Pierre Danon

Pierre Danon
Born	1956
Occupation	Executive Chairman of Volia in Kiev, non-executive Director of Standard Life, Vice-Chairman of TDC A/S, Vice-Chairman of AgroGeneration in France

Pierre Danon (born 1956) is a French entrepreneur. He currently sits on the board of directors of several companies in Europe. He is Chairman of Volia in Kiev, Vice-Chairman of TDC A/S in Copenhagen, non-executive Director of Standard Life in Edinburgh and Vice-Chairman of the Board of AgroGeneration in Paris. He is the co-owner, with his wife Laurence Danon, of Cordial Investment and Consulting.

Education

Pierre Danon earned a degree in civil engineering from the École nationale des ponts et chaussées, a Master's in Law degree from Panthéon-Assas University, and an MBA from the Institut Superieur des Affaires (HEC School of Management MBA, Paris)^[1]

Career

Executive management of listed companies

Pierre Danon worked for 20 years at Xerox in the areas of finance, sales, marketing, customer service, and research. His career, which began in France, continues in various European countries and the United States. In 1998, Pierre Danon became President of Xerox Europe, the operational arm of Xerox Corporation in Europe, with a turnover of € 6 billion and nearly 20,000 employees. He is then a member of the global strategic committee of the company and leads Xerox Europe in transforming its business services and solutions.

In September 2000, Pierre Danon is appointed CEO of BT Retail where he is responsible for relations with over 21 million UK customers from individuals to enterprises large and small. BT Retail then employs 60,000 people and its annual turnover is around 13.4 billion pounds. Pierre Danon is also a member of the Board of Directors of British Telecom.

In March 2005, he is appointed Chief Operating Officer of Capgemini Group, a management consulting and IT services group that employs approximately 50,000 people in more than 30 countries for a total turnover of 6.3 billion euros. Pierre Danon has successfully turnarouned Capgemini's business in the United States and stimulated a global approach to delivery in India but was fired by the company after it emerged he was among potential candidates for the Chief Executive position at French Hotel Group Accor.^[2]

Executive and non-executive management of private companies

In 2006, Pierre Danon helped the investment fund Babcock & Brown Capital to take-over Eircom. He became its President from 2006 to 2008. Eircom employs nearly 8,000 people and offers mobile and fixed line communication services for individuals and businesses in Ireland.

In May 2008, Pierre Danon was elected Vice-Chairman of TDC. In this capacity, he participated in the November 2011 IPO. TDC is the leading provider of communications solutions in Denmark, with a strong presence in other Nordic countries. TDC employs around 10,000 people, with an annual turnover of about 30 billion kroner.

In September 2008, Pierre Danon became president of Numericable-Completel a post he held until 2012. The group is the third largest fixed line operator in France and has its own fiber infrastructure. It addresses the consumer market with the cable operator Numericable which delivers quadruple play services and whose network is available to more than 9 million households. Completel covers the corporate market, and is the third largest service provider in France dedicated to enterprises. The turnaound of customer service, strategic acquisitions, and especially the signing of the Bbox Fiber contract with Bouygues Telecom marked Pierre Danon’s presidency. The group continues since then on its excellent business trajectory.

Since May 2011, Pierre Danon is also the Executive Chairman of Volia, cable operator based in Kiev, Ukraine. The shareholders of Volia are Providence Equity Partners Fund (PEP) and Sigma Bleyser Fund (SBF). Volia delivers its services to nearly one and a half million customers and employs 3,000 people. Pierre Danon has completed the turnaround of the company which is now delivering strong organic and inorganic growth.

In April 2013, Pierre Danon engineered the merger between Agrogénération and Harmelia on behalf of SBF, which gave rise to an agroholding with a market capitalization of around 200 million euros, which operates nearly 120,000 hectares in Ukraine. In October 2013, he was elected Vice-Chairman of the Board of AgroGénération.

Non-executive director

From 2002 to 2004, Pierre Danon was an independent director of the company Hays PLC, one of the world's leading specialist recruitment firm.

From April 2004 to March 2008, he was non-executive director of Emap Plc, a multimedia company based in the United Kingdom.

Between November 2005 and September 2008, Pierre Danon was a senior adviser to EMEA Chairman Walter Gubert at JPMorgan. He provided advice and expertise to the team at JPMorgan and their customers across Europe in the field of telecommunications, media and high technology. Pierre Danon was also a member of the Advisory Board of JPMorgan in Europe.

Since 2006, Pierre Danon has been a director of the company Ciel Investment Limited, listed in Port Louis (Mauritius), and which operates in the fields of hospitality, financial services and health services. He chairs its remuneration committee.

In October 2011, he was elected non-executive director of Standard Life, a life insurance company based in Edinburgh. Standard Life is publicly listed on the London stock exchange and is also part of the FTSE 100. It deals with almost 250 billion euros of financial assets.

Business angel

Since 2003, Pierre Danon has supported the development of Procontact, a call center with 200 positions based in Mauritius. Starting as an investor, he became its Chairman in 2013.

Since November 2012, he has been a shareholder and on the board of Tevolution, which offers a new, innovative solution for interactive TV and video on demand in France.

Finally he became shareholder of a recently created venture in Paris which offers training solutions to facilitate access to employement for young people in France.

Patronage

Pierre Danon served as Vice-President of the HEC Foundation from 2003 to 2006.

He also served, since 2005 to the end of 2015, as the vice-president association E-enfance that works to protect children and adolescents on the Internet.

Pierre Danon is also non-executive Director of the association «Passerelles Numériques», which offer computer training to young people located in disadvantaged areas in Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

References