Making ideas a reality in the United States and France

Jacques Souquet drew on his university experiences (Paris-Sud and Stanford) as well as his professional, industrial experiences (Thomson-CSF, Varian, CGR, ATL Ultrasound and Philips) to create three companies in the medical devices sector, and medical imaging in particular. Two of the companies were founded in the United States and the third in Aix-en-Provence. He does not see important differences between the countries, and believes that one simply has to be meticulous wherever one is situated. His French company, SuperSonic Imagine, created in 2005, manufactures ultrasound scanners which are able to receive and process images almost in real time. This not only means that a greater number of patients can be examined, an important factor because there is a shortage of doctors, but also the laboratories are making more money. The ultrasound scanners are now approved in fifty-four countries and have been cited in more than four hundred publications in peer-reviewed journals. SuperSonic Imagine employs one hundred and sixty-five people, its market is growing fast, and its average margin is 47 %.