Michel Pioro-Ladrière is the Director of Strategy and Partnerships at Nord Quantique, a company materializing error-corrected quantum computing that emerged from the innovation ecosystem he helped create in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. Michel Pioro-Ladrière holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the Université de Sherbrooke in partnership with the National Research Council of Canada, completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the NTT Basic Research Laboratories in Japan, and had a career as a professor-researcher in the Department of Physics at the Université de Sherbrooke from 2009 to 2023. He served as the co-scientific director of the Institut quantique at the Université fr Sherbrooke, held the Chair for the Deployment of Quantum Technologies, served as the Scientific Director of DistriQ – Quantum Innovation Zone (among the first two Innovation Zones designated by the Government of Quebec), and was the founding Director of the Bachelor’s Program in Quantum Information Sciences at the Université de Sherbrooke, the first program of its kind in the French-speaking world.