Yannick Cras

Technical director, SAP, Germany

Yannick Cras is Chief Development Architect, Core BI technology at SAP BusinessObjects. As such he provides individual expertise, leadership and executive influence in the design of the core Business Intelligence technology of the company, of which he authored a number of foundation patents such as the mathematical calculation model that underlies SAP’s flagship BI product, WebIntelligence.

Yannick’s technology interests are centered around data, calculation and query semantics, with a strong focus on devising creative solutions that merge expressive power and semantic soundness with user-friendliness in a class of products designed for non IT personnel. Yannick has been working for Business Objects, now SAP BusinessObjects, since 1995 in various technical management or leadership positions.

Prior to that he worked for EDS Management Consulting Services as a Senior Consultant in the field of advanced combinatorial problem solving and Operations Research, where he devised complex optimization algorithms for clients such as Elf Atochem, Air France or SNCM. His career had started with Bull’s Artificial Intelligence Development group where he co-authored and co-developed the first industrial constraint programming language Charme.

Yannick holds an Engineer-Doctor degree in Computer Sciences from University Paris XI, an Engineering degree (option Applied Mathematics) from the Ecole Centrale Paris, and an Advanced Degree in Computer Sciences from University Paris VI. He is a member of the steering committee for the Business Objects BI Chair at ECP, where he regularly gives talks. Yannick is also an amateur composer, poet and songwriter.