Gérard Lopez (businessman)

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Gérard Lopez (born December 27, 1971 in Luxembourg ) is a Luxembourgish- Spanish entrepreneur , businessman, racing car driver , football official and former Formula 1 racing team owner.

life and career

Gérard Lopez was born to Spanish parents in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and, among other things, played football in his youth at the first division club CS Fola Esch , of which he became president decades later (in 2007). He received his training at Miami University , among others , from which he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Management Information Systems and Operations Management with a focus on mathematics and statistics. Immediately after completing his studies, he founded and operated numerous companies in the United States, including the web development company Icon Solutions and the leasing company ProLease . Especially with the early web service provider Icon Solutions , Lopez was considered one of the pioneers in web development. He sold both companies successfully and profitably after just 18 months.

In 1998, together with Mark Tluszcz and Hans-Jürgen Schmitz, he founded Mangrove Capital Partners , a venture capital investment company that invested in numerous large projects such as Skype , Lumension Security , WooMe and Brands4friends in their early days. While Brands4friends was bought by eBay at the beginning of 2011 for 150 million euros and Mangrove Capital Partners profited from it as the main investor, the sale of Skype to eBay in September 2005 for 3.1 billion US dollars is considered the most successful investment of the Luxembourg company. Over the years Lopez invested in other companies such as SecureWave , Convergex or Wix.com , in which case he also worked as CEO and other official functions in the respective companies. He is also on the board of various technology companies such as PrimeSphere , Quickcom Global Communications , Pulpsport , Sapiens Tech , Lumension Security , ZINK Imaging and Cambridge Healthcare & Biotech and also appears as president of some of them.

When he was involved in Gravity Sport Management with Mangrove Capital Partners , he also became involved in motorsport and competed as a driver for the Gravity Racing International team in endurance races . He was previously active as a driver in hill climbs, including a Lamborghini Miura , and took part in the FIA GT3 European Championship . In 2008 he founded the investment company Genii Capital together with his compatriot Éric Lux, who was coming from Gravity Sport Management . It was mainly thanks to Lopez's relationships that Genii Capital bought 75 percent of the shares in Formula 1 racing team Renault at the end of 2009 . Less than a year later, Genii Capital also acquired the remaining 25 percent of the racing team, which subsequently made numerous name changes and reached an agreement with Lotus . Subsequently, Lopez also appeared as the team principal of the racing team, which competed in 115 races from the Bahrain Grand Prix in the 2010 season to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in the 2015 season . In the middle of 2013 the media reported for the first time about the economic difficulties of the team. From this point onwards, some suppliers had stopped delivering to the team and there were various court hearings against the racing team. The seizure of parts of the equipment by bailiffs during the Belgian Grand Prix also caused a stir . Subsequently, Genii Capital sold 90 percent of its shares in the now highly indebted racing team in December 2015 for the symbolic purchase price of one pound sterling back to Renault . However, Genii Capital continued to be represented in other racing series through Gravity Sport Management.

Since summer 2015, Lopez has also been CEO of the privately owned Nekton Group , which mainly invests in oil production in Russia. He had already retired from the management floor of Mangrove Capital Partners in autumn 2014, which in turn brought in a new partner in Michael Jackson. Money laundering was also suspected during his presidency at CS Fola Esch, with the Formula 1 racing team transferring two million euros to the Luxembourg first division club through a company in Hong Kong managed by its partner Éric Lux . As Lopez confirmed at the presentation of the new Renault Sport F1 Team and the Renault RS16 racing car at the beginning of February 2016, his investment company Genii Capital, as well as himself as a private person, is a minority shareholder in the racing team and also sits on its board of directors. He is primarily responsible for the corporate strategy with regard to large partners and new technologies, sharing strategic planning with other board members. In 2015, too, Lopez was invited by Economy Minister Etienne Schneider as a company representative to the informal EU Council of Ministers for Competitiveness . Lopez's investments are primarily represented in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.

Lopez also takes care of the image and transfer of football players through the companies Kick Partners and Mangrove Sport Business Intelligence . In both companies, Lopez works closely with Marc Ingla , one of the leading personalities at FC Barcelona in the 2000s and their marketing director from 2003 to 2008. In mid-October 2016 it was announced that exclusive negotiations between Lopez and the businessman and film producer Michel Seydoux , the CEO of OSC Lille , had started on a takeover. The two sides had been in negotiations for almost a year after the Luxembourg consortium had selected the French first division clubs Olympique Marseille , Girondins Bordeaux and OSC Lille as clubs with interesting profiles for a possible takeover. For a long time it looked like a takeover of the club from the coastal city of Marseille , which was often reported in the media. However, after the negotiations with Lille never broke off and took place largely in secret, he was officially announced on January 26, 2017 as the owner and new President of LOSC. He took over 95% of the shares in the club. After the takeover, Marc Ingla, among others, was hired as Directeur Général of the association.

Since then, Ingla has been striving for the management methods implemented at FC Barcelona at Lille OSC - despite the French club's more modest financial framework. In May 2017 he presented the concept of the club's new project called LOSC Unlimited , which is based in particular on increased media coverage of the club, an associated stronger international presence and the recruitment of young and promising players. Subsequently, the Portuguese Luís Campos , who is well connected as the coach of several Portuguese clubs and as a scout and sports director of various clubs, was presented as the new sports director of LOSC. Before that, he appeared as Conseiller Sportif du Président , i.e. as an advisor to the club's president.

In mid-July 2020 Lopez acquired the shares in the Belgian first division partner Royal Excel Mouscron . Lille and Mouscron would now cooperate. Since there is no competition for reserve teams in France, young players from Lille have the opportunity to develop at Mouscron. But Belgian young players should also be promoted in Mouscron.

Private

Gérard Lopez has his main residence in Bad Mondorf and owns 85 cars, which he has stored in a hall in a Luxembourg industrial park. He once owned the largest collection of Lamborghinis in the world before selling all of these cars. In the summer of 2014, his friend Stéphanie Turci was kidnapped from her apartment in the French city of Mexy , then held in a hut and only released after days in the wilderness. Lopez was also in his girlfriend's apartment during the kidnapping and was also threatened at gunpoint by the kidnappers. He is fluent in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Luxembourgish.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ We owe most of the money to ourselves. Auto-motor-und-sport.de, accessed on March 24, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Heiko Stritzke: Lotus takeover: Renault only paid one pound. Motorsport-Total.com, December 27, 2015, accessed March 24, 2016 .
  3. ↑ From Formula 1 to Russian Oil Wells , accessed on March 24, 2016
  4. ↑ Mangrove continues without Gérard Lopez , accessed March 24, 2016
  5. ^ Suspected money laundering at Fola and Lotus , accessed March 24, 2016
  6. ↑ a b Gerard Lopez: “It will be a year of development” , accessed on March 24, 2016
  7. ↑ Gerard Lopez: "We Live in a Big Lie" , accessed March 24, 2016
  8. ↑ Skype financier Gerard Lopez to lead new Russia-focused infrastructure investment group (English), accessed on March 24, 2016
  9. ↑ Transfert: Gerson est enfin à la Roma (French), accessed on December 14, 2019
  10. ↑ a b c d e LOSC: POURQUOI GÉRARD LOPEZ DÉBARQUE (French), accessed on December 15, 2019
  11. ↑ a b Ligue 1 - Le LOSC officiellement racheté par Gérard Lopez (French), accessed on December 15, 2019
  12. ↑ a b c LE PROJET LOSC UNLIMITED PRÉSENTÉ AUX MÉDIAS (French), accessed on December 15, 2019
  13. ↑ Luis Campos rejoint Gérard Lopez, candidat au rachat de Lille (French), accessed on December 15, 2019
  14. ↑ Racheté by Gérard Lopez, Mouscron développera des jeunes avec Da Cruz comme entraîneur. In: proximus.be. July 18, 2020, accessed on July 31, 2020 (French).
  15. ↑ Gérard Lopez, the (almost) untraceable millionaire , accessed on March 24, 2016
  16. ↑ Gerard Lopez's car collection - Europe's hottest garage , accessed on March 24, 2016
  17. ↑ When cars become a passion , accessed on March 24, 2016
  18. ↑ Kidnapped girlfriend of Gerard Lopez released , accessed March 24, 2016
  19. ↑ Police arrest three suspected kidnappers , accessed on March 24, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Lopez, Gérard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Luxembourgish-Spanish entrepreneur, businessman, car racing driver, football official and Formula 1 racing team owner
DATE OF BIRTH December 27, 1971
PLACE OF BIRTH Luxembourg