By SGN | 14 Apr 2025
You may have read the CNA article on the expat making waves for his unusual weekend activities – moonlighting as a food delivery driver.
Yann, who has been in Singapore for the last fifteen years, has been open to adventures of all sorts. He’s built teams for some of the biggest names in tech, started companies of his own, and donated to charity, albeit in unconventional ways.
He credits his receptivity and willingness to explore life paths others might shy away from, to his upbringing, and early life experiences. “I’m not afraid to fail. I have failed many times, and I will continue to fail in the future. However, I don’t shy away from seizing new opportunities. I’m open to trying new things even if I don’t feel ready or capable, and I learn as I go along.”
These fighting words have served Yann well throughout his life. As the son of migrants, Yann has seen and experienced more than his fair share of trials and tribulations. Navigating France’s public school system, compounded further by extensive disruptions to his domestic life, formed the backdrop of his adolescent experience.
“Growing up in an environment like that, made me unafraid of losing anything,” he reminisces. “I saw opportunities everywhere.”
After completing his Master’s degree in artificial intelligence, he took on a job as a statistician. “Back then, my role looked the same as that of a data scientist today,” he explains. “The tools may be different, but the role still involves the primary tasks of data analysis and building models.”
His first job would go on to provide the foundation for his illustrious, decades-long career in artificial intelligence and data analytics, which would see him serve as an advisor to some of the most exciting tech of today’s startups and firms, as well as kickstart his own ventures.
A flourishing career in tech and AI advisory
In early 2005, Yann joined the company at which he would spend nearly a decade – the longest time he has been in any role. It was also the company that brought him and his wife to Singapore, where he has been since 2010.
French mobile marketing company Sofialys was looking to gain more traction in Asia-Pacific. With Yann at the forefront of these expansionist objectives, the company sought a permanent presence in the region.
“I moved to Singapore to open a regional office for Sofialys, build a local team, and hire local and regional talent,” he recalls. What was meant to be a short-term mission for Yann, turned into a decades-long residency in Singapore.
“I had visited Singapore only twice for work, before preparing for the move,” Yann mentions. “We turned up with only one piece of luggage, and said, ‘We’re trying something new. If it doesn’t work, we’ll return to Europe, or do something else.’ That was fifteen years ago.”
Today, he’s a permanent resident (PR) of Singapore, where he has lived for over a decade.
Building up a robust regional team was a gradual process. At the peak of its regional hiring activity in Southeast Asia, Sofialys had set up offices in Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Thailand, and Hong Kong. While the company would eventually close shop in Asia, after its acquisition of other, smaller mobile ad network companies, it didn’t mean that Yann’s time in Singapore had concluded.
Armed with considerable expertise on how to build cross-functional, multi-region teams, Yann joined local startup Pocketmath, where he would set up the company’s first Data Science team.
Here he was instrumental in shaping the company’s strategy and innovation, introducing a slew of contemporary technologies that led to considerable gains for the business.
His next roles in local outfit Shopback and tech giant Google would also be centred around AI, with the former offering him an opportunity to build cross-cultural teams across Singapore, Vietnam, and Taiwan.
At Google, Yann gets to leverage his 20 years of experience in AI, to serve as a trusted advisor for customers of Google Cloud. “My job is to help them develop and implement an AI vision and strategy, making sure they have the right tools, processes, and people to execute it effectively,” he explains.
While he cannot reveal who his customers are, he describes them as “digital-native” tech companies.
And, given the mercurial nature of his industry, where new technology is released at breakneck speed, Yann finds himself in the unique position of having to reassure customers, while doing as much research and groundwork as possible to stay updated.
“Sometimes, I wake up to three customer emails asking me about a new AI model that was released the day before, and they are already asking me for advice and insights – all before I have even tried and tested it to see what value it brings,” Yann shares, with a smile.
“While this can be overwhelming, my role comes with an in-built sense of responsibility.”
Further compounding a situation like this is the amount of chatter around any new product, or product update. “I need to be able to separate the noise from what is actually important for an enterprise, regarding AI,” he shares.
“This requires me to approach matters with transparency, telling customers exactly what I know and what I don’t know. I also need to maintain a certain level of humility, because I’m constantly learning and relearning new things.”
To those looking to break into tech, particularly the AI side of things, Yann suggests keeping updated as much as possible. “New research is being released every day, and every week, he points out.
“The time between research and immediate application, is really short as well.”
“Having strong technical skills helps you maintain an understanding of new products, and the capacity to follow up with the developments and research.”
Adapting to cross-cultural teams
At Sofialys, Yann experienced what it was like to work with diverse teams, a less common situation in Europe. And the more time he spent in Southeast Asia, and with teams from across the region, the more he realised how diverse in mind and thought the people are.
“From a bird’s eye view, you see Southeast Asia as only one bloc,” Yann reflects. “However, when you are onsite, you realise everything is much more fragmented. There are a lot of diverse cultures across different countries, and sometimes within the same country.”
Naturally, navigating these cultural differences proved to be more than a little challenging for Yann, especially at the start of his career with Sofialys. “Working alongside colleagues, and dealing with customers in Vietnam, is different to how you would approach them in Thailand, or Indonesia, or Singapore,” he mentions.
Yann admits that getting a firm grasp on these multifaceted cultural nuances took him a lengthy amount of time, and he says he learned his lessons the hard way.
“It took me a few years, and some failures, in my journey towards handling different cultures amidst different contexts,” he shares. “The same lesson applies to people management. I’ve worked with people from all over Asia, and even globally, in my team, and I learned that there are different ways of working.”
These experiences were a strong contrast to his native Europe, where things tended to be a bit more uniform.
“So, when I first came to Singapore and started working with employees in Southeast Asia, I noticed a key difference compared to France,” he shares.
“In France, it’s common for employees to challenge their managers or voice concerns. However, here, as a manager, I initially faced little to no pushback from my team. That led to some challenges within the company, because important issues weren’t being surfaced.”
Yann learned quickly that, in Southeast Asia, managers needed to actively encourage employees to share feedback and concerns. “It’s not natural in the work culture here for employees to speak up directly to their managers,” he continues. “I needed to adjust the way I communicate and collaborate.”
Naturally, he found this modus operandi a stark departure from his native Europe, where even the youngest trainee or the newest hire in the team had the leeway of challenging or interrupting the C-suite executives of a company during meetings, without it being frowned upon.
“That wasn’t the norm here, and it took me some time to realise it,” Yann reminisces. “Since I was in a senior management position, it wasn’t immediately obvious to me until I started managing both European and Southeast Asian employees in Singapore.”
At this moment, a key insight was revealed to him. “I noticed a stark difference in interactions. That’s when I understood that, by default, I wasn’t going to receive the same level of direct feedback from my Southeast Asian team, unless I actively encouraged it.”
Yann realised that he would need to create a sanctuary where his Southeast Asian team could freely speak their minds. “I needed to actively prompt, and facilitate a safe space for the employees to feel comfortable sharing their concerns,” he recalls.
Luckily, Yann has had help along the way. “Throughout my career, I’ve always had mentors—people I admire and whose experiences I wanted to learn from,” he says. “I’ve had multiple mentors who helped me understand the different ways of doing business in Asia and how to build trust across teams in various countries.”
Diving headfirst into entrepreneurship
Alongside serving as an AI and technology expert, Yann has also helmed his own ventures, AI fraud detection and market optimisation company, Yeadz, and later, AI company Cartan Tensors.
He found that the process for setting up a company in Singapore surprisingly easy. “I realised how simple – at least administratively – it was to set up a company in Singapore,” he reflects. “When it comes to local regulations regarding tech companies, as well as compliance with accounting and taxes, things are pretty straightforward in Singapore.”
“The Singapore government was instrumental to helping us scale,”
“The grant we received covered a percentage of Singaporean salaries, based on our volume of growth.”
He also cites the Economic Development Board, a statutory board of the Singapore Government, as crucial to his company’s growth and expansion. “They provided dedicated assistance with the application process for the grant, which was a unique experience, he says. “In other countries I’ve worked in, even if grants existed, there wasn’t this level of support from the administration to help build the application.”
With the administrative aspect of his business taken care of, Yann had time to focus on growing, scaling, and setting up a network of partners, customers, and employees. And having spent a considerable amount of time building up teams for other international tech companies, he knew how to handle hiring for his own venture.
“I’ve had a lot of experience in hiring internationally, which is why my approach to looking at talent has obviously evolved over the years,” he says. “Earlier, I had a strong focus on immediate, and applicable skills, and track record.”
After all these years, Yann’s outlook on talent management has evolved. “Now, I pay more attention to cultural fit, behaviour, and the capacity to collaborate, grow, and work as a team. That’s my personal approach to hiring,” he shares.
Building community on the go
Yann’s story would be incomplete without a deep-dive into the hobbies that have earned him considerable attention.
“I was working from home a lot, and wanted to find a way to get more active,” he recalls.
Soon enough, he started cycling at night. He did so for a while, until he realised that doing food delivery would add an interesting dimension to his pursuit of fitness. “To me, food delivery is like a treasure quest, as you have a reason to go from one location to another, instead of just cycling around in circles. Any extra revenue generated from his escapades as a food delivery driver would be channelled into charities such as Mandai Wildlife Group and World Wildlife Fund, to name a few.
Yann’s adventures on wheels have also helped him break out of his “bubble”. “A lot of my connections are similar to myself – we work in the same/similar industry, and have similar lifestyles,” he shares.
“But just a few blocks away, there are youth and elderly people who live in completely different worlds. You end up realising that sometimes you spent crazy amounts on things – when you could stretch your dollar much, much further.”
Being a part-time food delivery driver has also helped Yann better acquaint himself with Singapore’s complex building and residential system. “Navigating HDB estates can be quite challenging for those unfamiliar with it,” he shares. “But over time, I’ve gotten better. I’ve started to familiarise myself with every estate in the neighbourhood, and I know the shortcuts, the right blocks, and where to park my bicycle for deliveries.”
Yann isn’t the only one plugged into a local way of living. His children, who, like their father, are also residents, have been attending local schools since they were young.
“At first, we were afraid that the education system here would be rigid and restrictive, since that is the misconception many foreigners have,” he mentions. “But I’m glad we gave the local school system a shot, because the kids ended up loving it!”
In Yann’s eyes, Singapore’s school system offers a great deal of personalisation and capacity to adapt to the varying needs of the students. “It’s not the rigid, high-pressure environment we might have expected. If anything, the pressure often comes from the parents, rather than the teachers,” he says.
Yann’s hope is for both his children (his son, attending secondary school, and his daughter, still in her primary years) to continue in the Singapore education system for as long as possible.
“My family and I enjoy life here, so we hope to continue staying here,” he mentions.
To other international talent looking to move to Singapore, he recommends attending as many events and networking sessions as possible. One such organisation is Singapore Global Network, whose 130,000-strong network of global professionals and friends make it easy to build meaningful connections – especially for those new to Singapore.
“Since you are here by yourself, you will need to find your “second family” – your “home away from home,” he says. “At first, it is alright to connect with expats who share the same background as you, so you can quickly bond. But over time, you must venture out, and open your minds to different cultures.”
Meet Yann
A multi-hyphenate AI specialist and entrepreneur, Yann has worked for some of the biggest names in tech, building high-functioning cross-cultural teams throughout his career.
Connect with him here.
