Romain Lacombe graduated in 2006 with a Diplôme d'Ingénieur from Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, where he specialized in Physics, Applied Mathematics and Economics, and in 2008 with a Master of Science in Technology Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston. After consulting with McKinsey & Company and the World Bank Independent Evaluation Group, he launched in 2008 a mobile geolocation startup located in Silicon Valley which he later sold to investors. Back in France in 2010, he initiated a report on Open Data and its promises written with ParisTech students and researchers, which he presented to the Minister for Industry, Energy and the Digital Economy Mr Eric Besson this past July. Romain Lacombe joined Etalab in February 2011, where he is in charge of innovation.