Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
Jean-Francois is the Founder and Managing Partner of Ginko Ventures, an Industrial Venture Capital Firm created early 2015 based in Geneva. With Passion & Trust Ginko creates Sustainable Partnership between industry Leaders and Entrepreneurs for disruptive Innovation and superior Value Creation. Additionally, Jean-Francois founded Connecting Partners SA in 2012 to bring Leadership in the Transformation of Global Companies’ Value Chain & Procurement. As Senior Vice President and CPO at Nokia Corporation, (1999-2012), Jean-Francois transformed Nokia Supply Chain into the most respected and agile asset within Nokia. He was recognized in 2007 by AMR Research as leading the best Supply Chain in the world. He won the 2010 EIPM-Peter Kraljic award for Excellence: “The Organization of the Year”. Prior to joining Nokia, Jean-Francois was Compaq Procurement Director (1994-1999) (Scotland and Texas) working under direct leadership of Tim Cook. At Hewlett-Packard (1984-1994), Jean-Francois headed Supply Chain for PC Division. Within the concept of “Knowing, Doing, Being”, Jean-Francois learnt most of the key principles in Leadership from his mentor, Gene Richter. Other industrial experiences include oil exploration with Schlumberger in Africa and nuclear research at CEA France. Jean-Francois was the Chairman of the EC Board for RosettaNet (2002- 2004). He heald the position of board member at NetOnNet listed in Stockholm (2005-2011), Board Member at Vertu in London (2012-2015), Advisory Board Member at Procurement Leaders in London (2008-2010) and advisor to the CEO of ICANN in Los Angeles (2012-2014). Jean-Francois is also Senior Advisor to the Chairman of Foxconn (Taiwan), Board Member at Devialet (France), Octonion/PIQ (Switzerland/France), Enevo (Finland), Advisory Board Member at World 50 (Atlanta), Industrial Partner at EQT (Stockholm), Operating Partner at Talomon Capital (London) and Professor Emeritus at EIPM (Geneva).
On December 1 2016, HMD Global officially announced its entry into the mobile market with Nokia-branded phones. The first Nokia-branded Android smartphones will be available in the first half of 2017. Existing feature phone business provides global scale and market leadership from day one. The world class leadership team is to support the ambition to become a significant player in the global smartphone market. Strategic partnership model with leading industry players, world-class expertise and talent will bring the very best Nokia Mobile Phone experience to global consumers. HMD is developing an exciting new consumer centric range which will focus on innovation, quality and experience, alongside the iconic Nokia mobile attributes of design, robustness and reliability. HMD has created a very unique business model based on the integration of four fundamental pillars: - Licensee of very powerful and vivid brand: Nokia - Industrial Partnership with the largest and most efficient Supply Chain for phones: Foxconn International Holding (FIH) - Largest and most popular OS ecosystem: Android - Last but not least, incredible and passionate team composed with a mix of very experienced and fresh gifted millennia entrepreneurs.
Founded in 2015, Ginko Ventures is a venture capital Firm targeting technologies, devices and solutions that will improve the way people work, play and live. We primarily focus on investments in European and Israeli companies whose technologies have the potential to rapidly access global markets. Our scope of interest encompasses software, content, data processing, data storage and cloud, and data transmission. We are particularly interested in opportunities related to connected objects, robotics, big data and software intelligence. Together with our limited partner Foxconn, we are also keen on creating tangible industrial leverage for our portfolio companies, helping to further accelerate their development and value creation (operations, R&D, technology, and business network in Asia). Our mission is to enable sustainable partnership between industry leaders and amazing entrepreneurs (the “true originals”) for disruptive innovations and superior value creation.
This new venture brings companies Leadership in the transformation of their Supply Chain & Procurement. As a Business Partner, Connecting Partners SA delivers Revenue, Profit and Cash Growth in a Sustainable way. This is achieved through the co-Creation of leading edge processes in the domain of Supplier Ecosystem, Collaboration, Value Creation, Innovation, Organization and Coaching in the Execution of the deployment of the most efficient Strategy as a Total Solution. Jean-Francois's extensive industrial and business network along with his capability to Create Value, allows Connecting Partners to support various Entrepreneurial Endeavors from Start-up creation to major Investments, Divestments. Its multi-industry customer base (consumer Electronics, Automotive, Food, Luxury, Semiconductor, Health, Pharmaceutical, Clothing, Private Equity...) provides a rich leverage of experience. Jean-Francois is also deeply involved in supporting research and academia within the most prestigious universities in the scope of the Incredible Power of 'Unleashed Partnership' and Value Creation.
Disruptive Hi-Fi Audio Solutions, From a Technology Breakthrough to insertion in major audio device categories From fundamental technology innovations, to unmatched audio performance and experience, Devialet is disrupting the electronic market demonstrating that we can sell emotion through acoustic innovations as a new must have function, to ultimately be integrated in all electronic - Ginko Ventures led a €100 million co-investment round (closing in December 2016) with participation from international industrial and financial investors including Foxconn, Groupe Renault, Sharp Corporation, Playground Global, Naver, Roc Nation, Future French Champions, CM-CIC Investissement and BPI France. - Founded in 2007 and based in Paris, Devialet is the premier start-up in the world for the excellence of its inventions in the sound field, with 107 patents and 61 international awards. Devialet is a rapidly expanding company with, today, 230 employees. It doubles its turnover every year. Among its historical investors it has Bernard Arnault, Jean-Antoine Granjon, Xavier Niel et Marc Simoncini. - Hailed by all the experts and awarded by the most demanding of international magazines, the start-up is present in the very exclusive stores that are Colette, Harrods, and Kadewe in Berlin. The revolutionary connected speaker Phantom has been commercialised in Apple Store since December 2015. - With its place as leader only 5 years after the launch of the first D-Premier speaker, the brand has been able to keep true to its initial values, dear to the heart of its 3 founders, the engineer Pierre-Emmanuel Calmel, the visionary entrepreneur Quentin Sannié and the super designer Emmanuel Nardin. Success has indeed been possible thanks to the succession of radical inventions in sound engineering, of which the ADH intelligence - the revolutionary technology that transformed the amplification of sound by enabling the hybrid mix of digital and analogue electronics.
Founded in March 2014, PIQ Sport Intelligence is the leading European start-up in sports robotics changing the definition of sports. - A tech revolution initiated by 2 major breakthroughs (10 international patents) - GAIA®, an autonomous artificial intelligence understanding for the first time ever, the movements of athletes - PIQ-Robot®, an ultra-powerful nano-computer capable of analyzing thousands of data points in real-time for any sports - PIQ’s offering is centered on an unparalleled user and community experience - Analyses of sports players’ motions to provide them with their “Winning Factors” i.e. the key strengths of their games they can rely on to win - Strong social and community features boosting brand and product engagement: leaderboard, challenge, social sharing, etc. - Strong worldwide partnerships with # 1 sports brands (Babolat, Rossignol, Mobitee, North kiteboarding, Everlast, Speedo…and more to come) sharing their sports expertise, wide distribution network and brand power, while PIQ offers a unique community enabler through its technology - More than 8 million of sport moves/sessions analyzed to date - Robust and global organization: 4 offices (France, USA, Switzerland, Belarus), 65 people of which c.60 skilled engineers, prime manufacturing partnership with Foxconn, €13m raised to date from blue-chip investors (seed and Series A) - Strong growth outlook fueled by expanding the number of sports and the geographical reach, combined with added-value services to brands leveraging PIQ unique sports - PIQ’s ultimate vision is to become the first action sports leaderboard engaging a worldwide community of sports players around sport performance and brands