Chères et chers collègues,
David Avison a reçu l'AIS LEO award lors de la dernière conférence ICIS. A cette occasion, il a souhaité remercier la communauté française en SI et m'a autorisé à vous transférer son mail. Sa carrière est exceptionnelle et ses encouragements montrent à quel point nous pouvons être fiers d'appartenir à la communauté francophone en SI.
Amitiés
Amandine Pascal
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Dear Amandine
I was fortunate to be presented with the AIS LEO award for lifetime achievement in San Francisco last month. On the occasion of my retirement, I wish to express my gratitude to AIM and the French IS community more generally in which I have been a part for the past 18 years (20 years if you count sabbaticals). I am particularly grateful to Frantz Rowe who kindly guided me to my HDR which was one of the highlights of my career. French colleagues Jacky Akoka, Rolande Marciniak, and Robert Reix (sadly passed away) kindly acted as examiners. I have thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed the all too few AIM conferences that I have attended. I have only attended four or five - at Cergy, Nantes, Toulouse, La Reunion and I think Aix, but all have been excellent, and I was also a member of faculty at two doctoral consortia in France. I was proud to receive a 'best paper' award at the La Reunion conference. French colleagues, such as François-Xavier de Vaujany and Nathalie Mitev, kindly acted as examiners to my own PhD students. Most recently I have published a series of papers with my French colleague at ESSEC, Julien Malaurent. All this to say how highly I rate the French IS community despite my too infrequent participation. I have two excuses. I hope that you find the first reasonable. Over the past few years I have spent a lot of time working with the AIS to the detriment of other opportunities for using my time. Again I was grateful to Frantz Rowe who helped me to push through the case for ICIS venues to be circulated through each of the three AIS regions, a proposal which was passed by AIS Council during my presidency of the AIS. This put a stop to the North American bias of ICIS conference sites. Indeed Frantz was the inspiration behind this proposal. ICIS has now become international in fact whereas previously it was only international in name. By the way, I believe that the Paris ICIS, which took place during my presidential year, is still the highest attended ICIS of all time (San Francisco nearly made it, but not quite). My second excuse is, I realize, lamentable and that is my poor knowledge of the French language (an excuse made only worse by the fact that I have been married to a French woman for over 50 years). In conclusion, I repeat how much I have enjoyed and learned from the French IS community and I see it growing even stronger.
I am very happy for this letter to be forwarded to AIM members if you wish.
Indeed, I hope it is sent so that I can thank French colleagues and recognize the excellence of the French IS community and its part in my career.
Sincerely
David Avison
Distinguished Emeritus Professor in Information Systems ESSEC Business School.