"'IT' is to the company what the plumbing and electricity are to a house."

---

Claude Baudoin

Born in Romorantin, France, 1951
Engineering Degree

Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, France, 1973

Master of Science (Computer Science)

Stanford University, California, 1974

Field of work

Information Technology

 

Areas of interest outside work

Classical music (as a listener, not much as a player), foreign languages, reading, travel, amateur photography, geopolitics

I was born in a little town in the center of France, but I was raised in the Paris suburbs.  My parents had both started working when they were 13 or 14, and their grandparents couldn't read or write, so they had high ambitions for my own education.

I was good at mathematics in high school, and had several maths and physics teachers who really helped me develop a passion for their subjects.  I was admitted to one of the most prestigious engineering schools in France in 1970.  While I was there, I "met" my first computer, an unwieldy machine called the IBM 1620 which I learned to program -- I even skipped a few official classes to do so!  Although I remained interested in the "hard sciences," my life was changed by my discovery of computers, primitive as they were then.

A student adviser told me that if I wanted to focus on computers, I should get an advanced degree in the U.S.  That's how I came to study at Stanford, in California, which I still consider a wonderful place -- the architecture, the surroundings and the intellectual power of that place combine to form an absolutely awesome, stimulating environment.  Stanford is also where I improved my English -- I've always had an interest in foreign languages, and I speak a little German and Spanish in addition to French and English, which I speak with pretty much equal ease.

I joined Schlumberger in France in 1977, and I have worked for the company in France, Texas and California (several times in each place).  I've been a manager for twenty years, but I still like to understand "how things work" (for instance, as soon as the web started, I learned how to write my own home page).  My first job was writing software, but since then I have moved toward what we call "Information Technology" -- the inner workings of our networks, security, and the operations of our computer resources.  "IT" is to the company what the plumbing and electricity are to a house. Sometimes we feel that, like plumbers, we only get noticed when things are NOT working.  But to me, providing the services that allow people to use their computers to do their jobs is really a very interesting, exciting job, and it uses some of the "hottest" developments in the modern world, such as the web, e-mail, cell phones, etc.  In the end, it's all about making information available to whom needs it, where they need it, and when they need it.