After a varied career path dedicated to R&D and Innovation in both the private and public sectors, Ronan Stephan has been the Group Chief Innovation Officer of Alstom since 2012. In November 2015, he joined GE Global Research as Chief Scientist, primarily focused on combination of digital and physical.
Dr. Stephan began his career in 1984 with Thomson-CSF group up to 1997, when he became executive director of a technopolis from 1997 to 2002. In 2003 he was appointed Director for industrial affairs and technology transfer with the French National Center for Scientific Research and executive director of France Innovation Scientifique et Transfert (technology transfer and brokerage company),. From 2005 to 2009, he was CEO of Compiegne University of Technology, and joined the French Ministry for higher education and research as General Director for research and innovation in 2009, where he remained until 2012.