Michel SAFARS

Michel Safars has been a professor of Entrepreneurship in the Strategy and Business Policy department at HEC Paris since 2002 and also chairs the HEC Paris MBA Entrepreneurship specialization.

Michel Safars has been teaching Entrepreneurship at HEC Paris since 2002. He also chairs the HEC Paris MBA Entrepreneurship specialization and founded the HEC Paris Entrepreneurship Lab (eLab). Michel is actively involved in Executive Education programs. Notably, he serves as the Academic Director of the BPI Excellence Seminars entrusted to HEC Paris by the BPI - Banque Publique d’Investissements (French Public Investment Bank). In october 2024, he was awarded the Prix Pierre Vernimmen by BNP Paribas for excellence in teaching Entrepreneurship and Deeptech.

In 1989, Michel founded his first company, Mipsys, specializing in electronics and industrial computing for high-atmosphere research (lidars), molecular physics, and education, which he led until its acquisition in 1997. He then founded and served as CEO of KeeBoo, a San Francisco-based startup developing digital catalogs. Following this, Michel held successive roles as COO of INRIA-Transfert, a subsidiary of INRIA (French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation), and as Founding Partner of IT-Translation, an investment fund supporting public sector IT research startups.

Michel co-founded and directed the Lagardère Lab, an innovation hub established within the Lagardère Group. Additionally, he was a co-founder and board member of Thasos Group, a New York-based big data startup.

Currently, Michel leads xCUB, an innovation program dedicated to large corporations. In parallel, he is a certified executive coach of CEOs and specializes in Process Communication Model (PCM).