PResiDent
(7/1/10 – 6/30/12)
alain chesnais
cto, scenecaster
richmond hill,
ontario, canada
Biography
acm and siGGRaPh activities
˲ ˲ Since July 2008 ACM
vice president
˲ ˲ Since July 2005 ACM SIGGRAPH
past president
˲ ˲ 2006–2008 ACM secretary/treasurer
˲ ˲ 2005–2006 SIG representative
to Council
˲ ˲ 2002–2005 ACM SIGGRAPH
president
˲ ˲ 2002–2004 SGB past chair
˲ ˲ 2000–2002 SGB chair
˲ ˲ 2001 SIGGRAPH Conference
International Resources Chair
˲ ˲ 1999–2000 SIG Governing Board
(SGB) Vice Chair for Operations
˲ ˲ 1999 ACM EC Nominating Committee
˲ ˲ 1998 ACM Executive Search
Committee
˲ ˲ 1998 SIGGRAPH Nominating
Committee
˲ ˲ 1997 SIGGRAPH Conference
International Chair
˲ ˲ 1995–1999 ACM SIGGRAPH
Vice Chair
˲ ˲ 1993–1995 Member at Large
ACM
SIGGRAPH Chapters Committee
˲ ˲ 1993–1995 ACM Director of
Professional Chapters
˲ ˲ 1993–1995 ACM Local Activities
Board/SIG Board Liaison
˲ ˲ 1992 Organized the local
groups’ booth for the SIGGRAPH 92
conference
˲ ˲ 1991–1995 Chair of the Paris
SIGGRAPH chapter
Professional experience
˲ ˲ Since June 2007 C TO at
SceneCaster
˲ ˲ July 2005–May 2007 Vice
President Product Development at
Tucows Inc
˲ ˲ March 2004–July 2005 Director
of Engineering at ATI
˲ ˲ May 2000–November 2003 Vice
President, Engineering at
TrueSpectra
˲ ˲ 1996–2000 Director of Engineer-
ing, Alias|Wavefront
˲ ˲ 1993–1996 Rendering Manager,
Wavefront Technologies
˲ ˲ 1992–1993 CG Consultant
˲ ˲ 1987–1992 CTO, Studio Base 2
˲ ˲ 1983–1987 Research Scientist,
Centre Mondial Informatique
˲ ˲ 1982–1985 Research Assistant,
CNRS
education
˲ ˲ 1981 L’École Normale Supèrieure
de L’Enseignement Technique
˲ ˲ 1980 Diplome d’Etudes Appro-
fondies, Université de Paris XI
˲ ˲ 1979 Maîtrise Structure Mathé-
matique de L’Informatique, Univer-
sité de Paris VII
˲ ˲ 1979 Maîtrise de Mathématiques,
Université de Paris VII
awards/achievements
˲ ˲ Articles in various journals and
conferences.
˲ ˲ Systéme particulier selected for
film show SIGGRAPH 87.
˲ ˲ Opening Sequence selected for
film show SIGGRAPH 91.
˲ ˲ Participant in the SIGGRAPH
Future Search conference in Snow-
bird, 1994.
˲ ˲ Participant in the SIGGRAPH
strategy meetings in 2000, 2001,
2005 and 2006.
statement
I was first introduced to ACM
through the annual SIGGRAPH conference over 20 years ago. I immediately joined the local SIGGRAPH
chapter in Paris, France and started
volunteering for various activities. I
haven’t stopped since. Throughout
my volunteer career I have focused
on many aspects of ACM activities,
ranging from chapters, to SIGs,
to Council. I have also been a very
active volunteer in SIGGRAPH, our
largest SIG. With over 20 years of
management experience in the software industry and already 6 years
of service on the ACM executive
committee, I feel well equipped to
tackle the issues that the president
of this organization is expected to
manage. In my role as SIG Governing Board chair, I led the task force
that proposed and implemented
a new allocation model for the
SIGs, anticipating the technology
downturn that was to come when
the bubble burst and the impact we
expected it to have on ACM finances. That model was adopted by the
SIGs and helped the organization
weather the storm despite multimillion dollar losses engendered by
our largest SIG. I then focused my
efforts on ACM SIGGRAPH, after
being elected president, and took
the SIG’s finances from a 2½ million dollar loss when I came in, to
generating a modest surplus in my
last year.
Today, ACM is a healthy organiza-
tion that has weathered the recent
recession and sees membership
rising. The key challenges that I see
for ACM in upcoming years have to
do with our becoming a truly inter-
national organization and attract-
ing younger members into the
organization. As a French citizen
residing in Canada, I have firsthand
experience of what it means to be a
non-American member of our orga-
nization. I believe that I can use
that experience to help ACM truly
become the international organi-
zation it should be. Specifically, I
believe that we should strengthen
our presence in China and India,
continuing the effort that we have
started during my terms as trea-
surer, then vice president of the
ACM. I also believe that our general
presence worldwide can further be
enhanced through the changes in
the chapters program that I pro-
posed to the executive committee
and were then adopted by Council
last year.