The Executive Edge Podcast

A Conversation with Marie-Laure Pochon, CEO of 3DISC

Host: Dr. Aman Kaur
Guest: Marie-Laure Pochon, CEO of 3DISC

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability.

Dr. Aman Kaur: This is The Executive Edge, and I’m Aman Kaur. Today I’m here with Marie-Laure Pochon, CEO of 3DISC. Thank you so much for being here. I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you came all the way from Paris. Did you arrive yesterday or today?

Marie-Laure Pochon: Yesterday.

Aman: How was the flight?

Marie-Laure: Long, but perfect.

Aman: I’m sure you’re accustomed to these flights. You come to the United States about 10 times a year, and you travel around the globe.

Marie-Laure: Absolutely. This is my life.

Aman: You’re the CEO of 3DISC, which people often describe as a scanner company. You’re not new to healthcare, but you have a long history in pharmaceuticals. Before we get into dentistry, help us get to know Marie-Laure.

Marie-Laure: I’ll try to keep it short. I’m an engineer by education, so I tend to look first at the object, what it is and what should be done with it—very much from a technology perspective.

I then spent more than 30 years in the pharmaceutical industry with large companies including Merck and Pfizer. I spent 13 years with Merck and six years with Pfizer, holding important roles in France. Later, I became the number-two executive at Lundbeck, a €3 billion company in Denmark, where I led worldwide sales. It was a long journey, and I loved that time.

Aman: Did you always know that you would one day become a senior executive at major companies and eventually run your own organization?

Marie-Laure: To be honest, I think so. We have a history of entrepreneurship in my family; I’m the fourth generation. My first interaction with a real company was with my father when I was seven years old, and I thought running a company would be my life.

When I joined Merck at 22, I thought my goal was eventually to lead an affiliate. Things progressed rather quickly.

Aman: So, very early in life, you knew you wanted to run a company. That’s significant. Most young people are thinking about what they want to do for the weekend.

You went from Merck to Pfizer, then to running a global organization in Denmark, and now to dentistry. How do you like dentistry?

Marie-Laure: Dentistry was a deliberate choice. I left the pharmaceutical industry because things were becoming extremely slow due to regulation and long development cycles. As the number-two executive at Lundbeck, I felt that only the successor to my successor might know whether my decisions had been right or wrong. That wasn’t for me. I wanted to make an impact in a shorter period of time.

I was around 49 and wondering what I should do next. After research and conversations, I concluded that dentistry was a field in which there was so much work to do and so much opportunity to bring greater clinical value.

My first impression of dentistry came when I was a child. My grandmother had her teeth, but some of her friends did not. I thought it was very sad because they couldn’t interact properly. They couldn’t smile or eat in the same way. It seemed unfair.

When I looked more deeply at dentistry 10 or 15 years ago, I saw a field that needed to move from curative care toward preventive care—and, eventually, predictive care. Even in the Western world, only about half of the population receives proper dental treatment. That isn’t enough. What can we bring to the market to move that from 50% to 90%?

Aman: When I was in dental school, we were taught that an extraction represented a failure of dentistry. This was before implants were so prevalent. Patients would sometimes say, “If I don’t have the money to save it, let’s just pull it.” That would break my heart. I would tell them, “You need all of your teeth.” They would ask why, and I’d say, “You have 10 fingers. You wouldn’t want to lose one—why would you want to lose one of your teeth?”

Marie-Laure: That belief still exists sometimes. We’re much better than we were 10 years ago, but we remain too focused on curative treatment. We need to move toward prevention and, after that, prediction.

We also need clearer guidelines, KPIs and other measures that make dentistry more mature and more widely recognized. Dentistry doesn’t receive the recognition it should. When the mouth is healthy, overall health benefits.

Aman: We’re finally beginning to have that conversation across the industry. You said that you wanted the impact of your decisions to be broader and longer-lasting. That comes with a great deal of responsibility. Tell me more about that mindset and what made you believe you could make that impact.

Marie-Laure: We never truly know whether we’re right or wrong. What matters is having a vision and understanding the kind of impact you want to make. That has always been part of my story.

If you run a company and don’t know the strategic direction—even if it is only a five-year view—nothing can align behind it. It’s what you’ve done with Women in DSO. You had a vision, and it’s fantastic.

After you define the vision, you have to travel the long road through the good and the bad, and you have to bring people with you. That is one of life’s most beautiful adventures: trying to reach the dream.

Aman: Who has helped you on that journey? We often hear about the difficulty of creating work-life balance. How has that looked in your life and for the people around you?

Marie-Laure: I had the good fortune of a first marriage that lasted 26 years, and we had two beautiful children. My husband was a wonderful man and a banker. Very sadly, he died in a skiing avalanche.

Those 26 years were wonderful, and he was enormously supportive. None of what happened in my career during that time would have been possible without his help. My mother’s help was also very important.

Aman: How did you choose to marry him?

Marie-Laure: I was in love.

Aman: What made him worthy of your love?

Marie-Laure: He was happy that I worked. At the time, many potential partners might have thought, “She will work; that’s nice.” But he was genuinely happy that I worked, because he was happy when I was happy. That made a big difference.

I remarried 12 years ago, and it is the same story. It’s beautiful. I think I choose well.

But no, my life is not balanced. I work too much. Work is by far my first priority—along with my children and, now, my grandchildren—but I work too much.

Aman: Thank you for admitting that. Does your work get you out of bed every morning? Are you excited to start working?

Marie-Laure: Of course. I love it. My work gets me out of bed, but I also want a wonderful family. I want to be a kind of head of the family, and I think it works well.

Aman: Where does that drive come from?

Marie-Laure: My mother. She had difficulty having children, and she fought to have me. I think I inherited a kind of strength from her without doing anything to earn it—simply because she was who she was.

Aman: I’m sure your children draw inspiration from watching you.

Marie-Laure: Probably. My son is an entrepreneur who runs an important fintech company in France, and my daughter is also an entrepreneur.

Aman: Thank you for sharing that.

Marie-Laure: To be frank, this is the first time in my life that I’ve been so open. But you asked me.

Aman: Now let’s turn to 3DISC. You’re leading a company that builds scanners here in the Washington, D.C., area. With the rapid digitalization of dentistry, it’s a highly competitive industry. How do you stay competitive?

Marie-Laure: I think we’re different because we are more dental. First, we’re a very global company. There are 16 nationalities represented at 3DISC. We have people from all over the world, and that brings very different perspectives to every problem. For me, that is critical.

Second, we understand that this is a race. Our assets are that we are global and deeply dental. We have seven dentists working inside the company, so I believe we are more grounded in dentistry than many of our competitors.

Aman: Has that been helpful? Dentists can have strong opinions about how things should be done.

Marie-Laure: It is very important to us. On one side, we have PhDs and engineers; on the other, we have dentists. We also work with 32 reference dentists around the world each year. They are invested in our progress and want to influence our products. We may not gather them in person often, but we speak with them very regularly. That gives us greater speed. We aren’t perfect, of course, but these are strong assets.

When we launched 3DISC, we initially focused on developing markets. That was the focus of our first product, OVO. We sold nearly 10,000 scanners over four years, with significant demand in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Eastern Europe.

With OVO 3, which we launched six months ago, we now have a premium product that is on par with the best in the category. We are launching in Western Europe and, of course, the United States. Those markets are now our first priority.

Aman: You’re making consequential decisions at a time when technology is moving faster than ever. How do you make choices that you believe will hold up five or even 10 years from now?

Marie-Laure: That is a very good and very difficult question. I try to maintain a 360-degree view every day—not only within dentistry. Because we are both an American and French company, I work closely with important research institutions in France, including the CNRS. I engage with brilliant researchers to understand what is coming.

So far, we have been quite successful. We created an advanced AI team four years ago, when very few were doing so. But it is always a bet. You often have to wait two or three years before you know whether a decision was right or wrong.

Aman: It really is difficult. We make so many decisions every day. Sometimes I say, “Let’s launch it and let the market tell us.” But your decisions can be very expensive.

Marie-Laure: It’s difficult because we’re in a market where we have to earn our money. As I said, it is a race. You need the most robust and advanced product while simultaneously anticipating the future. You have to do everything at once, and that’s difficult.

I believe 3DISC’s most difficult period is behind us. We now have a very good product and know we’re on the right track. What we plan to launch very soon will make a real impact in the dental world. We started behind some competitors, but we are progressively moving ahead in many areas.

Aman: If your team is listening, how do you think they would describe Marie-Laure as their boss and CEO?

Marie-Laure: They would probably say that I’m strong and perhaps a little difficult some days. I remain very neutral; I don’t shout. But I want things done yesterday. They would probably also say, “She wants everything at the same time. This is impossible.”

Aman: I can relate. All CEOs face that dilemma. We need everything yesterday and at the same time, but how do you maintain morale during those periods?

Marie-Laure: By sharing the vision. Smiles are important. Trust is important. You must share the vision and provide sincere recognition when the work is done very well. Some days are difficult—very difficult—but we have to do what we have to do.

Aman: You have a new product coming later this year. What else is next for 3DISC?

Marie-Laure: The new product—or products—will be a game changer for us and for the market. Looking two or three years ahead, we have another technology plan, but I don’t want to disclose much because it’s confidential. It is a completely new technology.

Aman: Are you excited? Do you feel ready?

Marie-Laure: Of course I’m excited. We aren’t ready yet, but we will be.

The biggest difficulty in research and product development is time management. You must plan the timing carefully. If you’re too slow, you won’t remain competitive. If you’re overly aggressive, you won’t meet your deadlines. You always have to balance the timeline.

Aman: Tell us more about the new product.

Marie-Laure: There is a reality in dentistry: patients’ trust in their dentist is not as high as it should be. A commonly cited U.S. figure is 61%. When patients are asked whether they trust their cardiologist or rheumatologist, the figures are closer to 90% and 88%.

When you look deeper, part of the reason is that dental patients have little information they can use to understand or compare what they’re being told. Our product will allow a dentist to show a patient—in less than 60 seconds—a complete view of what is happening in the patient’s mouth. It combines 3D and 2D imagery, is AI-driven and is completely automatic. Because it uses a scanner, there is no X-ray.

The dentist can show the patient where there is a cavity, plaque or a broken tooth. We have tested the product extensively, and its beauty is the connection it creates between dentist and patient. Patients can see what is actually in their mouths and locate each problem themselves.

It also means the dentist no longer has to “sell” the treatment in the traditional sense. The issue is visible: “You have a problem here and another issue here.” The patient can also understand the urgency. In our testing, treatment acceptance increased from an average of 1.2 treatments without the tool to 2.2 treatments with it. It truly is a game changer.

When I effectively created the current 3DISC in 2020, my vision was that intraoral scanning should bring more clinical value to the dentist. The first tool in this area was Scan & Tell, introduced in April 2024 and included with our scanners. Scan & Tell lets a dentist display 3D and 2D imagery, but without AI.

Dentists loved it, but they told us that manually locating and explaining everything on the screen was not easy. AI changes that. First, it can save the dentist roughly five minutes of treatment discussion. Second, it improves acceptance. Third, it makes the patient relationship easier because patients can see what is in their own mouths. They can proactively say yes, rather than reactively agreeing to something they don’t fully understand.

Aman: Technologies like computer vision put the patient and dentist on the same side of the table, looking at the same information together. Then it becomes a matter of solving the problem together.

Marie-Laure: Exactly. This is already common in the pharmaceutical and medical fields, where patients and clinicians can look at the same KPIs and health indicators. With diabetes or hypertension, for example, the patient and physician examine the same measures. It becomes easier to create what we might call a therapeutic contract: “You are my specialist. I understand and agree with you.” If we can reach that same kind of agreement between a patient and dentist, it will change many things.

Aman: We’ve been looking ahead, so let’s look back. Knowing what you know today, what advice would you give your 17-year-old self?

Marie-Laure: Dare. Don’t hesitate. It will be even more difficult than you think, but in the end, it will be more rewarding.

Aman: Do you feel you’ve been daring throughout your career?

Marie-Laure: Not always. I probably should have dared even more.

Aman: Is there one decision that positioned you especially well?

Marie-Laure: Yes: deciding to move beyond the French market and into the world. It was in my genes, but it is always difficult to say, “My field will no longer be France; it will be the world,” especially because that decision has many consequences for family life.

It accelerated everything—my understanding, my global perspective and my behavior.

Aman: Is there a decision you would change if you could?

Marie-Laure: I probably should have spent less time in certain jobs or companies.

Aman: Isn’t it funny? Once we make a change, we look back and say, “I wish I had left sooner.” But while we’re in the situation, we think, “What can I do to hold on longer?”

Marie-Laure: That is absolutely right.

Aman: There are so many valuable lessons here. What would you like everyone listening—men and women—to remember?

Marie-Laure: I think it’s a privilege to be a woman. Some days are more difficult than others, but overall, it is a privilege.

I also want people to remember that dentistry still has so much work to do. We can make care more clinical, faster and better for patients. We have a long way to go toward preventive therapies and, eventually, predictive therapies. That is exciting because we have the opportunity—and responsibility—to build the future.

Aman: As the founder of Women in DSO, and with 3DISC as a member, I’m grateful for the opportunity to sit down with you. What message would you give women everywhere—not just those in dentistry—who hope to build a career like yours?

Marie-Laure: Women are freer than we think we are. We should take the lead, and we should not accept barriers.

Aman: I love that: we are freer than we think we are.

Life is also a sequence of sacrifices. Sometimes you have to give something to get something. As the CEO of a global organization and as a woman, are there specific sacrifices you have made to reach where you are?

Marie-Laure: Probably two. First, time for myself. I’ve had almost no time for myself for 30 or 40 years. That is a major sacrifice, but I love what I do and made that choice.

The second—and most difficult—was not seeing enough of my children when they were young. My daughter once told me, “You don’t even know my headmistress.” And she was right. You have to acknowledge that reality.

Aman: I can relate. There is a strange contradiction in what you’ve said. If you ask your family and others, they may say that you put yourself first because you followed your ambition. But only you know that you were often putting yourself last.

Marie-Laure: That is very true. My family may think I’m selfish, and perhaps in some ways that’s true, but at the end of the day, I have no time for myself.

Aman: Our partners and children didn’t sign up for our ambition, yet they have to come along with it. It wasn’t their goal, but they become part of the journey because that’s where we are heading.

Marie-Laure: Yes. My son is now 40 and my daughter is 35 or 36. I believe they are very proud and happy about what I did because it opened many roads and ideas for them—probably more than if I had stayed home or followed a more traditional path.

Aman: Thank you for sharing that. My son is 18, and he thinks I’m extraordinarily ambitious. He tells me, “You’re a compulsive worker.”

Marie-Laure: My son would say exactly the same about me. But in the end, they benefit from it.

Aman: Absolutely. I brag about my son. He’s a national debate champion. He is 18 and has completed one year of college, but he already has enough credits for an associate degree. He also biked from Chicago to New York on a regular bicycle.

Marie-Laure: With our children, we say, “You have no limits. You can go.” I feel you’re very much the same.

Aman: You’re right. Our children benefit from seeing ambition in action—from seeing someone turn dreams into reality. Dreaming is easy. Making a dream real is where the work begins.

I often tell people, “No dream comes true until you wake up from the dream,” because you have to wake up and work for it. It’s more difficult than people think.

I truly enjoyed connecting with you this way.

Marie-Laure: The same for me. Thank you.

© The Executive Edge Podcast / The LEAD. Transcript edited for clarity; the recorded conversation is the definitive version.