ESI Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Francis Griffiths as Executive Vice President of Sales, effective October 1st, 2021. He will report to Mike Salari, Corporate COO Revenue Generation, and join the leadership team of Cristel de Rouvray, CEO of the Group. He will be based in the United Kingdom.
Francis Griffiths, 57 years old, is a long-standing executive with more than thirty years of experience in the realms of business and technology. He has a long history of success in the global marketplace with technical and scientific software solutions and has experience with the type of transformation we are driving at ESI. He brings to ESI an impressive track record of growth in Test & Measurement, Simulation and Industrial Automation in various industries including Automotive, Aerospace, Heavy Machinery, Communications, Energy, and Electronics.
From this point onwards, Francis will be entrusted with leading and overseeing the global activities for the company’s sellers and setting the strategy for the sales organization at ESI. He will also be in charge of setting up and driving the transformation of the sales organization in accordance with the objectives of the 3-year plan, the details of which will be announced on October 5th during ESI’s Investor’s conference.
I am extremely excited to join ESI. As a leader in virtual prototyping solutions founded on excellence in predictive physics-based modelling, ESI is uniquely positioned to partner with its customers on their digital transformation journey across the performance product life cycle. I am very confident we can accelerate delivery of ESI solutions that improve productivity, safety, lower production costs and accelerate time to market, answering the key industrial challenges. I look forward to this exciting journey, working with our leadership team, employees and many customers across the world.
Francis Griffiths
ESI Group is undergoing one of its most transformational journeys. Attracting high-level talents like Francis to lead the sales organization will strengthen our market position with a forward-thinking growth strategy. I’m excited that Francis’ valuable experience and expertise will help ESI Group in supporting the digital transformation of our customers and becoming a recognized best-in-class company. This is a perfect timing as we will launch our new 3 Year plan (FY22-FY24) which will be announced on October 5th. We are very proud to have him on board!
Mike Salari
Corporate Chief Operating Officer - Revenue Generation of ESI Group
Prior to joining ESI, Francis held several roles within NI for 29 years, among them European Vice President of Sales and Senior Vice President of Global Sales, Field Marketing and Operations. More recently he founded Maiple, a start-up company focusing on Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning solutions in manufacturing and sustainable energy.
Francis holds a BEng (Hons) degree from Cardiff University in Electrical Engineering and is a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering Technology (FIET). He was awarded an Honorary Professorship at Cardiff University in 2019. Francis sits on the advisory board of FLEXIS (Smart Energy Systems Project) and is an advisor on the Cardiff University Strategic Oversight Board. He served as non-executive director of VERV, makers of the Home Energy Assistant.
