Anne Bouverot

Anne Bouverot ascribes her international interests to the influence of her Canadian mother and her French father.[3] Part of her schooling was in the United States where she learnt to read and write in English before turning to French.[4] Bouverot attended the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris where she studied computer science leading to an M.S. and later a Ph.D in artificial intelligence (in 1991). She also graduated in telecommunications at Telecom ParisTech.[5]

In the early 1990s, she moved to Mexico as IT project manager for Telmex. From 1996, she worked for the U.S. company Global One until 2002 when she was appointed vice president at Equant's IT services unit. In 2004, she was chief of staff to the CEO of Orange in the UK, returning to Paris in 2007 to work on international business development with assignments in Kenya, Armenia, Tunisian and Portugal.[3] She then became executive vice president, mobile services, for France Télécom Orange. In 2011, she was appointed director general and board member of GSMA, the global association of mobile operators. Her role as chair and CEO of Morpho was effective from 1 August 2015.[2]

Commenting on her four-year term with GSMA, Bouverot stated,[6]

Mobile is undeniably the most dynamic and rapidly evolving sector in technology today, creating significant opportunities for mobile operators and providing important socio-economic benefits for consumers and businesses around the world. I am very proud of the progress that the GSMA has made in aligning with our members around key industry initiatives, driving forward important advocacy programmes and convening the broad mobile communications ecosystem at leading events such as Mobile World Congress.

While she was with GSMA, Bouverot promoted initiatives for attracting more women to work in the mobile and ICT sectors, launching the Connected Women programme which hosts events around the world.[7] She has also been instrumental in organizing the GSMA's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Held each year, the event attracts prominent speakers from the mobile and related fields.[8]

She has been an independent Director of Edenred SA, the everyday companion for people at work, since 2010 and of Capgemini SA, the European leading IT services company, since 2013. In 2018, leveraging on her experience at Orange and GSMA, she was appointed as Director of Spain-based Cellnex, the fast growing wireless telecommunications infrastructure operator. In 2019, she was appointed as Director of France-based Ledger, the leader in security solutions for cryptocurrencies and critical digital assets.

Anne Bouverot co-founded Fondation Abeona in December 2017 with Tanya Perelmuter, Lawrence Yanovitch and Pascale Witz. London Business School Professor Herminia Ibarra is also a Board member. Fondation Abeona promotes projects in Data Science for Fairness and Equality.

The Foundation supports projects in neurosciences, and a visiting professor Chair at Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris on AI and Justice. Dr Kate Crawford, co-founder of the AI Now Institute, is the inaugural Chair holder and gave an inaugural speech on 18 September 2019.