Lionel Martellini (EDHEC Quantum Institute): Why business leaders need quantum awareness, not quantum washing

Yuval Boger interviews Lionel Martellini, finance professor at the EDHEC and founding director of the EDHEC Quantum Institute. Lionel describes his unusual path from finance to astrophysics and why business schools should teach quantum awareness to future leaders. They discuss core quantum concepts, the danger of overhyping “quantum washing,” and the real prospects for quantum applications in finance. The conversation also explores executive education, practical use cases, and how businesses should prepare for quantum technologies. Yuval Boger: Hello Lionel, and thank you for being here today. Lionel Martellini: Hi, it’s a pleasure. Yuval: So who are you and what do you do? Lionel: Ah, it’s a good question. Who am I? That’s a tough one. Well, I guess I’ve lived a large part of my life in a state of superposition between being a finance professor, first in the US and then I moved back to France, my home country, and I started a career as a finance professor at EDHEC Business School, which is one of these top European institutions. And that’s one part of my life. And then on the side, I kind of kept pursuing a career, or not really a career, but just doing physics on…