History

Chronological Development of the Unisys Centre

1968 : UIEC (Univac International Executive Centre).  Univac is a division of Sperry Rand

The first international Management Centre was founded in the autumn of 1968 at “Les Aigles”, a villa on the Via Cassia near Rome. The UNIVAC International Executive Centre (UIEC), as it was then called, was dedicated to the advancement of management sciences and computer applications. During the nine years of its existence in Rome its guests included world-renowned statesmen, business leaders and scientists. The centre originally held one seminar a week led by Norman Sander who master minded the seminars and played host to a great number of many important business executives and government officials. The initial idea of the centre was to bring Univac into closer contact with senior customer management in order to improve its sales of computer hardware.

1977: SUIEC (Sperry Univac International Executive Centre)

In August 1977 the centre was moved to Saint-Paul-de-Vence in the South of France.

SUIEC organised 1 event per week and the team comprised of 5 people.

Through its informal yet stimulating atmosphere, the centre provides an ideal venue for building and strengthening business relationships. Away from the daily distractions of the office, guests are free to conduct business, exchange ideas and network with industry experts.

25 January 1978: Inaurguration ceremony of SUIEC, Saint-Paul-de-Vence

A formal invite was sent inviting many people to the inauguration of the second seminar centre.

1983: SIMC (Sperry International Management Centre)

In 1986, 78 events are organised through the year with an average of 2 events per week. The team is comprised of 10 people.

1987: UIMC (Unisys International Management Centre)

Sperry and Burroughs merge and become Unisys.

The Centre hosted a range of seminars and other management events that demonstrate Unisys knowledge of key vertical markets and the trends that affect them.

Today:

The UIMC has 2 to 4 events per week including weekends with approximately 2500 participants from over 1200 Companies and 50 nationalities as well as over 500 speakers a year.

16 Unisys members are working at the UIMC with 30 subcontractors on site and many more off site.

This centre has improved and confirmed Unisys’s growing understanding of its customers.

The former Managing Directors of the seminar centres:

Some historical elements of the centre in Saint-Paul-de-Vence

The bell from Her Majesty's Ship London

The bell from Her Majesty’s Ship London was presented by Unisys UK (then Sperry Univac) to the UIMC in July 1981. HMS “London” is one of the most historic in the Royal Navy. The bell was given to Sperry during an extensive refit of the ship in 1972, in recognition of the long relationship between the company and the Royal Navy and was presented to the Centre in 1981.

The sculpture 'The Five Continents'

Created by Carlo Nicolo in Carrara marble is the symbol for international communication.

The watercolour 'Village of Saint-Paul'

Painted by the artist Murray Zannoni was inaugurated in November 1985. This watercolor was used as a new print style in many seminar programmes.

The collage painting 'L'air du Temps'

Donated to UIMC by the artist Serge Damon. This local artist exhibited his abstract work at the UIMC in 1991 and 1994.

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