Pierre Liautaud

Pierre Liautaud is EMEA (Europe, Middle-East, North Africa) Vice-President, Western Europe Region of Microsoft, and oversees operations across fourteen European countries. In this role, Liautaud is responsible for working with country general managers to orchestrate the region’s business vision while furthering its citizenship agenda.

As a responsible corporate citizen, Microsoft fuels EU innovation by supporting entrepreneurship and local software economies, and taking an active role in digital literacy programs via its “Unlimited Potential” and “Partners in Learning” activities. Microsoft’s goal is to provide ICT skills training to 20 million people in Europe, the Middle East and Africa by 2010. These efforts are already touching women on both sides of the religious divide in Belfast; supporting literacy and skilling for immigrants in Amsterdam and the homeless in Vienna; connecting senior citizens throughout Scandinavia; and reaching people with disabilities in Italy, Spain and Switzerland.

During his career, Liautaud held a number of leadership positions including vice-president of Microsoft’s Enterprise and Partner Group EMEA, CEO of @viso, a leading European incubator, the brainchild of Vivendi Universal and Softbank Corporation, and vice-president of e-business Marketing at IBM Corp. Additionally, during Pierre Liautaud’s 17-year tenure at IBM, he served in key assignments, ranging from executive assistant to Louis V. Gerstner, then IBM CEO, and general manager of Global Electronics Industries.

Pierre Liautaud holds masters degrees from École polytechnique and École nationale supérieure des télécommunications – both in Paris.