Team
We love business and industry. We love science and math. We love algorithms and software. We work hard to make mathematical optimization uncomplicated for any people in any organization.
meet the team
The founders
Thierry Benoist
CO-CEOFor 20 years, Thierry has delivered optimization and analytics solutions for almost all industries, emphasizing supply chain management (network design, production scheduling, and route optimization). Before launching Hexaly, he headed the Operations Research department of Bouygues, one of the biggest French corporations. Graduated from École Polytechnique (1998), he holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Avignon University (2004) and a Habilitation from Nantes University (2014).
He has published papers in top OR journals like EJOR or TRSC. Several awards distinguished his research: 2005 Doctoral Prize for Innovative Applications by the French Information Technology Society, 2006 Robert Faure 3rd Prize awarded every three years by the French Operations Research Society (ROADEF) to young deserving OR researchers, and finalist of the 2012 EURO Excellence in Practice Award.
Frédéric Gardi
CO-CEOFrédéric has solved optimization problems for manufacturing, transportation, banking, media, telecom, and energy, particularly in high-demanding operational contexts. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Aix-Marseille University (2005) and a Habilitation from Sorbonne University (2013). He won several international optimization competitions: 1st Junior and Senior Prize of ROADEF 2005 Challenge, 2nd Senior Prize of ROADEF 2007 Challenge, ROADEF 2011 1st Prize for Industrial Applications.
He has published twenty papers in renowned international journals and conferences at the interface of discrete mathematics, computer science, and operations research. In 2012, he was the recipient of the ROADEF Robert Faure 1st Prize and finalist of the 2012 EURO Excellence in Practice Award. He served as president of ROADEF from 2014 to 2015.
Julien Darlay
Head of ScienceJulien received a Ph.D. in computer science from Grenoble University (2011). His research was at the intersection of mathematical optimization and machine learning. He was distinguished in several international OR competitions: 2nd Junior Prize of ROADEF 2009 Challenge, 3rd Senior Prize of ROADEF 2010 Challenge, Kaggle Santa’s Stolen Sleigh 2015 Challenge.
Romain Megel
Head of EngineeringGraduated in software engineering from École des Mines de Nantes (2010), Romain’s interests and expertise cover a broad range of topics in information technology, from theory to practice, and hardware to software: code optimization, programming languages, operating systems, databases, networks, web and cloud technologies, graphical user interfaces, parallel computing.
Hexaly Team
Discover our optimization experts
Working with us
Our team testifies
I was immediately seduced by this job which allows me to work on the R&D of the solver and optimization projects for clients. This organization allowed me to gain new skills quickly!
A few months ago, I made a list of characteristics of the ideal company I would like to work with: – human-sized – focused on optimization technologies – fully dedicated to client success – developing an innovative optimization solver offering a unique blend of expressiveness, simplicity, performance, and robustness – powered by a young and creative team constantly thinking out of the box Hexaly checks all the boxes. Thank you, Frédéric Gardi, Thierry Benoist, and the entire team for giving me the opportunity to be part of this great adventure. I am thrilled to join you!
Working as a Client Success Manager at Hexaly is unique. I enjoy striving to help our users get the most out of our solver and ensure that their support is at the highest level possible. The optimization puzzles are varied, which forces me to master all the different areas in which optimization techniques can be applied and offers new challenges every day.
During my six-month internship at Hexaly, I worked on improving the solver’s performance on Vehicle Routing problems. Working with this wonderful and highly-skilled team has allowed me to discover new techniques to tackle challenging optimization problems. I am glad to keep working here and improving my skills while developing our solver.
After spending three years doing research work at Hexaly, I recently got to (successfully) defend my Ph.D. thesis. During these three years, I worked on improving the solver's performance on various kinds of scheduling problems, as well as on making them easier to model for our users. It was very rewarding to see my Ph.D. work being gradually integrated into the successive commercial versions of Hexaly. I am now glad to continue working here and to keep developing state-of-the-art algorithms to make our solver ever more efficient.
At Hexaly, I work both on implementing cutting-edge techniques for solver R&D and on developing custom applications for the challenging problems faced by our clients, such as the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), Latexco, or Keolis Santé. These two aspects allow me to quickly improve my skills.
With daily work centered on research and development, I am constantly learning and discovering new techniques and approaches to tackle the diverse and very challenging optimization problems which come our way.
Want to join our team?
We are looking for talented, ambitious, curious, and bold people to develop the number one optimization solver on the market.