Investment Award
Advanced Business Events (ABE)/ BCI Aerospace, Lydie Ngoie, Project Manager USA & British Columbia:
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Advanced Business Events (ABE) is an organizer of business to business events, conferences, congresses for industry professionals. They have about 60 employees worldwide and are headquartered in France. ABE has been in business for 30+ years. With a portfolio of over 80,000 customers, they have organized nearly 1,000 events in no less than 12 industry sectors. Using their concept of pre-planned One-to-One Meetings, their service provides a tailored tool to identify business opportunities, understand and penetrate markets: Their business is to connect OEMs and suppliers through pre-arranged and focused meetings and conferences. Using their own funds and with a strong partnership with Boeing and the Washington State Department of Commerce, they took the risk to set up an event in Seattle (The Aerospace and Defense Supplier Summit). The 4th edition of ADSS took place in 2018, with a 50% return rate of their participants. To date, this is the biggest event of the kind in the West and also ABE’s 2nd biggest event. They have also stabilized the office in Seattle and have one person working full time and another one that splits time mostly between Paris and Seattle.
This award will recognize a French company or an American company established in the Pacific Northwest (Idaho, Oregon or Washington) and having successfully developed its business in the Pacific Northwest or in France in the past three years, by opening a subsidiary, R&D center, joint venture, or driving a significant increase in its exports.
Guidelines
Investment Award Guidelines can be found here.
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2018 Nominees
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Jury 2018
Chairs
Dominique Vincenti - Nordstrom
Mélisande Roche - Business France
Julien Acis - DAHER
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Jury Members
Bruno Ferrand - Latécoère
John Sternlicht - Economic Development Alliance of Skagit County
Allison Clark - Washington State Department of Commerce
Air Liquide, Margaret Ferenz, Plant Manager:
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The world leader in gases, technologies and services for Industry and Health, Air Liquide's international headquarters are in Paris, France with their US headquarters based in Houston, TX. Air Liquide with Airgas has roughly 20,000 employees throughout the US with at least 100 employees tied to the Pacific Northwest region. Created in 1902, Air Liquide’s ambition is to lead its industry, deliver long term performance and contribute to sustainability. The company’s customer-centric transformation strategy aims at profitable growth over the long term. It relies on operational excellence, selective investments, open innovation and a network organization implemented by the Group worldwide. Through the commitment and inventiveness of its people, Air Liquide leverages energy and environment transition, changes in healthcare and digitization, and delivers greater value to all its stakeholders. Margaret Ferenz is the plant manager of the Air Liquide Anacortes, WA steam methane reformer (SMR) and air separation unit (ASU) plants.
L'Oréal Beauty Devices, Elisabeth Araujo, President:
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The mission of L'Oréal Beauty Devices is to design and develop the beauty devices for L’Oréal globally. L’Oréal employs over 80,000 employees and in 2017 was the leading Personal Care brand in the world. It encompasses emblematic brands such as Lancôme, L’Oréal Paris, Maybelline, Redken and more. The motto at L’Oréal Beauty Devices is that their technology enables them to design devices which deliver proven, measurable and honest performance to the consumer, at the best price. This is a unique structure within L’Oréal which gathers unique expertise: R&I, operations, Communication Marketing and Business Development. In 2015, L’Oréal Beauty Devices was created, encompassing Clarisonic, but working also for other brands in the group. It is a unique structure in the Group where a dedicated multifunctional teams work together under one roof: R&I, operations, global marketing, communication, US sales. Clarisonic is the creator of the #1 dermatologist cleansing device. Its technology is protected by over 50 patents, and more than 15 million units have been sold since the company’s first product launch in 2004. L’Oréal USA, in partnership with Barclays Capital, completed the transaction to purchase Clarisonic in December of 2011. Clarisonic’s structure counts approximately 130 employees in Redmond. The US is Clarisonic’s first market, and their products are distributed in over 20 countries.
Powell Software Inc. Antoine Faisandier, Co-founder and CEO:
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Powell Software is a software company that offers a comprehensive and powerful solution called Powell 365 to design and manage Digital Workplaces based on the Microsoft Office 365 platform. Powell 365 is Software as a service (Saas software). It runs on the Microsoft cloud and is sold on a subscription basis per user per month through a network of more than 90 resell and implementation partners, 30 of them being located in the US. The company is headquartered in Viroflay, France with a US subsidiary headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. It is composed of 20 employees all up, 15 of them in France and 5 of them in North America. After 12 years at Microsoft, Antoine had the opportunity to launch the North-American operations of a French startup called Powell Software. Over the past two years, Antoine has been fortunate to be a key partner in the successful international development of this company.
Engie, Mathias Lelièvre, CEO:
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ENGIE Insight (formerly Ecova) works with multi-site businesses that aim to thrive in a sustainable world. With accurate and comprehensive resource data – including energy, water, waste and telecommunications – ENGIE Insight applies technology and people expertise to lower costs, drive efficiencies, and reduce environmental impact. Leading customers, including 25 percent of the Fortune 500, turn to ENGIE Insight to drive their sustainable resource management initiatives forward.