Our Leaders

Marc Palazon

CEO

Marc Palazon graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Étienne. He decided to study for a Specialised Masters in Project Management that was half run in France and half run in the Ukraine. In 2000 he joined Smile as a project manager. He worked on various projects and quickly became Project Director in charge of supervising a dozen projects for some of Smile's major clients. In January 2004, Smile's executive board invited him to join the board and made him Commercial Director. In January 2007 he became CEO of Smile. .

Patrice Bertrand

General Manager

A graduate of the Ecole Centrale de Paris and the University of Southern California, Patrice Bertrand began his career with Cap Gemini, where he was a developer, project manager and then a project director. In his role as project director he led major projects including securing the SWIFT interbank network, redesigning the Crédit Lyonnais videotex system as well as implementing the first call centre for this leading bank. In 1994 he joined Smile and became COO in 2002 in charge of pre-sales activities and drawing up offers. He became General Manager in 2007. In march 2010, Patrice Bertrand was elected chairman of the National Council of Free Software, a body set up by the major associations of businesses operating in open source. Since november 2010, he also chairs the Open Source Comitee within Syntec Informatique, the body that represents software companies in France.

Cyrille Chignardet

Finance and Administration Director

Born in 1961, Cyrille Chignardet is a graduate of the Ecole Centrale de Paris. He began his career working in the IT department of Altran and then with Renault where he helped the IT director of the Italian subsidiary develop major local projects. In 1991, he founded Smile with his associates and took part in many RAD and database projects. He helped develop Smile and became a manager in 1997 and then CEO in 2000. In January 2007 he handed over the reigns to Marc Palazon and became Director of Operations, managing the organisation of agencies and offshore development as well as providing support to the Production Director. He is now Finance and Administration Director.

Jérôme Prompsy

Associate Director

A graduate of the Ecole Centrale de Paris, Jérôme Prompsy began his career with Shell where he was in charge of a project using RAD technology. He then joined Butagaz as Operations Manager for the Northern region before leaving the company to help found Smile. Having worked on many projects involving the integration of solutions into large IT systems, Jérôme Prompsy has obtained a solid foundation in the financial workings of companies into which projects fit.

Alain Arditi

Associate Director

Alain Arditi is a graduate of the Ecole Supérieure d'Electricité. In 1987 he joined Thomson Digital Image where he became manager for the product maintenance team. He joined Smile in 1993 and took part in various RAD projects, in particular for TéléDiffusion de France (TDF). He then went on to manage Smile's technical support team before leaving to manage Smile's office in Montpellier. Alain Arditi is a leading expert in Internet technologies and in particular Web development techniques and environments. *****************************

Badr Chentouf

Development and Consulting Director

A 1998 graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Ingénieurs Electriciens de Grenoble (ENSIEG), Badr Chentouf joined Smile as a Research and Development Engineer but quickly became a Project Director. Author and co-author of many white papers, Badr Chentouf created Smile's consulting department in 2005. As such, he advises and supports Smile's clients with their web projects and business decisions. In January 2010 he also took on the role of Development Director. In this role he assists with Smile's development strategy by researching and analysing possible acquisitions or by getting ready to implement new services in new markets.

Emmanuel Tornini

Organisational Director

Emmanuel Tornini is a graduate of the Institut des Techniques Informatiques. He began his career at Siemens where he was directly involved in the company's first Intranet and Internet projects. He joined Smile in March 2004 as Project Director before joining the executive board and taking on the responsibility of Production Director. Since January 2010 he has been Organisational Director. His role is to optimise Smile's work procedures to achieve operational excellence, He is also in charge of the internal IT system and recruitment system.

Erwan Kerzreho

Director of the Montpellier Office

A graduate of the école d'ingénieur Centrale Nantes in 1996, Erwan Kerzreho went to live in Brazil for two years working for la Compagnie Générale Géophysique. As a member of the IT team, he was in charge of handling data and quality control. On his return to France, he joined Smile's office in Montpellier as a research and development engineer. After working up through the ranks from project manager to project director he is now Director of the Montpellier Office. His task is to commercially develop business in the region..

Lionel Faugué

Director of the Lyon Office

After gaining an engineering degree specialising in IT from IMERIR, Lionel Faugué began his career with CEGID in 1996, with the task of implementing a decision making tool in Client/Server. Highly interested in new technologies, he decided to pursue a career in this sector by joining SQLI as a design and development engineer. In 2004, he moved to Morocco for two years with the task of building SQLI's offshore office. Lionel joined Smile in 2007 to manage Smile's office in Lyon. His aim is to develop Smile's presence in the region by acquiring new clients and by increasing the number of employees.

Denis Gloannec

Director of the Nantes Office

A graduate of the Ecole Supérieure d'Electronique d'Angers in1996, Denis Gloannec joined Smile in 1997. He completely fulfilled the role of project manager by working on extremely varied technical projects. In parallel, he was involved in Smile's quality approach and produced document templates that are used for the projects' duration. He then began his career as a project director. In 2007, Smiles Nantes was created and Denis was put in charge. As Office Director, he manages recruitment, trade etc. whilst still wearing his Project Director's cap.

Frédéric Raymond

Director of the Bordeaux Office

Frédéric Raymond graduated in 1996 from the Institut Universitaire Professionnalisé in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He began his career at the université de sciences Bordeaux I where he developed new educational and multimedia technologies for seven years. In January 2006 he joined the company Ingénieurs & Consultants where he managed the Bordeaux office. Following the acquisition of Ingénieurs & Consultants by Smile in 2007, he was appointed Director of Smile Bordeaux. Frédéric today manages a team that takes part in the development of Smile in the South West region. .