Glowbl, a Lyon-based company specialising in tools for remote working, appoints Sophie Lazard as CEO. An appointment that owes nothing to chance because she already sat on the company’s Board of Directors and has been a shareholder since 2012. Sophie represents a new ambition to meet the demands of “Hybrid Work”, develop Glowbl rapidly in France and export its know-how to the United States.
A woman at the head of a tech company
Sophie Lazard joined the international audit and consulting firm PwC as a chartered accountant and external auditor, spending 25 years with the company, 13 of them as a partner. She specialised in family-run middle-market companies, becoming a trusted advisor for company directors.
In 2006, she created the network ‘Temps de femmes’ (Time for Women), for influential women executives in the Lyon region wishing to exchange views on cultural and quirky topics. A scoff at those male-run networks that tended to exclude female members.
Sophie Lazard, a manager set on innovation
A key figure since Glowbl’s creation, Sophie Lazard drives the company’s innovative vision.
Bringing together virtually, getting together effectively: this is the Glowbl ambition driven by its new director: “Glowbl is the story of a shared vision of what working together will mean in tomorrow’s world. We want to break users out of the usual online tools which, paradoxically, build walls due to the discussion and group channels they impose. Spontaneity, verbal expression and informality are the distinctive features of collective intelligence. That is what it means to put people back at the heart of digital technology.” Sophie Lazard, CEO of Glowbl
Sophie Lazard’s goal is to fly the flag of the French digital sector to take Glowbl into international markets and make the company’s solution a vital tool in society’s new ways of working together. As the head of one of French Tech’s flagship enterprises, she aims to export Glowbl’s know-how to the United States to take on digital giants like Microsoft, Slack and Zoom. A project justified by an explosion of the platform’s users, which have seen a 15-fold increase for a total of 200,000 in 2020. Results which generated a seven-fold increase in revenue in 2020, solely for the virtual classroom solution. 2021 is already showing promising signs with double-figure growth month-on-month.
In the short term, Sophie Lazard is opening up Glowbl’s share capital to new investors to conquer new international markets.
About Glowbl
Created in 2011, Glowbl is a French company specialising in remote working solutions. Virtual open spaces, remote training, project management, group work, seminars, etc. The company offers a digital solution to view a group of people, and mirrors real-life situations to simulate and encourage human interaction. Through a system of virtual tables, users can cooperate, produce collaboratively and discuss ideas, no matter where they are located. Its unique patented features are designed to reproduce virtually the familiarity and routines of real life. Based in Lyon, the company now has 20 employees and achieved seven-fold growth in revenue in 2020. Glowbl brings people together virtually for real-life interaction. www.glowbl.com
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