Day 2’s keynote at Bentley Systems Year in Infrastructure 2024, held in Vancouver, brings forth a slew of announcements of the future arriving. We are to see AI implemented in OpenSite+, for example. We also have a revelation: Bentley Systems has become international.
Nicholas Cumins is taking the stage for the first time as Bentley System CEO. Last year, he was COO, and then-CEO Greg Bentley may have had one foot off the stage. None of the Bentley brothers are in sight, though Keith will make an appearance at the Awards dinner.
I wasn’t sure what to expect in Vancouver. It was a little weird to be at the annual event that featured the Bentleys.
Here was Nicholas Cumins kicking off Day 2, and following him, there were many new faces, many of them not from anywhere near Exton, Pennsylvania (near Philadelphia), where Bentley Systems is headquartered.
- Nicholas Cumins himself was born in France. The Internet will not say where.
- CTO Julien Moutte lives in Barcelona.
- Francois Valois, VP of Civil Infrastructure, lives in Quebec, Canada
- Susanne Trierscheid, VP, lives in Munich, Germany.
- Oliver Conze hails from Heidelberg, Germany
- Greg Demchak, VP, Emerging Technologies, US-born and educated, lives in London, UK.
With this international crew, perhaps Bentley Systems will be able to shed any perception of being a local or US-centered business, able to secure all of the US DoTs as customers. They have made much progress in shedding this perception with all the international projects shown at Year in Infrastructure year after year. The additional cast of executives will seal the deal.
Maybe Bentley Systems should now be called Bentley International.