Eric LEANDRI

An expert in computer security and telecoms, Éric has 20 years’ experience of large-scale deployment of IT platforms (for companies such as BT and General Electric for example) and entrepreneurship (e.g. Mobilegov SaaS and Trustmission). In 2010, he set out his vision for an ambitiously scoped European search engine, which would break down the barriers of the web whilst at the same time respecting users’ freedoms and the stability of the digital ecosystem. He turned this vision into concrete reality in 2011 by co-founding Qwant, serving first as its managing director before assuming his current role as president in May 2016. Eric Léandri is also president of both French Tech Provence Côte d’Azur and the Open Internet Project.

About Qwant
Designed and developed in France, Qwant is the first European search engine to have its own web indexing technology, which protects the privacy of its users by not allowing any form of tracking used for advertising purposes. Unlike the main search engines in the market, Qwant does not install any cookies in the web user’s browser, does not try to find out who they are or what their activities are, and does not keep a history of the searches carried out. Equipped with a friendly interface that allows a large amount of space for the search results themselves, Qwant enables you to efficiently find the information you’re looking for across the entire web and the social networks whilst at the same time maintaining complete neutrality. Qwant processes all the sites and services indexed in an indiscriminate manner, without altering the order of the results based on its own interests or the user’s sensibilities. First launched in a version available to the general public in 2013, Qwant handled more than 18 billion search requests in 2018.