Catherine Lafarge has been named interim president and chief executive officer of Linksium, the regional tech transfer organisation for France’s Grenoble Alpes region.
Lafarge has worked for Linksium since April 2015, when she joined as a licensing and business development manager.
She became operations and transfer manager in March 2022 and was promoted to deputy CEO in January 2023.
Lafarge succeeds François Hédé, who had been chief executive officer of Linksium since September 2021. Details about Hédé’s move could not be ascertained.
“The ecosystem can rely on the Linksium team, which is experienced and committed, and fully mobilised to serve project leaders. We are with them every step of the way.”
Catherine Lafarge [translated from French by The Next Leap]
Linksium is one of 13 regional tech transfer organisations that form the Réseau SATT, established by the French government in 2014 to accelerate research commercialisation in the country.
To date, Linksium has launched 91 spinouts, and it aims to establish 15 new deeptech startups per year.
Its shareholders include the Université Grenoble Alpes, Université Savoie Mont Blanc, Grenoble INP, the Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (INRIA), and public investment bank Bpifrance.