LEADERSHIP Roughly two-thirds of Europe’ s cloud infrastructure runs on American hyperscalers such as AWS and Microsoft Azure, and legislation like the US CLOUD Act means that dependence carries a legal risk, not just a commercial one. The idea of American companies being legally permitted to look over the shoulders of European companies at their data provoked the European Union to propose the Cloud and AI Development Act in June 2026 – a move aimed at cutting reliance on foreign technology from more than 80 % to 40 % by the end of the decade. But as far as Aliette is concerned, independence should come“ without building barricades or cutting ourselves off from the rest of the world”. She firmly rejects the fortress-Europe mindset of some of her peers, preferring inclusion over exclusion – a mindset that has been present throughout her career.
Full circle May 17th 2023 was the 189th annual International Day Against Homophobia. It also marked two years since Aliette took what she calls a“ public stance” on being married to a woman, a deliberate choice, she says, because“ our private lives are a lot more pervasive than we think in the workplace”. Her argument is not that colleagues need to know the details of anyone’ s private life – which, she points out, is often the response of those unfamiliar with the subject. But that they already do, constantly. We announce engagements, we prop family photos on desks. Colleagues ask after a partner’ s birthday or a sick child without thinking twice.“ I was never quite sure how to handle questions such as‘ how do you manage with the kids when you travel for work?’ or‘ what does your husband do for a living?’” Aliette posts on LinkedIn.
62 August 2026