Survive and thrive

The article below was originally published in How to Survive and Thrive – Special Edition, a book I had the privilege of co-authoring alongside Joe Foster, founder of Reebok. It remains the intellectual property of Golden Nugget Editions.

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As a global managing director in data and artificial intelligence, and a professional coach for executives and startups, Julien’s worldview was shaped by his upbringing in the French Basque Country. Beyond its rugged beauty between the Atlantic Ocean and the mountains, it was the way of life there that has defined him. The deep sense of community, resilience, and pride rooted in the landscape gave him a lasting appreciation for life’s simple things.

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“Nature has never been something apart from me,” he says. From childhood, Julien immersed himself in everything the region had to offer, from the thrill of hiking in the mountains to surfing the wild Atlantic waves. These experiences nurtured not only his adventurous spirit but also a deep curiosity about the wider world. Julien’s parents also taught him the importance of living a humble, dignified life rooted in compassion and loyalty. He describes his upbringing as “a very unique balance between a lot of love but also a lot of discipline.” As a child, he was always encouraged to give his best, “especially at school or in music.” Alongside his love of the outdoors, Julien became a talented classical musician. He was supported by his mother, who encouraged excellence in everything he did. He says, “It helped me grow and build resilience, and it taught me that hard work would always matter. Early gifts mean nothing without discipline.”

It wasn’t only Julien’s parents who shaped his values. His grandparents left an equally profound mark. Their love story was the stuff of legend, running away from France and defying families who vehemently disapproved of their relationship. With nothing but each other, they arrived in the 1950s in a country they knew nothing about and somehow built a joyful life as teachers before returning to France twenty years later.

In an unfamiliar place, with a different culture and way of life, they thrived thanks to patience and kindness. Their tale of love, devotion, resilience, and courage left a lasting impression on Julien.

While studying for a business degree at the University of Bordeaux, Julien found himself juggling multiple commitments. He worked part-time, played in an orchestra at a semi professional level, began conducting his own ensemble, and coached tennis, including young kids with autism. His parents, he recalls, “always wanted to push, push, push,” immersing him in many different worlds. Though it was challenging at the time, he now recognises how it taught him to “adapt quickly, manage pressure, stay organised, and, perhaps most importantly, discover different sides of myself.”

Today, as both a creative soul and a recognised senior leader in data analytics and AI, it is no surprise that Julien describes himself as driven by both “emotions and data.” He makes decisions with his “heart and head,” believing this balance yields the best outcomes. This philosophy is also reflected in his compassionate leadership style. “I’ve led organisations with big teams and big projects, but without an authoritarian stance,” he explains. Inspired by his parents’ example and, in particular, his grandfather’s influence, Julien focuses on cultivating communities that want to work with him, even as he makes hard decisions, putting kindness and respect at the heart of everything he does.

Julien recalls being very young when his parents took him, his brother, and his sister on long journeys across many different countries in a small van. During these trips, he was exposed to situations of extreme poverty. “There were families with absolutely nothing,” he remembers. “Yet they were always kind and welcoming. It deeply affected me and opened my eyes to the vast inequalities in the world.”

Those experiences also gave him a fearless attitude towards business — a willingness to take risks and dive in, knowing that even failure could never compare to the hardships he had witnessed as a child.

“Authenticity is the foundation of greatness.”

However, with faith in himself and trust in the people around him, Julien carried an unshakeable belief that he could thrive in any field he chose. He is driven by a strong sense of purpose and a desire for his work to make a positive impact. Whether through coaching, social initiatives, creating products that make life easier, or scaling successful businesses, his guiding principle remains “keeping humanity at the heart of everything I do.”

Although his upbringing prepared him to succeed, Julien knows that not everything in life can be anticipated — a truth he came to appreciate even more during his many travels, where he found himself in all sorts of precarious situations. One day, while he was on a backpacking trip, a small, rickety train winding through the mountains was halted by masked men carrying Kalashnikovs. Following everyone’s lead, Julien dove under the seats until the men took what they wanted and left. On another occasion, a drunk bus driver almost fell asleep while navigating the infamous Death Road in Bolivia, throwing the entire bus into chaos. This time, Julien stepped in, stopped the bus, and insisted the driver pull over, even offering to take the wheel himself. In his mid-twenties, he displayed remarkable composure, and his travels honed his self-reliance.

Another challenge came when, as an active sportsman, he developed severe pain in his leg. At first, he assumed it was a muscle injury, but as the pain worsened, he found himself relying on painkillers and shuttling in and out of hospitals for tests. After nine months of suffering without knowing what was happening, doctors finally identified the cause: a tumour embedded deep in the bone, which developed due to an excessive amount of sport. Though benign, it required a complex operation that carried the risk of severe damage to his leg. Fortunately, the operation was successful, but it served as a reminder of how quickly life can change, and of the importance of balance, even in the pursuit of intensive sport.

“True strength begins with vulnerability.”

Undeterred, Julien later set himself the challenge of climbing a 6,000-metre peak in South America. This was no ordinary mountain trek but a demanding, multi-day high-altitude ascent, roped together with his guide and progressing across steep ice with crampons and ice axes. At high altitude, he was struck by severe food poisoning. “I could barely move,” he recalls. Unable to keep any food down, he pushed his body to its limits. During the final night stretch, in the middle of a snowstorm, his strength gave out, but his determination didn’t waver. Trusting the people around him, he left part of his backpack behind in a small hole carved into the snow and continued towards the summit, arriving at sunrise against a backdrop of snowcapped peaks. “I reached the summit completely vulnerable and a bit destroyed,” he reflects. “But the climb stopped being about performance and became about resilience and trust.”

Resilience has been a defining theme throughout Julien’s life, and it was tested to its limits when his whole world changed in just a few days after moving to London. He had decided to leave a secure and successful job in Germany, where he had worked for almost ten years, to take on a new role in the UK. At the same time, significant changes in his personal life quietly reshaped the foundations he had built over the previous decade. A few days after the move, and on top of everything else, Julien’s life was upended by a diagnosis of compartment syndrome in his leg — a severe condition caused by years of intense sport, in which pressure builds dangerously within the muscles. Doctors ordered him to stop walking immediately, warning that continuing could cost him the muscle entirely.

“Keep humanity at the heart of innovation.”

With no friends nearby, a brand-new job with unfamiliar colleagues, his family in another country, big changes in his personal life, and a body recovering from injury, Julien had little choice but to surrender. To his surprise, this period became one of profound personal growth. He allowed himself to cry, to pour his thoughts onto paper and songs, and to find solace in silence. In the process, he learned patience and began the work of truly rebuilding himself.

“So much of my identity was tied to status,” Julien reflects. “My career, my relationship, my friends, my colleagues, sport — it was all external. When that suddenly vanished, I was forced to ask myself: Who am I without it?” It took more than a year for him to work through the turmoil, and heal. Over time, his body fully recovered, and he was able to return to sport at the same level as before. Throughout that period, he remained deeply committed to his work, not only maintaining his performance but finding in it a structure and sense of purpose that helped him move forward.

But emerging from that difficult time, Julien found himself not diminished, but renewed and ready to thrive again, with a deeper understanding that no amount of external success can equal internal fulfilment. He also remained acutely aware that his challenges were nothing compared to what many others endure. That awareness, combined with a deep sense of gratitude for what he had, made him stronger.

Now, one of Julien’s passions is artificial intelligence, and while he is optimistic about its potential to change the world for the better, he is equally aware of the profound challenges and risks it brings. He began working with AI in 2016, before the recent wave of generative models brought the technology into the mainstream, and he sees it as something to embrace thoughtfully rather than fear. While AI systems are becoming increasingly capable at analysing information, recognising patterns, and generating text, images, and code, Julien believes that some aspects of human intelligence remain difficult to replicate.

“Roles that rely heavily on emotional intelligence, empathy, and human connection,” he suggests, “are likely not only to endure but to become even more important.” Leadership in particular, he argues, will continue to matter because it depends on trust, judgement, and authentic human presence.

After joining one of MIT’s AI research programmes in 2019, Julien met leading scientists, including Turing Award winners and the so-called “godfathers of AI.” These conversations reinforced his view that today’s AI systems, despite their impressive capabilities, still operate largely through statistical learning and pattern recognition rather than genuine understanding. “AI and machine learning models,” he explains, “are extraordinarily powerful at identifying correlations in vast amounts of data. But what they produce is not the same as human comprehension or imagination. Generative AI is bringing us closer to systems that appear creative, but there is still an important distinction between generating outputs from patterns and truly understanding the world.”

Julien believes education is key to helping people understand how AI can positively shape their lives. With reskilling, he argues, society will adapt more easily and come to value the uniquely human qualities that technology cannot easily replicate.

At the same time, he believes the rapid progress of AI places humanity in uncharted territory. Systems are advancing at a pace that could soon surpass human capabilities in many domains, making thoughtful governance more urgent than ever. Without clear ethical frameworks and responsible regulation, he warns, the same technology that promises enormous benefits could also create profound risks. For Julien, the challenge of this generation is therefore not only to build powerful AI, but to ensure it develops in a way that remains aligned with human values and the long-term interests of society.

Beyond his interest in how society will interact with artificial intelligence in the near future, Julien is also a professional executive coach and an active presence in the start-up scene. He is an angel investor and, a few years ago, co-founded a non-profit organisation dedicated to offering free coaching to those who would otherwise lack access to support. “We built a team of highly professional and passionate volunteers,” he recalls. At its peak, the initiative had a global reach, with a company of over fifty people and hundreds of registered coaches helping people navigate personal and professional challenges. Scaling further, however, proved difficult. “Many volunteers couldn’t make a long-term commitment due to their day jobs, and we weren’t able to secure the funding needed to take it to the next level,” he explains. For now, the platform is on hiatus, but the experience strengthened his conviction that, with good leadership and people willing to dedicate some of their personal time and knowledge to the community, big things can happen.

Recognised globally as an influential leader who consistently shares insightful, high-quality content, Julien is also a sought-after keynote speaker, particularly known for his expertise in AI and leadership. One of his proudest achievements, however, was being named one of Germany’s ‘Top 40 Under 40’ during his time in Munich, an honour celebrating the country’s most outstanding leaders. Yet what made him proud was not the title itself, but the journey it represented — reaching that point while always staying true to his values and leading with kindness and empathy. It was also deeply meaningful because the recognition came from a country that had welcomed him with open arms and given him so much, a country to which he has always sought to give back in return.

“Carry your origins as your compass, not your anchor.”

At 34, Julien experienced another turning point, with the loss of his beloved grandfather. “He’s one of the few people who truly shaped the values I carry with me today,” Julien reflects. The two shared a love of hiking and adventure, leaving Julien with countless cherished memories. But more than that, it was his grandfather’s deep respect for others and his constant willingness to help — especially those in need — that left the greatest mark. “In many ways, his death pushed me to reflect on the kind of person I want to be. I realised the best way to honour him is to live by the values he gave me.”

For Julien, those values, shared by his parents and family, continue to guide his life and work: helping others, treating everyone equally regardless of wealth or status, being authentic, making time for people, and showing kindness to all. It is a legacy his grandfather would surely be proud of.