Romain Fouache

Chief Executive Officer Akeneo

Last Reviewed: September 28, 2026

Executive Summary

Romain Fouache is Chief Executive Officer of Akeneo, the French-founded software company whose product information management and product experience platform helps brands, manufacturers and retailers manage the product data they publish across channels. He took over on 4 November 2024 from co-founder Fred de Gombert, who had led the company for its first twelve years and stayed on as President. Fouache arrived as an operator rather than a founder: his previous seven years were spent at the AI platform company Dataiku, where he moved from strategy into running operations and global sales as it scaled.

Career Highlights

• Chief Executive Officer of Akeneo since 4 November 2024, succeeding co-founder Fred de Gombert.
• Chief Operating Officer and Chief Revenue Officer at Dataiku, having led its sales and revenue activities globally from 2019.
• Joined Dataiku as VP of Strategy in 2017.
• Began his career in 2002 as a data scientist in the advertising sector, followed by operations, sales and strategy roles in technology start-ups.
• Graduate of Ecole Centrale Paris, with an MBA from NYU Stern.

Professional Journey

Fouache is a graduate of Ecole Centrale Paris and holds an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business. He started work in 2002 as a data scientist in advertising, and then held operations, sales, strategy and leadership roles in technology start-ups.

In 2017 he joined Dataiku, the Paris-founded enterprise AI and machine learning platform, as VP of Strategy. From 2019 he led the company’s sales and revenue activities worldwide, and he went on to hold the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Revenue Officer titles, which Dataiku’s own materials combine as Chief Revenue and Operating Officer.

Akeneo announced his appointment as chief executive on 29 October 2024, effective the following week. The company had been founded in Nantes in 2013 by Fred de Gombert, Benoit Jacquemont and colleagues from the open-source firm Smile, and had since raised growth funding led by Summit Partners. At the handover it reported a compounded growth rate of more than 35% over four years and more than doubled US business over two, with customers including Chico’s, TaylorMade Golf and Rail Europe. De Gombert moved to the role of President and remained on the board. Fouache described his mandate as scaling Akeneo’s operations, accelerating growth and delivering more value to customers, as the company repositions its product-data platform around AI-driven product experience.

Education

Ecole Centrale Paris

New York University, Stern School of Business

MBA