Pierre Blime, Managing Partner since 2005

pierre[at]horizondev.net

Fields of expertise:

Market & economic intelligence, Business development, Early strategic customer acquisition, market modeling & simulations, MVP evaluations, go-to-market strategy for innovation intensive products, user requirements & due diligence for software project management, executive & sales coaching & education, EU funding, regional economic development, SaaS, greentech, energy, airspace technology, travel industry, heritage management, energy & climate.

    • English
    • French
    • Swedish
    • Spanish
    • Italian

BIO

The day Estonia turned 100 years old, Pierre sent out congratulating messages to his closest Estonian friends. One friend (and a quite prominent Estonian personality) replied to him in those terms: “Thank you Pierre. But congratulations to you too: You have relentlessly contributed during the past 10 years and through your hard work and dedication to make this small nation into the great thing it has become today.”

As a Founding Member and a Managing Partner of Horizon Development, Pierre has dedicated himself to excellence in supporting small and larger private and public organizations to assess their market potential, review their tactical objectives and implement their go-to-market strategy.

Since 2002, Pierre has been supporting the growth of startup, small entrepreneurial and Fortune 500 innovation-centric companies that want to generate early sales without having to invest yet in a fully dedicated sales force. This was the idea when he created the Market Sniper program (www.marketsniper.eu) for early client acquisition or the Baltic Ambassador Programme for the Travel industry.

Thanks to Pierre and others, Horizon Development has specialized in several industries including: IT, ICT, software, airspace, food, finance, pharma, education, engineering, AI, energy and the travel industry.

Horizon Development has also been successfully supporting its clients accessing EU funds and has been a privileged partner to European, national, regional and local administrations involved in local economic development initiatives such as new transportation networks and the digitization of society with a mandate to deliver actionable business intelligence, to manage projects and to put in action plans that deliver tangible results.

Under Pierre’s guidance and resulting from both his previous experiences and his extensive business network connections, Horizon Development has been able to specializes mostly on innovation intensive clients – those clients for which the financing of their R&D with early stage investments is crucial and their capacity to transform technology into a valuable commercial proposition is even more crucial.

What Pierre has been successfully proposing to Horizon Development clients for over 15 years is a more hands-on, cost-effective and dedicated approach than any other competing advisory firms could afford to provide: Basically thinking, drafting and implementing the plan to get things done – taking the shortcuts whenever possible – making sure the necessary tactical preparations are well completed whenever critical.

In addition to consulting with private companies, Pierre has been directing many important local or environmental economic development projects in Sweden, France, the US and the Baltic States, thus acquiring a strong knowledge capacity in project funding, planning, implementation and reporting.

Prior to Horizon Development, Pierre was a researcher in environmental economics and policy at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School (1992-93), an MI officer in the French paratroopers in peacekeeping operations in Bosnia (1993-95), a Research Associate at the Department of Economics and Political Science at INSEAD (1995-98) (including at CALT, INSEAD’s pioneering Tech and Education Center) where he perfected his research and analysis skills in macroeconomics, infrastructure development, IT integration and investments. He participated to the publication of various academic papers, case-studies for executive or MBA education programs and books on economic, environmental, trade and industrial policies (including the best seller: Can Industrial Europe be Saved with INSEAD Professor O. Cadot). He then joined various large enterprises and consulting organizations (Groupe Patrick Alès, Boston Braun Consulting, Biogen, Ariad Nordic AB, Cambridge Information Systems) before acting as GIWA’s Senior Economist (grade 3: Senior Officer) with UNEP and UNDP in Sweden and Cuba (2003-2004), the last position he held before Horizon Development.

In addition to manage Horizon Development, Pierre is a board advisor to several companies in Europe, an occasional advisor to the Estonian Development Agency (EAS), the Estonian Chamber of Commerce (KODA), the Swedish Tourism Board and a lecturer at various universities in the Nordic region. Pierre holds an MA in economic development and International trade from Boston University, an MPP from Harvard, an MBA from Babson College and a MSc in mathematical modeling from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. He is perfectly fluent and works regularly in English, French, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian and Italian. He has some practice in other languages including Estonian and Russian.

Previous positions: See full profile on LinkedIn

  • UNDP/UNEP Senior Officer (Swe, Cuba)
  • PWP Partners (Estonia)
  • Braun Consulting (USA)
  • Cambridge Information Systems (USA)
  • Ariad Nordic AB (Sweden)
  • Groupe Patric Ales (France)
  • INSEAD Dept of Economics (France)
  • French Army officer (France + overseas)
  • Harvard University Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (USA)

Education:

  • MBA, Olin Graduate School of Management at Babson College
  • Mathematical models & statistics, Royal Institute of Technology KTH
  • MA Economics, BA Economics & Mathematics, Boston University
  • BA Geography, Sorbonne Paris IV
  • Army Officer, Ecoles Militaires Speciales de St Cyr

Favorite quotes:

    • "The sum of energy differentials is equal to zero" (universal law of physics)
    • "L'audace...toujours l'audace" (Frederik II re-quoted by Gal Patton)

Professional and academic publications:

Peer-reviewed Publications


  • Pierre Blime, Mainstreaming CSR among SMEs in the Baltic States, PWP, European Commission Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry (2008)
  • UNEP-UNDP 2004, Beltran J., Blime P., Villasol A., The Caribbean Islands, Regional Assessment 4, University of Kalmar, Kalmar, 186 pages.(book report)
  • Blime P., Cadot O., Can Industrial Europe Be Saved? CER Press, London, 1996, 44 pages
  • Charles Cogan, Oldest Allies Guarded Friends, Praeger, 1994, 234 pages (research, comments, writing, peer-reviewed & translation, as part of Harvard University sponsored project)

Manuscripts

    • UNEP-UNDP, Blime P., (2004) Pollution and the Eutrophication of Waters, A Policy Response Analysis, GIWA Global Report, Kalmar University, 27 pages.
    • UNEP-UNDP, Blime P., (2004) Overexploitation of Living Resources, A Policy Response Analysis, GIWA Global Report, Kalmar University, 29 pages.
    • Blime P., Parson E. (1994), Industrial Organization and Cooperation in the Phaseout of CFCs, Harvard University Press No. 9493 – 388, 13 pages.
    • Blime P., Evaluation Program in Preparation of the Management of French Armed Forces in the Post-Draft Era, Internal publication, C3E, 1996, 33 pages.

Research Support to Professional Articles

o Cadot, O., Röller, L.H., Stephan, A., (2002) Contribution to Productivity of Pork Barrel? The Two Faces of Infrastructure Investment, Discussion Paper No FS IV 02-09, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin fur Sozilaforschung (WZB), 35 pages.

o Cadot O., Roller L.H., Stephan A., (1999) A Political Economy Model of Infrastructure Allocation: An Empirical Assessment, Discussion Paper No FS IV 99-15, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin fur Sozialforschung (WZB) , 33 pages.

o Cadot O., Desruelle, D. (1998) Who Does the R, who does the D? Journal of International Economics, Vol 46, pp. 87-103, North-Holland, Amsterdam

Press

o Äripaev, Pierre Blime: Estonia should pay more attention to tourism, July 24, 2009

o Eesti Paevaleht, Pierre Blime Erusõjaväelane elustab Sinimägede ajalugu (Pierre Blime revives the past of the Blue Hill Mountains) Oct 6, 2006

o Pohjarannik, Pierre Blime imetleb Sinimägesid (Pierre Blime to manage the Blue Mountain Project), Aug 26, 2006

o La Tribune, Les francais prennent place dans le laboratoire estonien (French are taking a stake in the Estonian lab), Jan 4, 2006

o Wall Street Journal, Blime P., Cadot, O., Do Europe Industries Still Have a Future?, Jan 14, 1996, 1 page.