OVH Group, one of the world’s largest hosting providers headquartered in France, with 700,000 customers globally, has announced the appointment of Laurent Allard as CEO. Mr. Allard joins the company from CGI Group Inc. where he was CTO.
Laurent Allard’s arrival is part of the strategy that OVH Group launched several years ago to become a global reference for Digital as a Service. Mr, Allard comes from CGI Group Inc, a Canadian multinational information technology and outsourcing services company, where he was CTO. CGI is included in the Forbes Global 2,000 ranking of the largest public companies in the world. Previously he worked as CIO for Logica and AXA Tech.
“To become a leader in Digital as a Service, you need to be a pioneer in your industry, the benchmark for innovation and able to undertake and support the business plans of companies in the long term,” said Laurent Allard. “OVH is one of the most exciting entrepreneurial adventures around, and I’m particularly proud to have been chosen to take the company even further forward.”
Octave Klaba, former CEO and founder of OVH Group, will be the new CTO of OVH and also Chairman of the Board of Directors.
“We need to grow, and we need to change the way we operate to tackle new challenges,” added Mr. Allard. “I will mainly focus on bringing the company’s energy and experiences in to play to achieve our vision. Octave Klaba will write the score and I will be the conductor. Today there are 1,000 people in our orchestra; there will be many more in the future.”
New Business Models
OVH, founded in 1999, experiences growth of nearly 30% per year and will soon count on 1,000 members of staff. Its objective is now to adapt to the new challenges that digitalization is imposing on businesses. The ‘as a Service’ standards associated with innovative business models are shaking up the economic world, with the sudden appearance of new opportunities and new leaders.
OVH must adapt quickly to this new environment, and therefore wishes to reinforce and redeploy its entire range of tools and digital services to meet the needs of all economic actors in the digital arena, from designers, startups and public institutions to large global corporations undergoing changes, and, at the same time, support the emergence of new ideas.
In order to achieve this objective, the company must enhance both its innovation and its R&D activity, and significantly grow and transform its teams and their skills.
“Laurent is a true leader with proven managerial skills. He’s visionary and capable of getting people to work together in harmony. He’s exactly what OVH Group needs to write the next chapter in its story,” said Octave Klaba.
