Homage to Pierre Laffitte, founder of Sophia-Antipolis and former Senator

Sophia Antipolis, 8 July 2021

We were very sad to hear that Pierre Laffitte passed away on 7 July, at the age of 96. President and founder of the Sophia-Antipolis technopole, a scientist and politician, he has spent countless hours contributing to making Sophia-Antipolis the largest technopole in Europe.

Born at Saint Paul de Vence, he graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole des Mines. The idea of a cluster bringing together research centres, top universities, the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), public and private organizations emerged in his mind in the 1960s. In 2019, Sophia-Antipolis celebrated its 50 years anniversary, paying tribute to their founder at the same time. Several executives from ETSI attended the event. Pierre Laffitte was indeed  instrumental in ETSI being head-quartered in Valbonne.

ETSI is one of the 2,500 organizations and 38,000 employees working in this major technological hub, which is well known across the world. This is without any doubt thanks to the unfailing commitment of the passionate and visonary man that Pierre Laffitte was.