Bernard Charlès was named President of Dassault Systèmes on September 1, 1995. He was named President and CEO on May 28, 2002.
 
Mr. Charlès began his career at DS in 1983 leading teams to develop new technologies. In 1986, he founded a dedicated Strategy and Research department, and in 1988 was named President of Research and Development.
 
Since becoming President, Mr. Charlès has driven the key steps in DS's evolution including the development of the Version 5 architecture; introduction to the Nasdaq and Bourse de Paris stock markets in June 1996; as well as a series of key acquisitions: SolidWorks in 1997, followed by DELMIA, ENOVIA, SmarTeam, Abaqus, and MatrixOne, making it the leader in PLM solutions. 
The solutions and services developed by DS today give shape to Mr. Charlès' vision of leveraging the power of 3D to help companies develop, simulate, and optimize the complete lifecycle of their products, and preserve the environment for the future. In line with his vision, DS launched in 2007 the 3DVIA brand for online lifelike experiences, and the concept of PLM 2.0 with its new Version 6 platform for online collaboration.
 
He graduated with honors as a mechanical engineer specialized in automation and computer science engineering from the prestigious Ecole Normale Supérieure in Cachan, France where he still belongs to the scientific core of professors.