Team
Combined Commodities, Machine Learning and Data Solutions Skills
Extensive experience in commodities trading with major investment banks, trading houses and asset managers
Expert knowledge in Machine Learning with a successful track record developing and deploying ML models in commodities
Operational experience in devising management and reporting systems for large data sets and complex activities-span
Bruno Valicon
CEO
Bruno Valicon has been active for more than twenty years in commodities markets. He launched Thinking Elements to take advantage from the fundamental shift in commodities – from human-based data analysis to fundamental data AI-based decision making.
Bruno held senior responsibilities building the commodities franchise of Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Société Générale and JP Morgan in London, New York and Paris, trading physical and derivatives deals with the banks’ major commodities clients. Bruno moved to asset management in 2007 joining Schroders New Finance to launch an actively managed long-only commodities fund, before launching his own hedge fund. After the 2008 crisis, he joined Natixis to design their commodities investment strategy. Most recently, he managed Stormharbour’s commodities department, advising clients on their commodities investments.
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Bruno has a strong scientific background. He is a graduate of the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées and studied at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.
He speaks fluently French, German and English.
Stéphane Boudon
CSO
Stéphane Boudon started his career as CEO of technology startups, worked for AutoDesk (ADSK) in
Switzerland and in the US for its Computational Modelling Division. Besides a strong scientific background, Stéphane has a deep knowledge and interest in all matters related to data modelling.
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Stéphane Boudon has also a startup and fund management experience – he has build, advised or managed several Private Equity Funds. Stéphane worked for Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations as partner and CEO for its venture capital arm (CDC Innovation). In 2008 he started his own management company in Luxembourg, Akuo Investment Management, to invest in new ventures in solar and wind infrastructure in Europe. Later he extended it with a second company, AIM Luxembourg.
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Stéphane attended the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS rue d’Ulm - Paris) and was awarded a Ph.D. in Computational Chemistry and Physics from the University of Strasbourg, based on research and programming he did mostly in the US during two years at Purdue University. Stéphane attended INSEAD and several other institutions.
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Stéphane speaks fluently English, is a native German speaker, speaks French, Portuguese, and has the basics of Luxembourgish and Russian.
Xavier Barthe
CTO
Xavier Barthe has been building data solutions for business processes leveraging web and data technologies as early as 1997.
He worked for Deutsche Bank and Ernst & Young as a project manager. He was a solution architect at Apple Europe for 10 years, devising and building complex internal data solutions for reporting and analytics.
Xavier has also a start-up experience - he worked for Optic Technology , a think-thank where he organised the Paris Optic Talks 2018, an invitation-only conference on key tech prospectives, partnering with Google and Publicis, hosting prestigious keynote speakers such as Reid Hoffman. In parallel, he decided to go back to school, joining the 42 Coding School in Paris, to develop new digital skills and master the latest tech developments.
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Xavier Barthe hold a B.Sc. in Fundamental Physics from Université Paris XI, and a Business Management Masters degree from ESCP-EAP. He has lived in the UK and Germany and is now based in Paris.
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Xavier speaks fluent French, English, and can muster a good drinking proficiency in German.
Bruno Syrmen
Consultant - ML and Commodities Specialist
​Bruno is computer engineer specialized in Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing.
He started his career as a computer engineer for the French Navy in 1986, he moved then to Bank Indosuez in 1989, where he ended up head of the European Interest Rates Options desk. From 1998 to 2005, he has been trading Commodities for Credit Agricole and Barclays Capital where he was Global head of Oil Options. Between 2006 and 2016, Bruno launched and managed a Commodities Hedge Fund, Tellurian Capital. Since 2016, he has been acting as a financial advisor and he was a partner at Seven Capital, in charge of the Alternative Investments and R&D.
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Franck-Eric Fischer
Consultant - Commodities and Business Development Specialist
Franck-Eric Fischer traded oil and commodities markets for the past twenty-five years. He held senior responsibilities in investment banks (Société Générale, NM Rothschild, Dresdner Kleinwort and Sberbank CIB), oil major (Total) and merchant houses (Gunvor and Bunge) in London, Geneva, Singapore, New York, Moscow and Paris, trading physical and derivatives deals as a market maker as well as running proprietary positions.
Franck-Eric lately moved to Kayrros, a technological start-up based in Paris providing alternative data based on asset surveillance through satellite monitoring. He helped Kayrros adjust their product to
the need of the trading community and integrate the data and reports into the trading strategies of the clients. He was instrumental in developing their market share in a highly competitive environment. He believes in data science cross fertilized by expert commodities knowledge.
Franck-Eric has a financial and economic background, holding a Master 2 in market finance from University Lyon 2.
He speaks fluently French, English and has a good knowledge of Russian.