4D PEOPLE

Founder & CEO of 4D Group

It was in 1983, when he was still a student of applied math, that Laurent Ribardière understood the importance of the advent of personal computing.  It was then that he wrote his first file management software, ABC Base. A year later, in order to publish his software, he created the company ACI, known as 4D since March of 2000, where he remains the majority shareholder.

As a visionary and innovator, Laurent is responsible for many industry "firsts" by 4D, including being - from the outset - the first graphical relational database management system in 1985, and by 1987 the first of the breed to be 32-bit. Since the 1990s, he has led 4D to be the first RDBMS with integrated client-server capability, the first database with an integrated Web server, and the first integrated Dynamic Application Partitioning system. In 2012, after over three years of research & development, Laurent piloted the launch of Wakanda, the world's first development platform based on a full JavaScript stack.

Laurent has built a highly competitive group with an established reputation and a dynamic approach to new technologies, where he continues to serve as CEO.

Executive Vice President & Deputy CEO
 
Asmae Benkirane, a 1989 graduate of the Ecole Centrale d'Electronique (France), began her career as an IT engineer at Roland Moreno Technology, inventor of the smartcard. In July 1991, she joined 4D as a product manager, and in 1994 was named Director of R&D, then subsequently Director of Engineering, France, and VP of Engineering, Worldwide.

Today as executive vice president, she assists the CEO and the rest of the executive team in strategic decisions and advisory functions, from a broad view of the company through business and technology capacities. Furthermore, Asmae continues her role in engineering development at 4D.

CFO

Philippe Souveton received a dual education in technology and finance. After his secondary education, he became a full-fledged engineer in 1976 by way of ECAM (France), which led to an MBA from ESSEC (France) in 1978.  He began his career by starting his own software engineering company in the 1980's.  In 1985, he joined Roland Moreno, creator of the smartcard, at the heart of Groupe Innovatron as director of a subsidiary before becoming the CFO of the group in 1990.

He joined 4D in 1997 with the goal of bolstering the financial structure of the 4D group, a role that he continues to perform today.

VP of Research & Development

Laurent Esnault, a graduate of the renowned École Centrale Paris, one of France's oldest and most prestigious schools of engineering.

He began his career with 4D as the Program Manager for 4D Calc, then moving on to the Program Manager role for 4D for Oracle.  He started on the track toward development with 4D Open for AppleScript, the 4D v6 debugger, and making performance improvements to 4D v6.5, for which he became the Development Team Leader, as well as for subsequent versions.

He now uses his wealth of experience with 4D as Vice President of R&D, overseeing development efforts across the entire line of 4D products.

Tom Miller

General Manager, North America

As General Manager of 4D, Tom Miller leads the operations for North America.

Tom comes to 4D from Nokia where he led the worldwide sales organization for Qt Software (formerly Trolltech), the mobile and desktop user interface development framework acquired by Nokia in 2008. Since 1986, he's been deeply involved with customers in the sales and successful adoption of database, development tools and mobile platforms for companies including Oracle, Informix, and Openwave. Tom has an AB degree in biochemistry from University of California, Berkeley.

Managing Director, Northern Europe

Thomas joined 4D Deutschland GmbH in 1988 as Technical Director, helping to build the 4D developer community in both Germany and Austria. He took over as territory manager for Germany  and Austria in 1999, and since 2007 has been Managing Director, Northern Europe.

Before coming to 4D, he worked for several years as a 4D developer and as a C developer, after having completed his education in the field of Sales.

Director of Corporate Marketing

After a secondary education in communications, Jean-Michel Biraghi began his professional career in the world of audio/visual and graphic design communications. Impassioned by technology, he quickly specialized in the field of computer-assisted design.

In 2002, he was recruited by 4D as technical director of its 4D Hispano subsidiary, covering Spain, Portugal and Latin America, before being named its Managing Director in 2005. Over three years he supervised all sales, marketing and technical activities for the 22-country territory.

In 2008 he joined 4D’s Parisian headquarters as Director of Corporate Marketing, responsible for the company’s worldwide marketing and communication efforts for the 4D and Wakanda product lines, as well as for events such as 4D Summit Europe, Wakanday and JS.everywhere().

VP of Research & Development

Laurent Esnault, a graduate of the renowned École Centrale Paris, one of France's oldest and most prestigious schools of engineering.

He began his career with 4D as the Program Manager for 4D Calc, then moving on to the Program Manager role for 4D for Oracle.  He started on the track toward development with 4D Open for AppleScript, the 4D v6 debugger, and making performance improvements to 4D v6.5, for which he became the Development Team Leader, as well as for subsequent versions.

He now uses his wealth of experience with 4D as Vice President of R&D, overseeing development efforts across the entire line of 4D products.

Director of Quality Assurance

Jean is a true 4D veteran, having joined the company in 1987 as a Tech Support Manager.  Over the last two decades he has taken the reins of Quality Assurance, ensuring the reliability not only of all past versions of 4D, but of all future products, as well.

Mr. Laguerre developed the QA engineering system currently in place at 4D, and has since advanced to become Director of Quality Assurance, where he is actively involved in 4D's engineering efforts.

Director of Services & Support

With a degree in Information Technology, Aziz kicked off his career as a C/C++ developer with Galderma France, KPMG Consulting, and the Ministry of Finance.

He then joined 4D in 1997 as a Support Manager for third-party plug-ins. In 2001, he became manager of Tech Support, France, manager of International Tech Support in 2005, and manager of Training Services shortly thereafter.

Today, as Director of Services and Support, Aziz manages a team dedicated to new services adapted to customer needs, such as training, tech support, code audits, benchmarking, knowledgebases, webinars and more.

Tom Miller

General Manager, North America

As General Manager of 4D, Tom Miller leads the operations for North America.

Tom comes to 4D from Nokia where he led the worldwide sales organization for Qt Software (formerly Trolltech), the mobile and desktop user interface development framework acquired by Nokia in 2008. Since 1986, he's been deeply involved with customers in the sales and successful adoption of database, development tools and mobile platforms for companies including Oracle, Informix, and Openwave. Tom has an AB degree in biochemistry from University of California, Berkeley.

Distribution Sales Manager

Dominique is a graduate of the Ecole Supérieure du Commerce Exterieur (ESCE) business program. He joined 4D in 1999 as Area Sales Manager for Benelux, Scandinavia and Italy.

In 2007 he took over as Distribution Sales Manager, and as of 2008 he is also the territory manager for 4D Hispano, which includes Spain, Portugal and Latin America.

Prior to joining 4D, Dominique spent several years working for MCI, an Apple distributor in Africa.  

Managing Director, Northern Europe

Thomas joined 4D Deutschland GmbH in 1988 as Technical Director, helping to build the 4D developer community in both Germany and Austria. He took over as territory manager for Germany  and Austria in 1999, and since 2007 has been Managing Director, Northern Europe.

Before coming to 4D, he worked for several years as a 4D developer and as a C developer, after having completed his education in the field of Sales.

Managing Director, Australasia and Japan

Educated in Sydney, Australia with a Bachelor of Commerce through the University of Western Sydney and a Graduate Diploma of Applied Finance and Investment from the Securities Institute of Australia.

After serving as Chief Operating Officer of Hong Kong-based Powerlan Limited, Damon joined 4D in 2002, creating the 4D Australasia subsidiary of 4D SAS.  During that time, 4D Australasia has grown 400% compared with the revenue generated by the previous distributor in the region.

Damon is now Managing Director of 4D Australasia and 4D Japan.