Sophie is the executive assistant to C4 Ventures’ Founding Partner, Pascal Cagni, and the Paris office manager.

She interfaces on a daily basis with the talented network of entrepreneurs, operating partners, portfolio companies, suppliers and friends of C4 Ventures.

Previously, she was the Executive Assistant of key leaders at Chanel’s Paris European corporate headquarters. She managed a large scope of duties while gaining an intimate knowledge of the complex intricacies of the fashion industry.

Prior to joining Chanel, Sophie held several key positions in the Luxury Hospitality Industry, having graduated from the Jean Drouant leading hospitality school. She worked in various management positions including as a Concierge for 6 years in unique high-profile hospitality institutions such as Hyatt, Shangri-La, Le Meurice, Hotel Montalembert, living in the USA, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and Paris.

Through that experience, she developed a valuable savoir-faire in project management and events organisation, with a clear focus on delighting and surprising customers.

André is Operating Partner at C4 Ventures. He focuses on hardware companies.

Most recently, André founded the consulting group 4A Consulting & Engineering to bring his expertise to Companies in Renewable Energy and Digital Innovation.

In 1992, André co-founded Soitec, a leader of the Industry 4.0. The company developed and commercialised the revolutionary Smart CutTM “atomic scalpel” technology for semiconductor fabrication. The advanced material produced by Soitec are used in almost all smartphone platforms and computing activities.

For 23 years as President and CEO, he was responsible for overseeing the strategic, operational and financial activities of the company. He built an international high tech firm in 10 countries, including 5 manufacturing facilities in Europe, Asia and the US. He IPO’ed his Soitec in 1999 and managed financials operations for a sum close to $1bn.

André has been nominated “Chevalier de la légion d’Honneur” and “Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite”.

David is Operating Partner at C4 Ventures. He advises portfolio companies on Marketing and Merchandising with his expertise in go-to-market strategy, retail development and product marketing.

David is an entrepreneur. He is the founding CEO of Aitrak, a startup using AI to help brands and retailers maximise the visual impact of their designs. He also founded and managed Crux and was CEO and Head of Product Design at the video-messaging startup Wordeo from 2012 to 2015.

From 2015 to July 2018, David was VP Marketing at SmartThings, a Silicon Valley startup using sensors to turn your home into a smart home, which was acquired by Samsung in 2014.

David was Director of Worldwide Retail Development at Apple from 2003 to 2011 where he was responsible for retail partner programs. Based in London, Beijing and Cupertino, he led the creation and development of the highly successful Apple Premium Reseller and Apple Shop-in-Shop programs, opening more than 2,700 premium partner stores across 60 countries to deliver more than 20% of Apple’s worldwide Mac business.

Previously, David was Head of International Sales Programs at Gap Inc where he was responsible for distribution of the Gap, GapKids, Banana Republic and Old Navy brands.

Boris is an Associate at C4 Ventures with experience in product development, digital entertainment and corporate communications.

Previously, Boris was Assistant Producer at Ubisoft, where he contributed to the successful launch of a AAA game, selling over 2.5 million copies worldwide. Before that, Boris was Assistant to the Vice President and General Manager of Apple Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA). Most notably, he developed sales pitches for major accounts.

He also worked at Orange Business Services in the French Indirect Sales department, where he helped create and managed a new nationwide distribution channel that reached 2.5 million euros in revenue after one quarter.

Philippe Boissou is Operating Partner at C4 Ventures. He brings expertise in Scale-ups.

With 25 years of experience in Silicon Valley, Philippe has held CEO and executive positions in several companies. As a Venture Capitalist, he successfully invested $43M and generated a double-digit return. In addition to that, he has led a considerable number of management consulting projects and served on the board of 14 companies.

In 2014 Philippe Bouissou founded Blue Dots Partners where he is now the Managing Partner. Preceding that, Philippe co-managed the Milestone Group, an advisory firm serving over 220 clients. Previously, he held leadership roles as Managing Director and General Partner at Astra Venture Partners, Allegis Capital and Ventech.

Prior to becoming a Venture Capitalist, Philippe played a key role in building and managing the online Apple Store, growing its revenue from zero to $350M.

During his early career, Philippe has held roles at Matra Hachette Multimedia and G2i, Inc. as Senior VP and CEO.

In 2000, Steve Jobs appointed Pascal as General Manager and Vice President for Apple EMEIA (Europe, Middle East, India and Africa).

Leading a region made of more than 120 countries, he launched groundbreaking products and services such as the iPod (2001), iTunes Store (2003), iPhone (2007), the App Store (2008) and iPad (2010).

He developed an innovative Go-To-Market strategy that included the successful rollout of the Apple Premium Reseller (APR) and Apple Shops while working with CEOs and Executive Teams of over 200 retailers and 170 telecom operators.

Under Pascal’s leadership, EMEIA was consistently Apple’s fastest growing region, with annual sales increasing from $1.2bn in 2001 to $40bn in 2012.

Since 2013 Pascal has been advising executive teams of large Private Equity and European groups on how to leverage at best the digital revolution and the opportunities it creates.

Across 2014, he conducted a strategic review of Net-A-Porter for Richemont SA, advising on a full business re-engineeering before the merger with Yoox.

Before Apple, Pascal led Packard Bell to become the leading European Home Computer Company. He started his career as strategy consultant at Booz, Allen and Hamilton.

Pascal joined the 63rd Promotion of IHEDN (Institute for Higher National Defence Studies) in 2011, providing deep view on geostrategic and foreign policy matters.

In addition to his role at C4 Ventures, Pascal is a non-executive director at Kingfisher plc and Chairman of Business France.

Michel is an Operating Partner at C4 Ventures. He leverages his expertise in Talent acquisition to support the growth of our portfolio companies. He advises them on a number of subjects including Recruitment, Talent assessment and the Organisational evolution.

In 2003, Michel founded Lancor. He has led numerous senior executive searches for board members, C-suite, and heads of function for financial sponsors and leading international corporations throughout Europe and the Middle East. He’s able to work with large companies and small Startups with equal success.

Prior to joining Lancor, Michel was Co-Managing Partner of the Global Technology and Media Practice at Whitehead Mann, a leading executive search firm. Prior to that, he founded and managed the European Telecommunications and Internet Infrastructure Practice at Heidrick & Struggles. In his early career, Michel was Deputy Managing Director of the Benelux countries for AT&T, with responsibility for sales, business development, and customer support.

Philippe Gillet is Operating Partner at C4 Ventures. He brings his expertise in Deep Tech related matters.

Philippe is currently Chief Scientific Officer at SICPA and a Professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) where he was also VP of Academic Affairs, President ad Interim and Director of the Human Brain project for 2 years. Before EPFL, he served as Chief of Staff of the French Minister for Higher Education and Research – Mrs Valérie Pécresse.

Prior to that, Philippe was Director of the CNRS Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers, President of the French synchrotron facility SOLEIL, of the French National Research Agency and Director of the Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon.

In addition to his professional career, Philippe holds several advisory board roles, including President of the Scientific Boards of both the French “Ile de France” region and of the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique.

As part of his academic experience, Philippe published more than 150 articles in international scientific journals such as “Nature” and “Science”.

Olivier is a partner at C4 Ventures with expertise in mobile commerce, hardware, big data, advertising, and mergers and acquisitions. He leads the investment team and defines investment strategy with Pascal and Alexandre.

Previously, Olivier was COO at Weve, a mobile commerce startup, where he was responsible for Strategy, Program Management, Finance, Legal, Procurement, HR & IT, bringing it from incorporation to c. 100 employees in less than 12 months time.

Before that, he was CFO at Unanimis, the UK’s premium online advertising network, where he was responsible for strategic planning, Finance HR and IT and served in various roles at Orange Group, including mergers and acquisitions in London, product management in the USA, and mobile product development in France.

Olivier is board member or observer at Cleeng, Graphcore, ISKN and Tempow.

Yassir Khalid is Operating Partner at C4 Ventures in charge of Corporate Development for the portfolio companies, and an advisor on opportunity sourcing and transaction structuring. 

Yassir is the founder of Y Advisory, a corporate finance boutique dedicated to digital Start-ups. In parallel, he acted as Chairman of the Board of Freelance.com and oversaw the successful turnaround of the company. 

Previously, Yassir was Executive Director at Leonardo & Co., in charge of the TMT sector for the French market and of the development into the Moroccan market. 

Yassir started his career as a telecom M&A analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston in London. 

A French and Moroccan national, Yassir holds an MSc from HEC Paris and a joint Executive MBA from Columbia Business School and London Business School. 

Brandon is an Analyst at C4 Ventures. Based in Paris, he is in charge of assessing new investment opportunities, helping portfolio companies, and assist Michel in the development of smart tools to improve our internal processes and of new data-driven sourcing methods for venture capital.

Prior to joining C4 Ventures, Brandon independently developed B2C web and mobile applications reaching 1000+ users, which led him to develop various IT skills and a particular interest in the entrepreneurial sphere.

He comes from the engineering cycle at École des Ponts ParisTech where he studies finance.

Hazel is the Fund controller at C4 Ventures. She is responsible for the management of finances, Human Resources and other administrative aspects of the business and the fund.

Prior to C4 Ventures, Hazel was Head of the Business Services team at Sopher + Co. She managed a significant portfolio of corporate clients and owner managed businesses, including many start-ups across various industries, notably financial services and C4 Ventures. We enjoyed working with her so much that we asked her to join us!

Hazel qualified as a chartered accountant with Arthur Andersen, later joining Deloitte where she worked in Audit and Corporate Finance. Her first move to industry was as Group Financial Controller for a listed aerospace company where she ran the group function and assisted on the acquisition of new subsidiaries. Following a move to London, Hazel gained a breadth of experience working in various finance roles at News UK over a period of eight years. This was at a time where the business model was changing from print to digital media, sparking her interest in new technologies.

Hazel is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Michel is an associate and tech lead at C4 Ventures with experience in software & systems engineering, social gaming, blockchain, big data and IoT. Michel uniquely combines a strong investment background with exceptional coding and data skills. At C4 Ventures, in addition to his work in the investment team where he focuses on the technology assessment, he oversees the sourcing platform development and the IT stack used by the team.

Prior to joining C4 Ventures, Michel was an Associate at Kima Ventures, a seed stage venture capital firm, where besides his role as Associate, he built a proprietary platform and the tools allowing a three-person team to invest in 2 startups per week and manage a portfolio of 350 startups across 26 countries.

Previously, Michel was part of the Orange Graduate Program where he worked as an IaaS Architect on compliance, multi-datacenter relocation and big data projects. Before that, Michel also experienced the startup world by publishing and selling iPhone apps as soon as 2009 and working at Wooga, a fast-growing social gaming company based in Berlin as an associate product manager.

Sheryl is an Operating Partner at C4 Ventures, advising portfolio companies on brand marketing and communications.

Skilled at integrating a range of marketing channels, Sheryl specializes in aiding companies to establish a strong market position, communicate a compelling narrative and drive measurable impact to deliver growth.

An award-winning marketing and communications professional, Sheryl works with market leaders and innovators to build brand and market share. She has held senior leadership positions at Apple, Samsung and Symantec. At Apple, Sheryl helped create launch strategies for iconic products including the iPod, iTunes, iPhone and App Store. At Samsung, Sheryl led the marketing effort for the Global Innovation Center, a corporate marketing group responsible for M&A, investments, and two accelerators in New York and San Francisco. At Symantec, she led an EMEA team that created brand initiatives including product positioning and experiential events.

Sheryl also worked as VP Communications for Start-ups Songkick and Mode/Glam media, eventually founding a boutique marketing consultancy to help entrepreneurs grow their business through establishing an industry profile and building communications programs. She works with VC-backed Start-ups and entrepreneurs around the globe including the Start-up clusters in London, New York, San Francisco, Stockholm and Helsinki.

A judge for The Holmes Report SABRE Awards in 2016 and 2015, Sheryl is also a mentor for Seedcamp, Europe’s largest accelerator.

Michel is the former Group President of Hertz International, the leading global car rental brand, where he was responsible for all of its wholly owned and franchise operations in 150 countries across all continents, outside North America.

Over his 38-year career in the constantly transforming car rental business, Michel has progressed through the organization, holding numerous leadership positions in operational, commercial, country and divisional management.

Most recently, Michel has been championing the « smart mobility » strategies for Hertz, working closely with start-ups and incubators.

Since he moved on from Hertz in April 2019, Michel is an Advisor and a Consultant focusing on Travel, Transportation and Smart Mobility.

He is the Chair of the Advisory Board for the GTTP (Global Travel and Tourism Partnership), a non-for-profit organization that supports education programs enabling each year 700,000 students from 15  countries to build careers in Travel and Tourism.

He is also an Ambassador for the WTTC (World Travel and Tourism Council), and a Foreign Trade Advisor to the French Embassy in London.

Laura Thivolet is an Associate at C4 Ventures. Based in Paris, she focuses on marketing, communication and content creation.

Laura Thivolet is a former Consultant at European Public Affairs consultancy 3BS, where she successfully led the group’s digital transformation and managed a growing portfolio of clients, including C4 Ventures, while graduating from Sciences Po Paris. We enjoyed working with her so much that we asked her to join us!

Before that, Laura was Assistant to the Head of European and Digital Affairs at SNCF. Most notably, she helped overhauling the company’s digital strategy, writing in-depth studies on disrupting trends and European regulation.

Laura holds an MSc in Public Affairs from Sciences Po Paris.

Roy is an Operating Partner at C4 Ventures, advising portfolio companies on marketing, product user-experience and go-to-market strategies.

Currently, Roy serves as the General Manager, APAC & EMEA, at Kandy, an IoT and Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS) solution, where he oversees the company’s cloud strategy, driving Telecom over-the-top (OTT), Smart-Devices and IoT products Go-To-Market initiatives with developers, enterprises and Communication Service Providers.

Previously, Roy was the CEO of fring, a carrier grade OTT solution. As CEO, he was able to pivot the company and execute a successful turnaround, resulting in its acquisition by GENBAND.

Roy is a marketing and product expert, specializing in the fields of Smart devices (IoT), mobile applications, product user experience, telecom and communication as a service.

An experienced entrepreneur, with strong connections to the Israeli eco-system, Roy has successfully envisioned and launched new product segments, crafted and implemented go-to-market strategies, and has transformed companies into industry leaders with worldwide adoption.

In addition to his high-tech career, Roy is a Lt. Colonel (Res), Chief of Staff (XO) in an elite mobile infantry brigade and is responsible for planning, coordinating, and executing the brigade missions in training and combat.

Joel is Operating Partner at C4 Ventures leveraging his expertise in strategy development, brand building, business turnaround to support international expansion of our portfolio companies.

Since 2007 Joel is the founder and CEO of CREAXIL Consulting specialized in conducting and managing consulting and development projects for corporate clients in fields of eCommerce, Hospitality, Lifestyle, Retail and Real Estate in Asia Pacific and Europe.

Prior to founding CREAXIL Consulting, Joel was President and CEO for Club Med Asia Pacific since 2001. He pioneered a new upscale strategy that he developed and implemented to make Asia Pacific the most profitable and fastest growing region. He led a turn around commercial strategy to radically transform the Club Med offer. This successful repositioning was rolled out globally in 2005.

As President of Oregon Scientific, he successfully engineered and led The @rt of Living global brand strategy. Joel previously held leadership roles at LVMH, General Electric and Bain & Company.

Joel is a Corporate Advisor on the Board of HKUST Business School.

Christophe is a principal at C4 Ventures with expertise in financial planning, legal structuring, and mergers and acquisitions. He is in charge of Investor Relationships,  administrative and logistical aspects of C4 Ventures’ operations.

Prior to C4 Ventures, Christophe was Investment Manager at a Family Office. Prior to that, he was responsible for the origination and execution of cross-border transactions between Europe and Asia at BDA Partners, in the consumer, retail, healthcare and technology sectors. He successfully managed the marketing of sell-side mandates for over 60 deals, ranging from $2m to $300m. With Pfizer, he also successfully originated the first forced divestment of a business as a result of a Chinese antitrust ruling.

Christophe started his career at the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court of Justice), then worked for ABN Amro and EY.

Based in New York, Caroline is a 19+ years experienced Media & PR consultant, developing and implementing media and PR programs with a unique understanding of the communications challenges faced by European entrepreneurs coming to the USA.

Caroline was Head of Media & PR for Business France in North America, where she focused on highlighting the strength of the French economy and tech ecosystem to the US business community through high-profile events, media & PR programs.

Caroline started her career in 2000 with Pleon, the leading European Tech PR firm, handling media relations in France for global tech brands such as IBM Global Services, Phillips and American Power Conversion. She rapidly brought her experience and passion about science, entrepreneurship and innovation to develop and implement tailored media relations strategies to the emerging French startups ecosystem and moved to the United States in 2004 where she continued working as a PR consultant for various BtoB and BtoC tech startups.

She is now collaborating with the Galion Project, the exclusive French startups Entrepreneurs club founded by Jean-Baptiste Rudelle (Criteo). She is also on the executive Board of La French Tech NYC Community, playing a central role in bridging the gap between the French and local tech community. She actively supports the Women in Innovation Forum in NYC since its creation in 2016.

Caroline holds a degree in Biochemistry from Paris X University and a degree in Communications from L’EFAP Communications.

Franck Zayan is Operating Partner at C4 Ventures. He is an expert in retail, e-commerce and technology who has contributed to build international e-commerce players. Until recently, he was the CEO at Style.com, the e-commerce entity of the Condé Nast Group. He led the company from its inception to its sell to Farfetch.

Franck Zayan started his career at Cabletron in 1994 as Manager of Information Systems before joining AOL as Vice-President of Content and Production. At AOL he was Member of the Board of Directors, managing a team of developers, integration resources, graphic/web designers and journalists.

He participated in the development of the American payment platform iPIN before becoming Chief Operating Officer of Glowria, the pioneer of DVD rental service in Europe. In 2004, he Co-founded Saranza, the first online shoe retailer in France and still one of Europe’s leader. He ran the company for 4 years as CEO. In 2008, he created Traffic Garden, an online content Management and Domain Name monetisation.

Three years later, from 2011 to 2013, Franck Zayan became the head of Omnichannel and e-commerce for the Galeries Lafayette Group, a major retail chain with department stores in France and Europe, Asia and the Middle East. During that time, unique annual visitors on the Galleries Lafayette website grew from 12 million to more than 40 million.