The News

Olivier Sichel named partner at Sofinnova Partners

06/11/2006

Paris, 6 November 2006 – Sofinnova Partners is pleased to announce that Olivier Sichel, former Chairman and CEO of Wanadoo (France Telecom group) has been named Partner.

Olivier Sichel, 39, a graduate of Essec, a French business school, ENA (the Ecole Nationale d’Administration), and a former Inspecteur des Finances, joined France Telecom en 1998. Two years later he was named Chairman and CEO of Alapage.com, which he positioned as a leading operator in French e-commerce, growing sales from €21 million to €43 million in 2002 – despite the downturn in the Internet world – and turning the company profitable.

In November 2002 he was named Chairman of Wanadoo, a European leader in Internet and directories and a publicly traded company with a stock market value of €6.5 billion. Olivier Sichel restructured Wanadoo’s activities in Spain, the Netherlands, and the U.K. and developed the company’s on-line Yellow Pages directory. By the time Wanadoo was merged with France Telecom in a mixed public offer in April 2004, the company’s operating profit had quadrupled and its value increased to €13 billion.

Following the integration of Wanadoo into the France Telecom group, Sichel took over the fixed-line and internet activities, merging the former fixed and Wanadoo teams throughout Europe. As a result, France Telecom moved up from 9th to second place worldwide in ADSL between 2003 and 2005, during which time Sichel oversaw the launch of numerous innovative products breaking with the operator’s traditional lines of business, such as Livebox, VOIP, and broadband multi-service offerings.

“I was attracted to Sofinnova Partners by the quality of its teams, its broad field of activity and its European leadership, all of which provide an ideal setting for the challenging role of venture capitalist,” says Olivier Sichel. “When I joined the telecom industry ten years ago, it was about to undergo a major restructuring. I’m convinced today that venture capital will undergo a similar transformation over the next decade.”

“We are pleased to welcome Olivier as Partner in our Information Technologies team,” says Olivier Protard, Managing Partner. “His nomination confirms our strategy of putting senior partners with solid operational experience at the service of the companies we invest in.”

For further information, please contact:
Madeleine Resener
Media Relations
Sofinnova Partners
Tel: +33 (0) 53 05 41 00 / +33 (0) 6 20 41 39 82
mresener@sofinnova.fr

About Sofinnova Partners
Founded in Paris in 1972, Sofinnova Partners is one of Europe's leading independent venture capital firms. With €900 million under management, Sofinnova Partners invests in start-ups and early-stage companies in information technology and life sciences. Its investment strategy consists of investing early in teams and projects with high potential, most often acting as lead or co-lead investor. Sofinnova Partners also benefits from a long-established relationship with its sister company in San Francisco, Sofinnova Ventures. Sofinnova Partners’ team consists of 10 professionals who bring market insight and technical expertise to portfolio companies.