Governance

Since 2005, Didier Brédy has been chairman and CEO of Ekinops (Euronext: EKI), a leading provider of telecommunications solutions dedicated to service providers and enterprises. Ekinops successfully completed its initial public offering on NYSE Euronext in April 2013 and has since acquired OneAccess in 2017 and a software development company in Brazil in 2019.

Before joining Ekinops, Didier headed the software and services division of Ingénico, the leading provider of secure transactions and payment systems. Previously, he was CEO of Ivex, an American startup providing internet video solutions, sold in 2001 to a NASDAQ-listed buyer. He also held the position of VP marketing for Truevision (Nasdaq: TRUV) in the Silicon Valley, after having led product marketing at Pacific Data Products, a Californian success in multimedia. Didier started his career in 1989 at Xerox in the Silicon Valley as product line manager.

Didier has a bachelor in physics, graduated from Télécom ParisTech (France) with a master in telecommunication engineering and has an MBA from the University of San José, California.

Aleph is a London-based investment firm founded in 2013 by Hugues Lepic who previously led the European private equity investing business of Goldman Sachs in Europe.

Aleph invests in mid-sized companies headquartered in Europe with ambitious management teams who can grow their businesses, drive execution, manage risks, and allocate capital responsibly. Aleph operates as a long-term capital partner of the businesses it invests in and works closely with management teams, other shareholders and stakeholders to deliver significant growth in value.

Aleph backs companies supported by major industry trends which drive long-term growth, and from industry verticals in which it has built an expertise: Telecommunications/Media/Technology, Financial Services/Environment and Natural Resources.

Bpifrance is the French national investment bank: it finances businesses – at every stage of their development – through loans, guarantees, equity investments and export insurances. Bpifrance also provides extrafinancial services (training, consultancy…) to help entrepreneurs meet their challenges (innovation, export…).

Charlotte Corbaz has been an investor in the Large Venture fund for 7 years. She also sits on the board of Vestiaire Collective and is an observer on the board of ManoMano.

Lori Gonnu has held global responsibilities in the telecommunications industry for over 20 years. She notably created the international division of the French mobile operator SFR in 1996, of which she was Executive Director until 2009.

She also served on the Management Committee of the GSM Association (the global association of mobile operators) for more than ten years, leading innovative global initiatives.

Lori Gonnu founded Boldair Consulting International in 2011, specializing in growth opportunities for telecommunications companies, particularly in the area of M2M and IoT, as well as in mergers and acquisitions.

Nayla Khawam has extensive expertise in the telecommunications industry and has held many senior positions within the Orange group since 1983.

In October 2012, after three and a half successful years at the head of Orange Jordan, Nayla Khawam was appointed as Executive Director of the "Orange Wholesale France" division, whose objective is to offer telecommunications solutions (interconnection offers, transmission networks, unbundling offers, etc.) to fixed-line operators, and access to the Orange mobile network for mobile operators (MVNO, etc.).

As Managing Director of Orange Jordan, she oversaw and set up the first 3G network in the Jordanian kingdom, helped expand the Orange Labs, which provide innovative services to 27 countries via Jordan, and concluded terrestrial fiber optic cable agreements, JADI and RCN, to provide an alternative route to data and voice traffic in the region and with Europe and Asia.

Nayla Khawam is also a director of Mobinil (Orange Egypt) and Sodetel (telecom operator in Lebanon 50% owned by Orange).

François Xavier Ollivier is one of the co-founders of the Company. With more than 27 years of experience in the telecommunications sector, François Xavier has carried out development work which has given rise to 15 patents in the field of optical transmissions. Before creating EKINOPS in 2003, François Xavier Ollivier was Vice-President Product Development at Corvis-Algety in Lannion (France).

He was also in charge of R&D for the Alcatel land and submarine cables division in Lannion and Paris and in charge of the global coordination of pre-development activities for the "Optical Networks" division.