Partech Powers Up Leadership: New Deputy CEO, Strategic Leadership Additions and Promotions

Following its massive growth in recent years, Partech strengthens its executive leadership with the appointment of Karen Noël to Deputy CEO, alongside the hiring, restructuring, and promotion of C-Level across functions. This strategic evolution reflects the firm's dedication to maintaining superior standards and an enhanced investor and entrepreneur experience.

Paris, November 29th, 2023 - Partech continues its ambitious growth trajectory, aiming to solidify its position as the leading multi-stage technology investment platform in Europe and Africa. Hot off the heels of recent successful fundraising for their Seed and Africa strategies, comes a series of strategic changes at the firm, and reinforcement of the C-Level functions. The ambition and vision remain the same, to elevate, strengthen and continue to offer their investors and entrepreneurs a superior and delightful experience. Changes include the appointment of Karen Noël to Deputy CEO as of January 1, 2024, the transition of Christelle Pariat into the role of CFO Corporate, the hiring of Olivier Michelon as CFO Funds & Head of Operations, and Benoît Piquette as Chief Information Officer, and the promotion of Keji Mustapha to Chief Marketing Officer.

Appointment of Deputy CEO

The appointment of Karen Noël to Deputy CEO marks the successful continuation of a managerial transition process initiated several years ago within Partech, strategically aligning with the firm's growth trajectory. Karen, who joined the firm in 2017 as General Counsel, will now also become Deputy CEO. “Karen's appointment is important on several fronts, beyond her immense professional qualities", comments Philippe Collombel, CEO of Partech. "It demonstrates our commitment towards further developing our platform which serves as a cornerstone for fostering collaboration, growth, and mutual success for our investors and entrepreneurs.” This new chapter also marks the end of an era at the firm with the departure of Jean-Marc Patouillaud, who co-led the reboot of Partech in 2008 with Philippe Collombel, launching an aggressive growth strategy with the creation of several fund strategies. Jean-Marc will maintain close ties with the firm as “founder and senior advisor ”.

Fund & Operations and Corporate Finance functions

Partech has made the move to decouple the Corporate Finance from Fund & Operations functions due to the firm’s increased scale and breadth of structure, significant surge in managed funds, deals, and investors, resulting in the need for dedicated full-time managers for each function.

After a decade of supporting the launch of investment strategies and the growth of assets under management, Christelle Pariat has chosen to fully dedicate herself to the internal corporate projects in her new role as CFO Corporate.

Partech welcomes Olivier Michelon as CFO Funds & Head of Operations. Olivier brings over 12 years of experience from Private Equity, having served as Finance Manager at Idinvest Partners (now Eurazeo IM) and as CFO and Head of Operations at Edmond de Rothschild Private Equity.

“We express our heartfelt gratitude to Christelle Pariat for the quality of the work accomplished during the last decade”, commented Philippe Collombel. “During this period, our AUM alongside our number of annual operations have multiplied by 12. Olivier Michelon will now lead our Funds & Operations team with the objective of further improving and automating our processes, and enhance the services and experience provided to our investors.”

A New Chief Information Officer and a Promotion to Chief Marketing Officer

Two core elements play an increasingly pivotal role in shaping and fostering the overall success and growth of a venture capital firm: Information Technology (IT) and Brand. Partech strengthens these crucial areas with the appointment of Benoît Piquette as Chief Information Officer and the promotion of Keji Mustapha to Chief Marketing Officer.

Benoît Piquette, Chief Information Officer, brings over two decades of expertise from the financial sector, having served in various capacities at Candriam. For 14 years, he oversaw vital information systems, and in the latter six years, he led digital transformation efforts, concentrating on innovative workplace strategies for employees.

Keji Mustapha, who joined Partech in 2021, has been promoted to Chief Marketing Officer and will continue leading the brand marketing, and community efforts at Partech. This includes unearthing innovative ways to drive brand awareness in the key territories around the world in which Partech operates; and developing strategies to leverage collective insights, and facilitate knowledge sharing, between portfolio founders and C-level to enable them to scale fast and reach their highest aspirations.

“IT acts as the backbone of operational efficiency, ensuring seamless systems, data management, and technological advancements. We’re happy to welcome Benoît Piquette who will work on our system for informed decision-making and optimized operations”, said Reza Malekzadeh, General Partner at Partech. “On the brand & marketing side of things, Keji has spent the last two years carving out our brand and portfolio community efforts at Partech and most recently oversaw our rebranding in partnership with Koto. We’re pleased to recognize Keji’s contribution to the Partech team and to the ambitions of the firm.”

About Partech

Partech is a global tech investment firm headquartered in Paris, with offices in Berlin, Dakar, Dubai, Nairobi, and San Francisco. We are a team made up of independent thinkers. We are unconstrained by hype, trend or fixed ways of working. We believe in the power of alliance in action, working together and side-by-side with the founders we back, in the shared pursuit of success. We bring together capital, operational experience and strategic support for the entrepreneurs we back from seed through to growth stage. Born in San Francisco 40 years ago, today we manage €2.5B AUM and our current portfolio of 220 companies in 40 countries, across 4 continents.

Website: partechpartners.com

For media inquiries:

Isabelle Tresson: +33 7 86 08 85 85 itresson@partechpartners.com