Philippe Laufer

CATIA Chief Executive Officer - Dassault Systèmes

Philippe Laufer was appointed CEO CATIA in July 2012. He has been THE Man behind CATIA for 30 years, namely as VP R&D since 2006. His contribution has been crucial to CATIA’s present leadership and he is unanimously recognized by partners and customers as the worldwide CATIA expert. His deep knowledge of the industry as well as the 3DS 3DEXPERIENCE platform and V6 applications has already driven major successes deployments. Philippe continues to direct and oversee ALL CAD related apps for the group when it comes to R&D, technologies and components re-use.

He began his career at Dassault Systèmes in 1985 as a developer and then worked in the Consulting organization specializing in manufacturing. After spending twelve months in Seattle in 1990-1991, helping DS’s client, Boeing, to deploy CATIA, Philippe managed DS’s Automotive Competency Center. Through these experiences Philippe acquired deep knowledge in industries and customers business processes. Philippe leveraged this expertise to manage the research and development of DS’s shape design and styling solutions and drove these solutions to an undisputed leadership.

Philippe earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the “Ecole Centrale de Nantes” in 1983 followed by a Master degree in production automation from the “Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Techniques Avancées“ in 1984.

Within and outside his job, he likes climbing unreachable mountains.