Speakers

Stéphane Aver
CEO, Aaqius and AALPS Capital

Stéphane Aver graduated from the Pantheon-Sorbonne University (Paris I) with a specialisation in business administration, banking and finance. He has over 20 years of experience in creating value-enhancement strategies and negotiating contracts at executive level with large multinationals in the field of high-efficiency/high added-value technologies. 

In 2002, he became Chairman of Tech Value SA, a firm that invests in disruptive technologies in the IT and service sectors. 

In 2006, Stéphane Aver founded Aaqius, of which he is the CEO, specialising in investment in innovative CO2 reduction technologies. He is supported by a management team with extensive technical and international expertise: Dr Jean-Baptiste Dementhon, Vice-President Technology & Platforms, Michael F. Lévy, Vice-President Research & Innovation, and Dr Karim Mokaddem, Chief Investment Officer.

Franck Margain
PARIS REGION ENTREPRISES, Chairman

Franck Margain is Councilor at the Conseil Régional d'Ile-de France (the Paris Region government authority) in association with "les Républicains" political party.

In 2016, he was elected President of Paris Region Entreprises, the agency in charge of promoting the Paris Region to attract foreign investors.

At the municipal level, he is currently a Councilor in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, associated with the opposition party.

After studying corporate finance at Paris II University, he began his professional career in civil engineering, followed by positions at the Samuel Montagu and HSBC banks, highlighted by responsibilities in London and Stockholm. He is now executive director of Deutsche Bank France.

Extremely active in associations that assist homeless people and disadvantaged children, including "Aux captifs la libération" and "La Bagagerie," he is also director of the "Newways" NGO that focuses on children's education in third-world countries. In 2011, he presented the Minister of Health, Roselyne Bachelot, with a report on addiction among marginalized people. He authored a book entitled "Sortir de la crise, un banquier chrétien s’engage (Getting out of the crisis, the commitment of a Christian banker)," published by Éditions Gascogne.

Xiao Guoqing
Director of Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Xiao Guoqing, a researcher and doctoral tutor, was born in Chengde Hebei Province in May 1962. He graduated from the physics department of Sichuan University in 1983 with a degree in nuclear physics. In 1996, he studied at the Hahn Meitner Institute in Berlin, Germany, and also studied at the physics department in the Free University of Berlin, where he obtained a doctorate in natural science. He is currently the director of the Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, director of the degree committee, deputy director of the Lanzhou Heavy Ion Accelerator National Laboratory, chairman of the Gansu Provincial Physics Society, executive director of the Chinese Institute of Nuclear Physics, and director of the China Nuclear Society.

After returning to China in 1997, he worked at the Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was responsible for the development of the beam diagnostic system of the Lanzhou Heavy Ion Cooling and Storage Ring subproject under the national "Ninth Five- Year Plan" major scientific project, and the major renovation project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences HIRFL Beam System Renovation and Upgrade, development of HIRFL shallow layer and CSR deep heavy ion cancer treatment equipment, development of a high charge ECR source atom physics experiment platform. He also participated in the projects such as the 973 national key basic research and development planning projects, key and topical issues of Outstanding Youth Fund and National Natural Science Fund, important and major projects of Chinese Academy of Sciences, mainly engaging in the nuclear physics and applied research based on radioactive nuclear beam, the study of interactions between highly charged ions and solid surfaces, the diagnostic method for heavy ion beam, and the application of heavy ion beam. In 1999, he won the first prize for scientific and technological progress of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2001, he received the special government allowances. In 2003, he became a member of the National Fund Committee's Innovation Research Group Science Fund project. In 2012, he won the second prize for national scientific and technological progress. He has already published a total of more than 100 academic articles and also served as the head of the national "973" major scientific research project.

Catherine Lespine
President & CEO INSEEC U. Group

Born in Corrèze in June 1961, Catherine Lespine graduated from ESCP Europe in June 1982 after her scientific high-school diploma and one year of preparatory classes at Kléber high school in Strasbourg.

She starts her career as a financial controller at Paris Public Hospitals and graduates with a Master’s degree in Research in management sciences at La Sorbonne in 1985. In April 1986, her family life leads her to Bordeaux where she joins the INSEEC Group as a young professor in management control and strategy. From then on, she will never quit the Group. After having held all positions in Bordeaux, Lyon and Paris, managed all three Schools, created and developed various programs, she is at the forefront, as Associate Executive Director, during the sale of INSEEC by its founder to an American group, CEC listed on Nasdaq in February 2003. She is then appointed General Manager.

Between 2003 and 2013, she carries out development operations via an internal growth from 3,500 to 14,500 students, manages three acquisitions: University of Monaco, Luxury Attitude, ESC Chambery and contributes to the international development of the Group.

By the end of 2013, Catherine Lespine accompanies the Group in a further stage: CEC decides to sell INSEEC to APAX Partners, a French investment fund.

Since then, she has redefined with the new shareholder a geographical development strategy (acquisition of a campus in Geneva and majority stake in LBI China, campus in San Francisco), and in July 2016, has carried out with Apax Partners the acquisition of Laureate France. This M&A operation turns the INSEEC U. Group into the first private post-education group in France (23 500 students).

Catherine Lespine is named Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honor and Knight of the Order of Academic Palms.