, she began her career at Renault, first in the research division, and then in the cabling engineering research team.

 

---

 

Victor Vuillard is the Security Officer of the Parrot Group.  He is responsible for the group's security, the cybersecurity of its information system and products. As CTO Cybersecurity, he designs the overall security architecture and security functions of the drone, in order to provide trusted drones and meet the most demanding cybersecurity and personal data protection needs. Before joining Parrot in 2018, he spent 7 years at ANSSI (Agence Nationale de Sécurité des Systèmes d'Information, a department of the Prime Minister). There, he was in charge of the audit and inspection team and in particular conducted the first audits of Operators of Vital Importance. He then created the Rapid Response Group, the ANSSI team that intervenes on large-scale compromises. At the same time, he held the position of Deputy ISS Officer at the SGDSN (General Secretariat for Defense and National Security). In 2013, he joined EDF as Cybersecurity Manager for Nuclear Engineering to define the security strategy for the 58 French nuclear power plants, to define the security architectures, to audit the security level and to participate in the cybersecurity governance jointly with the operator. In addition to creating and managing the team in charge of these cybersecurity issues at EDF, he was also the French representative at the IAEA (United Nations) to help define international practices for securing nuclear facilities, as well as at the IEC.

 

---