Bio:

Sylvie Menezo is a deep‑tech entrepreneur and photonics expert, currently the founder and CTO of SCINTIL Photonics, a company she launched in 2018 to industrialize breakthrough silicon photonics technology originating from CEA‑Leti.  As CEO until 2024, she has built the company from the ground up - assembling teams, developing supply chains and prototypes, with Global Leading Edge early customers, and raising more than €25 million from major international investors.

This entrepreneurial success builds directly on her leadership at CEA‑Leti, where she joined in 2011. She notably led the Silicon Photonics Laboratory, doubling both its size and revenues, and later drove business development activities, establishing strategic partnerships with major industrial players and securing multi‑million‑euro collaborative R&D programs at European levels.

​Earlier in her career, Menezo accumulated strong industrial experience in global technology environments. At Sercel (CGG Group), she built and led optical technology activities in France and USA for large-scale sensing applications. Before that, she contributed to the improvement of semiconductor laser processes- yield at Alcatel optronics.

​She holds an engineering degree from INSA Lyon and a PhD from the Centre National d’Études des Télécommunications (CNET, 1999), where her research on dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) laser arrays led to award‑winning scientific contributions, and where she worked on a modulator research project at NZAT (USA). She also holds an Executive MBA from Audencia School of Management.

​She is the author of numerous publications, holds more than 50 patents, and actively contributes to the global photonics ecosystem through board and advisory roles at ePIXfab and photonixFAB, and through frequent OFC and ECOC technical chair.