Olivier Houzé co-founded KAPPA in 1987 and has been its managing director since 1991. Prior to that, he spent 4 years with Flopetrol (Schlumberger) as a well test field and interpretation engineer. He was the original author of Saphir, now the industry standard software in pressure transient analysis.

Houzé is an SPE life member and an Omega member of the SPE Foundation. He was selected as a 2012–2013 SPE Distinguished Lecturer and gave 35 lectures in 25 countries. He served on the SPE International Board of Directors in 2012–2015 as the Technical Director for Reservoir and has since been a member of the Reservoir Advisory committees. He was the recipient of the 2019 Lester C. Uren Award.

Houzé holds a degree in engineering from the Ecole Polytechnique and an MSc in petroleum engineering from Stanford University.