Nicolas Windpassinger

Nicolas Windpassinger is a French-born global technology executive and the author of Digitize or Die: Transform Your Organization, Embrace the Digital Evolution, Rise Above the Competition (Pang Publishing, 2017), one of the most-cited business books on the Internet of Things and digital transformation for executives. The book is written for senior leadership of midsize and enterprise companies trying to translate the IoT opportunity into concrete strategy, organizational change, business models, and execution, rather than for the engineers building the underlying technology.

Digitize or Die is structured around the entire IoT value chain, from sensors and connectivity protocols up through platforms and applications, but its argument runs the other direction: technology alone never produces transformation, and the cultural, organizational, and leadership work is the harder and more important part of the journey. Windpassinger draws heavily on his own experience running a global technology partner program, with chapters on the role of middle management, the OT and IT gap, partner ecosystems, business model innovation, and the executive habits that distinguish successful digital transformations from failed ones.

At Schneider Electric he served as Global Vice President of the EcoXpert Partner Program, the company's worldwide alliance program connecting technology providers and system integrators in the smart-building and IoT space. Under his leadership the program was recognized with the CRN Channel Company 5-Star Partner Program rating for both 2017 and 2018, and he was included on the CRN Top Midmarket IT Executives list. Before Schneider Electric his career spanned more than fifteen years across the telecom and computer networking industry, including roles at Nortel Networks and Avaya, the leading IT system integrator Spie, and the early-2000s telecom startup ToutOPhone. He has lived in France, Australia, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United States.