4D GROUP
LEADERSHIP
Executive Management
& Board of Directors
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.
Laurent has built a highly competitive group with an established reputation and a dynamic approach to new technologies.
Prior to joining 4D, Eric Teissandier founded Bewan Systems in 1995, a telecommunication company, becoming one of the European leaders in the triple-play gateways market (internet, telephony & TV) for telecom operators thanks to its multiplatform middleware. He developed the retail market through the “Bewan” brand in the Wi-Fi, PowerLine and router technologies. In 2010, he sold Bewan to Pace PLC, the UK based company that was the world leader in TV decoders.
After spending over two years as Senior VP of Gateway Engineering at Pace, Eric joined 4D SAS, taking over the position of CEO in October 2013. He is also acting in the capacity of Director of Sales for 4D France.
Eric is also one of the founding partner of 50Partners, a French Accelerator company based in Paris and dedicated to support some selected French Start-up.
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 CEO, she assists the President 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.
Aziz is an accomplished software executive with over 23 years experience in the software industry, he is currently VP of services and Support and also Managing Director of 4D Morocco created on 2011. Holding an engineering degree in computer science from EPSI School of Information Technology and Engineering, Aziz kicked off his career as a developer with Galdemara France, KPMG Consulting and the Ministry of Finance.
Aziz joined 4D Group in 1997, where he held different positions as France & international support Manager, Director of services and support where he manages a team dedicated to new services adapted to customer needs, such as training, tech support, code audits, benchmarking and more.
In 2011, with the creation of 4D Morocco, Aziz is named as a managing director of 4D Morocco, bringing valuable years of experience of technology industry leadership, computer hardware expertise, and executive management experience to his role with the company where he continues to develop service activities worldwide.
Being a software developer using languages like Turbo Pascal and C creating custom and standard software products for the Apple Macintosh, seeing a demonstration of a beta version of 4D, Thomas quickly switched using 4D for daily development.
When 4D’s German subsidiary was created in 1988, Thomas joined the company as Technical Director, helping to build the 4D developer community in both Germany and Austria. After being increasingly involved in sales and management issues, he was promoted to Managing Director for 4D Germany in 1999.
As a member of the executive board since 2005, he became part of worldwide strategy of the company, leading to his current position as Vice President of Strategy, responsible for defining and executing the overall strategy for the 4D product line in relation to the Program, R&D, Sales and Marketing teams.
Laurent is a graduate of the renowned Ecole Centrale Paris, one of France's oldest and most prestigious schools of engineering.
He began his career with 4D as Program Manager for various products, and after revealing his passion for development, became 4D Development Team Leader.
He now uses his wealth of experience with 4D as Vice President of Engineering overseeing development efforts across the entire line of 4D products.
Regional Representatives
4D SAS, France
Prior to joining 4D, Eric Teissandier founded Bewan Systems in 1995, a telecommunication company, becoming one of the European leaders in the triple-play gateways market (internet, telephony & TV) for telecom operators thanks to its multiplatform middleware. He developed the retail market through the “Bewan” brand in the Wi-Fi, PowerLine and router technologies. In 2010, he sold Bewan to Pace PLC, the UK based company that was the world leader in TV decoders.
After spending over two years as Senior VP of Gateway Engineering at Pace, Eric joined 4D SAS, taking over the position of CEO in October 2013. He is also acting in the capacity of Director of Sales for 4D France.
Eric is also one of the founding partner of 50Partners, a French Accelerator company based in Paris and dedicated to support some selected French Start-up.
4D SAS, France
is graduated from Bordeaux University where she achieved a Business Foreign Language Master. She speaks French, English, Spanish and Swedish.
After serving as key account manager for many years at Dell computers and then at Insight Enterprises Inc, , Yolaine joined the international sales department of 4D SAS in January 2014 and managing the business in UK, Eastern Europe, the Scandinavian countries and Asia.
Yolaine is now managing the entire International sales department at 4D SAS.
4D GmbH, Germany
Stephan joined the 4D Sales team in 2010 as Key Account Manager. He has been, and continues, to play an imperative role for Sales and Marketing, covering Germany and Austria. Stephan’s many responsibilities include various aspects of Sales, one of which, is his continued success of building and maintaining relationships with 4D Partners, all which have resulted in increased sales and revenue for 4D.
Since his promotion to sales manager, he has not lost sight of these goals and combines them with the development of new sales and marketing concepts.
Prior to working at 4D, Stephan gained experience in retail sales, including teleshopping. His training as an IT system salesman at IBM enables him to combine technical knowledge with commercial ideas.
Since his promotion to Managing Director at 4D GmbH, he has not lost sight of these goals and combines them with the development of new sales and marketing concepts.
4D GmbH, Germany
Stephan joined the 4D Sales team in 2010 as Key Account Manager. He has been, and continues, to play an imperative role for Sales and Marketing, covering Germany and Austria. Stephan’s many responsibilities include various aspects of Sales, one of which, is his continued success of building and maintaining relationships with 4D Partners, all which have resulted in increased sales and revenue for 4D.
Prior to working at 4D, Stephan gained experience in retail sales, including teleshopping. His training as an IT system salesman at IBM enables him to combine technical knowledge with commercial ideas.
Since his promotion to Managing Director at 4D GmbH, he has not lost sight of these goals and combines them with the development of new sales and marketing concepts.
4D Inc, USA
Jim’s career in technology began in 1995, supporting web products developed by StarNine Technologies of Berkeley, California. A year later he moved into sales of StarNine’s email products and WebSTAR, the first personal web server for MacOS. When StarNine was acquired by 4D, Inc in 2000, Jim took over the management of 4D’s rapidly growing OEM Program, which consisted of software developers who publish vertical market applications for a wide array of industries. As OEM Account Manager and Director of Outside Sales, Jim developed close relationships with 4D’s largest customers in the U.S. and Canada.
In 2015 Jim was promoted to the position of VP of Sales and Services for 4D, Inc.
Jim is a graduate of California State University, San Jose, where he majored in Biological Sciences.
“I’m continuously inspired by the way 4D developers are able to engineer software products that enhance the quality of life for their customers. You’ll find 4D-based applications in almost every industry from education and non-profits to healthcare to entertainment.”
4D Inc, USA
Born in Brazil, Ricardo began his career in 1989 working as a software developer for, at the time, the tech giant Digital Inc . After Digital Inc, he spent 2 years working directly for the Brazilian government as a database engineer. Ricardo left his job at the Brazilian Government for a 180 degrees career change: the opportunity to work for AB InBev as a regional operation and sales manager. Ricardo participated in the sales program implementation, which lead the company to be the number one beverage company in the world. Ricardo left AB Inbev to be become a young entrepreneur, in 1995 with another partner, Ricardo has created the first ISP provider for the Goias region in Brazil. His company, Netline, was acquired 4 years later.
A relentless traveler, he left Brazil for the US and joined Experian Inc to work as a senior developer building Experian's email marketing platform. He spent five years in the US market before moving to France for another challenge: to be the head of new technologies at the Uti Group. After working with the UTI Group, Ricardo joined 4D to work as the Wakanda product director before joining 4D Inc.
With his combined expertise in computer engineering, sales and marketing, Ricardo Mello has detailed knowledge of the stakes involved for companies in the digital transformation and the various problems that business lines come up against.
A computer graduate from the Rio de Janeiro Pontifical Catholic University, he is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French and English.
About the current opportunity: "4D has a high level of technical expertise and the desire to create an innovative environment for developers. 4D understands a great deal about developers' needs and, it has a clear vision of the ground work involved for companies to succeed. Joining 4D is a fantastic opportunity for me – I look forward to bring my sales and technical experience to a company that is already highly internationalized and successful."
4D 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 650% compared with pre subsidiary revenue for the region.
Damon is now Managing Director of 4D Australasia and 4D Japan.
4D Japan
Toshi graduated with an English Literature degree from Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo.
He worked 25 years in a chemical database company as a member of the sales team before joining 4D Japan in 2009. Although Toshi was Initially appointed in a sales role he is currently the Operations Manager for 4D Japan.
4D SAS, France
Laurent is graduated as an engineer from the ECE Paris high school. Prior to joining 4D, he was Marketing and Business Development Manager at Claranova, formely known as Avanquest Software, an international software vendor. Laurent joined 4D mid-2014 as Product Marketing manager, before taking the position of Field marketing manager, leading the global actions with all 4D sales and marketing entities worldwide.
4D Morocco
Aziz is an accomplished software executive with over 23 years experience in the software industry, he is currently VP of services and Support and also Managing Director of 4D Morocco created on 2011. Holding an engineering degree in computer science from EPSI School of Information Technology and Engineering, Aziz kicked off his career as a developer with Galdemara France, KPMG Consulting and the Ministry of Finance.
Aziz joined 4D Group in 1997, where he held different positions as France & international support Manager, Director of services and support where he manages a team dedicated to new services adapted to customer needs, such as training, tech support, code audits, benchmarking and more.
In 2011, with the creation of 4D Morocco, Aziz is named as a managing director of 4D Morocco, bringing valuable years of experience of technology industry leadership, computer hardware expertise, and executive management experience to his role with the company where he continues to develop service activities worldwide.