Henri Verdier (born 1968 in Toulouse) is a French entrepreneur and digital specialist who has been serving as the country's ambassador for digital affairs since 2018. Previousy he was the French State Chief Technology Officer (CTO) from 2015 to 2018 and, before, the Head o
Etalab the French Agency for Public
Open data
Open data is data that is openly accessible, exploitable, editable and shared by anyone for any purpose. Open data is licensed under an open license.
The goals of the open data movement are similar to those of other "open(-source)" movements ...
.
Career
Career in the private sector
Verdier was CEO of MFG Labs, an internet startup involved in social data mining, and
Chairman of the Board
The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...
of
Cap Digital
Cap Digital is a business cluster, started in 2006, a French public agency dedicated to the development of the Innovative Economy in the Île-de-France region, and in France.
Governance
President : Henri Verdier, directeur général MFG-R&D
...
, the French European Cluster for Digital Content and Services located in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
Region. Aside from this position, Verdier was the founding director of "Edition Odile Jacob Multimedia", a publishing company in the field of e-learning, Executive Adviser for Innovation a
Lagardère Groupand the Director of Prospective for th
Career in the public sector
From January 2013 to September 2015, Verdier headed
Etalab, the Prime Minister's office in charge of
opening public data. Under his direction, Etalab developed a new version of the French national open data portal
data.gouv.fr, which hosts many
public datasets. This version, which allows citizens to enrich public data or share their own data, has been described by the TechPresident blog as a "world first".
By order of
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Manuel Valls on 16 September 2014, Verdier was appointed as General Data Administrator,
akin to the function of the French State’s Chief Data Officer.
At the Council of Ministers of 23 September 2015, Verdier was appointed Chief Digital Officer of France, as head of th
DINSIC The DINSIC (Inter-ministerial Direction for Digital Affairs and the State’s Information and Communication System) combines the functions of an IT department with a digital transformation mission. Continuing the commitment of the Etalab mission to
open code
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Open ...
, data and algorithms, DINSIC lays the basis of government as a platform
France Connectapi.gouv.frNational Database addresses
and promotes a strategy within the State for the re-insourcing of resources and the use of agile methods. He is responsible for the implementation in 2015 of the digital services incubator
Beta.gouv.fr
which in three years has created more than 50 "State Startups".
As Director of Mission at Etalab, Verdier actively worked towards France joining the Open Government Partnership
The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from national and sub-national governments to promote open government, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to ...
(OGP) in 2014. In autumn 2016, as Director of DINSIC, he accompanied and supported France's one-year presidency of the OGP.
As ambassador for digital affairs, Verdier was the French negotiator in charge of preparing the Christchurch Call Summit.
Works
* With Jean-Louis Missika : ''Le Business de la haine : Internet, la démocratie et les réseaux sociaux'' (Editions Calmann Lévy, Paris, 2022)
* With Pierre Pezziardi : ''Des Startup d'Etat à l'Etat plateforme'' (Fondation pour l'innovation politique, Paris, 2017)
External links
*
France wants to rethink the state as a platform
An Interview of Henri Verdier on TechCrunch
(English) An interview of Henri Verdier in ParitechReview
(in French) A profile of Henri Verdier in Le Nouvel Observateur
(in French) A conference of Henri Verdier at ANDSI, the association of French CIOs about CDOs and Data, a week before being appointed CDO of France
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Verdier, Henri
École Normale Supérieure alumni
Living people
French chief executives
1968 births