Invest in France Agency international Office

Milko Van Duijl, President of Lenovo EMEA & Senior Vice-President Lenovo Group

Why did you chose to settle in France?

We chose La Défense in Paris as a headquarter location because of our world sourcing strategy. We do not really have one headquarters, but are located all around the globe. For example, my Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is an American sitting in Singapore; our Chairman is Chinese, living actually in Raleigh; and we are located in Paris because of its central, middle of Europe location.

What are the advantages of the region?

The advantages of Paris in the centre of Europe are purely based on availability of talent. This is a management unit for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, so that basically means that we need to be able to draw upon talents and skills to be able to run Europe, and Paris is absolutely perfect for talent and skills in terms of managing management.

What are your next projects?

What we intend to do in La Défense in Paris – again as it is in the heart of Europe, it is very important to us – in France, we intend to grow our focus on large accounts, global customers and large Government customers, but also on small and medium businesses. Then, most importantly to our company, we will enter the consumer market and France, together with South Africa, are the first two countries that we will launch consumer in. By doing so, we intend to make Lenovo a household name, and France is our entry into this market.