Talent Story No. 1

“Arkhênum has always been a part of my personal and professional life.”

Laurent Onaïnty, Arkhênum’s current managing director, has known the company since its earliest days. An expert on the firm and the heritage sector, Laurent has spent most of his career at Arkhênum.

A thirst for history

While Laurent was rounding off five years studying history (specialising in archival work), he had to bring his studies to a close with an internship in 1999. And this was when Laurent first met Christian Chabrier, one of Arkhênum’s founders. Once the internship came to an end, Laurent soon became Arkhênum’s first employee in the role of operator. This permanent position helped him become proficient in the techniques of digitisation.

Scanners were still rudimentary at the time: they were also slow and only generated black-and-white images. And yet, as the current managing director explains, the machines never damaged the documents. Curators needed convincing that digitisation wouldn’t ruin their records through continuous exposure to light. “But it was when information technology finally started to be used in this cultural sector that our clients began to get frightened”, he says with hindsight! Their profession has now been revolutionised from top to bottom.

Educating heritage experts in every city

Laurent, who has seen digital technology and its uses metamorphose over the years, was soon promoted to the role of project manager to tackle the growing number of projects. In 2005, Laurent began to change tack, heading for Toulouse and a new job where he would be in direct contact with clients as a salesperson. At the time, Laurent responded to the needs of cultural institutions looking for advice about heritage digitisation and related services. He secured the loyalty of new clients for a decade or so in the south of France.

Spearheading a team of enthusiasts

It was the right time in 2016 for Arkhênum to become part of the MOBILITAS Group, which gave the company a window onto the world. MOBILITAS appointed Laurent managing director thanks to his knowledge of the company and the industry, not to mention his experience. “It was a dream come true,” he says now, “and like being thrown in at the deep end”. He set himself the goal of building on the energy of the company and its partners to give it a new, more diversified approach.

“My current job involves deciding on the direction we’re going to take in the years ahead, putting it into practice on a day-to-day basis, and sizing up the opportunities and risks. In short, it’s about setting development priorities that are always ambitious, but also realistic. A real rallying cry!”
By adopting this approach, Arkhênum was able to diversify successfully in the private sector (with the creation of the heritage business) and on the international stage (setting up in Switzerland and Germany).
Building a structured team and mutual trust has been vital to achieve these goals.

Proud of our achievements and living up to our name

“My enthusiasm for the job in this firm, which creates employee loyalty particularly well, is primarily down to the relationship we can have with the documents we process.” Among Arkhênum’s most recent large-scale projects, Laurent thinks back to the 2020 contract signed with the Wildenstein Plattner Institute (WPI) in France. The project was interesting for its own sake as it involved digitising the archives of experts in authenticating works of art. In addition, it meant that Arkhênum could carry on operating during the Covid pandemic while adhering to the necessary preventive measures.

Laurent also speaks fondly of the first major international project that the company won – with the UN – and digitising the archives of its ancestor, the League of Nations. “I’m proud of this shared adventure that introduced us to the ‘big league’ in the field of digitisation on the international stage. And we intend to carry on in the same way!”

Laurent sees Arkhênum as a shared adventure with employees who work together to help preserve heritage collections worldwide. It’s thanks to these teams that the firm has succeeded in building a global service based on preserving and promoting heritage. Arkhênum is handling more and more cases in France and internationally that require considerable technical expertise. These projects also have a genuine strategic dimension to them, particularly for private companies.

“Our job is also to respond to Arkhênum’s new rallying cry: Revealing the Past. Bringing people and things to light is in our profession’s DNA”, says Laurent. “We don’t just reveal an institution’s dormant heritage; we also shine a light on the individuals who make their way up our profession and become genuine talents”. Laurent concludes by adding: “Discovering or revealing your true self in a company, I hope that everyone has the same chance.” And Laurent knows what he’s talking about…

What motivates Laurent in his day-to-day work?

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