Born in the Netherlands in 1979, Mustapha El Bouchouafi has an engineering degree from Germany and an MBA from the United States. After working as a consultant in the telecommunications sector in Germany, he moved to the automotive industry in 2005. In this sector, he progressed from quality manager of a supplier company to its general manager.

Six years later, he was appointed product manager for Leitz's high-precision range in the U.S. and South America before joining the management team of Hexagon Metrology in Germany. In 2016, he took over the management of Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence France (including QDAS, SEMATEC).

In 2018, he became president of Symop's Measurement, Vision and Control Group. After leaving Hexagon and working as a consultant for SME restructuring projects in Germany, El Bouchouafi now becomes Managing Director of Zeiss IQS France.