Gilles Savard

CEO (2016 - 2021)

Gilles Savard has been a professor at Polytechnique Montréal since 1993. From 2001 to 2007 he served as Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Industrial Engineering before becoming the institution’s Chief Innovation and International Officer in 2007. He was subsequently named CEO of IVADO until his departure in 2021. He has published over 100 papers in the main journals in the field of operations research as well as supervising more than 80 graduate students and highly qualified staff members. Mr. Savard is a renowned specialist in bilevel mathematical programming, with applications in energy and transportation. He spent 20 years conducting numerous projects with the Defence Department, which uses tools he developed for peace-mission planning in its operations. He has also developed, with collaborators, an innovative methodological approach in the field of revenue management now commercialized by ExPretio, a university spinoff enterprise, for aviation and rail companies. Mr. Savard was a key player in the EUGENE project, which won the 1999 Canadian Operational Research Society’s award for best application in operations research, and in the founding of ExPretio, which was honoured by NSERC/ADRIQ in 2010 for the quality of its partnerships. He was awarded the 2017 Personality Innovation Award by ADRIQ and was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes académiques by the French government. He is also a member of several boards of directors.