The Montreal-based artificial intelligence supercluster SCALE.AI has appointed Julien Billot as its CEO. Billot has extensive experience conducting digital transformations in the telecommunications and media industries, at Orange and Lagardere Active in France, and at Yellow Pages Group, where he served as Media Group CEO for PagesJaunes (2009-2013) and then president and CEO of Yellow Pages Canada (2014-2017). In June 2018, Billot was named CEO of Montreal’s NextAi incubator and Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) accelerator programs, which are associated with the university business school HEC Montréal. He will retain that position as he enters his new role at SCALE.AI: "We see a real coherence between SCALE, NextAi and CDL," Billot told RE$EARCH MONEY. The startups from NextAi will share space with SCALE.AI at 6650 St Urbain St. in Montreal, the converted textile factory in the Mile-Ex neighbourhood that also houses the Quebec Institute of Artificial Intelligence (Mila), ElementAI, Thales and other important companies and organizations from the city's AI ecosystem. Billot graduated from Ecole Polytechnique of Paris and Telecom Paris Tech, and he also holds a post-graduate degree in economics from Paris Dauphine University. SCALE.AI is focused on improving the ability of Canadian businesses to develop, access and adopt AI-powered supply chains. With this appointment, all five superclusters now have a CEO.
READ MORE: Quebec AI institute Mila opens giant new facility in Montreal (Jan 28, 2019)