Xavier Niel

Xavier Niel General Information

Description

Mr. Xavier Niel is a Co-Founder of Kima Ventures. He serves as Board Member at Eir Telecom. He is the Founder and serves as Chief Strategy Officer and Member of the Board of Directors at Iliad. He is also a Co-Founder and serves as Senior Vice President, Director & Deputy-Chairman at Mediawan. He serves on the Board of Iliad. He also serves as Strategy Committee Member at Impala Group. He is a self-taught entrepreneur and has been active in the data communications, Internet, and telecommunications industry since the late 1980s. Prior to devoting himself to the Iliad group development in 1993, he co-founded France's first Internet service provider (ISP), Worldnet. Subsequently, after founding 3617 ANNU, the leading reverse lookup directory service on Minitel, in 1999 he went on to create Free - France's first free-access ISP. He was the architect behind the 2002 launch of the Freebox - the first multi-services box providing households with access to a triple play offering (Internet, telephone, and television). He has also been the inspiration behind the group's major strategic developments, including its current rollout of the 4G mobile network in France and its mobile offerings which were launched on January 10, 2012. The strategy of the Iliad group proved successful as (i) its total number of subscribers increased from 10.6 million in December 2012 to 17.8 million in December 2015, thus representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19% over the period, and (ii) in the long-time oligopoly environment of French mobile operators, Free Mobile's market share grew from 0% in 2011 to 17% in December 2015. In parallel, for many years he has invested considerably in web start-ups. In March 2010 he set up his own investment fund, Kima Ventures, one of the world's most active early-stage investors, which invests in 50 to 100 start-ups a year throughout the world. In addition, since 2010 he has held an ownership interest in the Le Monde newspaper, alongside Mr. Pierre Bergé and Mr. Matthieu Pigasse. Since summer 2014, he, Mr. Pierre Bergé, and Mr. Matthieu Pigasse have also been the joint owners of the French weekly magazine L'Obs. He has also invested in the telecommunications sector for many years in a personal capacity through NJJ Holding. He acquired a 55% stake in Monaco Telecom in 2014 and Orange Switzerland (now renamed Salt) in February 2015. He serves as Board Member at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. He is also an Angel Investor. He serves as Chairman at NJJ Capital.