Eurazeo Supervisory Board announces today the nomination of a new Executive Board. The new Executive Board is composed of two Chairmen: Christophe Bavière and William Kadouch-Chassaing as well as Sophie Flak and Olivier Millet.
The Executive Board, appointed unanimously by the Supervisory Board, has been given the mission to accelerate Eurazeo’s development towards third-party asset management, optimize the capital allocation and continue to improve the company's financial and non-financial performance for the benefit of its clients and shareholders, by leveraging on Eurazeo's talented teams.
The Supervisory Board and Virginie Morgon jointly decided that her duties as CEO and member of the Executive Board of Eurazeo should cease. The mandates of Mrs Nicolas Huet, Eurazeo’s General Secretary, and Marc Frappier, head of the Mid-large buyout investment division, also end. Nicolas Huet and Marc Frappier will continue to perform their duties until the end of April 2023.
Jean-Charles Decaux, President of the Supervisory Board, declared:
“The Board warmly thanks Virginie Morgon for her role at the head of Eurazeo’s Executive Board and her major contribution to the company. Since joining Eurazeo in 2008, Virginie Morgon has accelerated the Group’s growth, diversification, and internationalization. Under her leadership, Eurazeo has become one of the leading private equity platforms in Europe, capable of supporting companies from venture capital to large-scale transactions. Her strong commitment to ESG has enabled Eurazeo to benefit from a key strategic differentiator among asset managers. The Board also salutes and thanks Nicolas Huet and Marc Frappier for their contribution to Eurazeo’s development.
With the appointment of a new, collegial, and focused Executive Board, comprising Christophe Bavière, William Kadouch-Chassaing, Sophie Flak and Olivier Millet, the Board has sought to instill a new dynamic to accelerate the development of Eurazeo's activities and to deploy a high-performance strategy creating value for the benefit of all its stakeholders. The Supervisory Board has full confidence in the new Executive Board, which brings together complementary and experienced profiles and skills to amplify Eurazeo's transformation and make the Company become a major player in asset management in Europe by relying on the diversity of all the talents of its teams.”
Virginie Morgon stated:
“I leave my position after 14 years at the helm of Eurazeo with huge pride in the successful transformation of the Group, which has become one of the major leaders in Private Equity in Europe. A successful group that has experienced double-digit growth over the last five years. A Group that has become global, present in 10 countries. Our Group has one of the most diversified investment platforms on the market and our investment strategies now encompass Venture Capital, Private Equity, Private Debt and Real Assets. We have also been recognized as a pioneer and leader in ESG, as well as a driver of innovation and financier of the real economy. I am deeply grateful to Eurazeo teams who have inspired me over all these years and to our investment partners, Eurazeo shareholders and the business leaders who have placed their trust in me.”
The results for the year 2022 will be presented, as announced, on March 8, 2023. Eurazeo reaffirms its confidence in the quality of its assets, its investment strategies and the strength of its business and financial model.
Biographies
Christophe Bavière
Christophe Bavière, 58, a member of Eurazeo's Executive Board since 2021, is the founding chairman of the investment firm Idinvest Partners, which was merged with Eurazeo in 2018 and fully integrated in 2020. In his career, Christophe Bavière has managed all the Allianz Group's private equity investment programs. He has successfully developed Idinvest, an asset manager whose assets under management have increased sevenfold in 10 years. At Eurazeo, Christophe Bavière was previously in charge of all the fundraising and marketing teams, as well as the Group's relations with its institutional and individual investors. He was also supervising Private Debt, Secondary transactions and Fund of Funds activities.
William Kadouch-Chassaing
William Kadouch-Chassaing, 53, has been a member of Eurazeo's Executive Board since March 2022, General Director Finance and Strategy and Chief Investment Officer. An investment banker from 1996 to 2013, notably with JP Morgan in London and Société Générale CIB in Paris, he became Chief Strategy Officer and Deputy Chief Financial Officer of the Société Générale Group in 2013, before taking up the position of Chief Financial Officer in 2018, and then Deputy Chief Executive Officer. He has notably worked on the strategic repositioning of Société Générale Group's activities, improving its profitability and capital structure. As a member of the Board of Directors of Amundi, Europe's leading asset manager, from 2013 to 2015, and then from 2018 to 2022, he has also acquired extensive experience in asset management.
Sophie Flak
Sophie Flak, 51, joined Eurazeo in 2013. Managing Partner in charge of ESG and Digital, member of the Partners Committee, Sophie Flak has more than 20 years of experience in the field of sustainable and technological transformation of companies, which she considers to be powerful levers of corporate performance and resilience. Senior executive in the strategy department of Accenture, where she spent 11 years, then member of the Executive Committee of the Accor group with responsibility for technology and sustainable development, Sophie Flak was also a member of the National Digital Council and the EFRAG working group, an advisory group to the European Commission on the extra-financial performance of companies.
Olivier Millet
Olivier Millet, 58, has been a member of the Eurazeo Executive Board since 2018. He manages the investment activity dedicated to small and medium-sized companies and supervises the development of the Healthcare activity within the Group. Olivier Millet also accompanies the management of Kurma Partners, the Eurazeo Group's management company specializing in biotechnology and medical innovation. He was Chairman of France Invest (formerly AFIC) from 2016 and 2018 and Vice Chairman of AFIC from 2014 to 2016. Olivier Millet began his career as an entrepreneur in 1986 by creating Capital Finance. He participated in the development and success of a pan-European fund for 11 years at Barclays Private Equity France. Olivier Millet was Chairman of the Executive Board of OFI Private Equity, an investment company listed in 2007 and which became Eurazeo PME in 2011.
The positions of Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer will be rotated annually; the first Chairman of the Board of Directors will be Christophe Bavière, the first Chief Executive Officer will be William Kadouch-Chassaing.
