After graduating from French business schools ESSCA and ESSEC, Laurent Idrac started his career with AccorHotels in 1983 where he held several positions in operations and support functions (finance, marketing and reservations). He notably managed all the worldwide call centers. From 2002 to 2012, he ran IT Departments for Accor North America. He relocated to France in 2012 to be appointed Global Chief Information Officer for AccorHotels. Laurent Idrac has taken part in numerous IT projects including the design and roll-out of TARS (The Accor Reservation system), which is used by the group’s 4,300 hotels, and of FOLS in-house PMS (Property Management System) in 2,000+ hotels, as well as the management of CRM and sales force automation projects. From 2012 to 2017, he manages AccorHotels’ partnership with the Innovation Factory, the first innovation campus cluster in Paris.
In 2014, Laurent Idrac has also been elected member of the Board of Governors of the association Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG) which defines technology standards in hotels. He is a member of the Customer Advisory Boards of Oracle and Amadeus Hospitality. In 2017, he received the Innovation Award from CHTA (China Hospitality Technology Alliance).
In March 2018, Laurent Idrac returned to the US and is working as an independent consultant.