Technology Magazine April 2019 | Page 191

EXECUTIVE PROFILE
Francois Estellon
As Chief Technology Officer for SGK , the brand solutions division of Matthews International Corporation . Francois Estellon is responsible for defining the vision of the role that technology plays in the development of our products and services , for enhancing the delivery of our current and future products and services with software solutions , and for leveraging the data in our business to create more value for our clients .
Estellon sits on the Advisory Board for the special interest group on digital transformation at Penn State called CODE ( Consortium for the Digital Enterprise ), a research and advisory group focusing on Digital Trends within Enterprise Computing . He is also a Board Member for the Pittsburgh Technology Council . Estellon was twice named a Pittsburgh CIO of the Year award finalist and a Top 100 Technology Leader by Computer World in 2016 .
Prior to joining SGK , Francois Estellon worked for PwC Germany as a Senior Consultant for a large company ’ s global ERP implementation . Eventually , he started his own consulting firm which quickly grew into a multi-million dollar operation across Germany , France , Canada and the U . S . The company was sold in 2006 and Francois took a leadership role in the newly formed global consulting footprint .
In 2008 , Estellon joined Caterpillar Global Mining , a division of Caterpillar , Inc . as Director for Global Application , and soon became Global CIO for the $ 5 billion company . Moving forward in 2013 , Estellon joined Gardner Denver , a $ 2.5 billion private equity-owned engineering conglomerate . As CIO for the company , he was responsible for the global IT footprint . Gardner Denver successfully completed an IPO in early 2017 .
Estellon studied industrial engineering at the Grenoble Institute of Technology in France and received a master ’ s in supply chain and manufacturing management from Linkoping University in Sweden .
Francois Estellon is a sought-after thought leader and speaker by the technology industry and regularly publishes on the topic of leadership in technology at : www . cio . com
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