Philippe Hayat

Philippe is a serial entrepreneur who has been involved in the creation and turnaround of several industrial, service and technology companies. Between 1994 and 1999, he led the development of Bâches de France, a French company providing industrial and advertising canvas for buildings. He brought the company to profitability and sold it to the Qualis Group in 1999. In 2000, he co-founded with Marc Fournier and Xavier Lorphelin the incubator Kangaroo Village, acquired by Société Générale in 2002. He subsequently played an active role in the turnaround of the Société Générale venture capital portfolio. In 2004 Philippe acquired Architel, a French company specialized in storage services and electronic document management. Architel was then purchased by Iron Mountain (NYSE: IRM), the worldwide leader for information protection and storage services. Philippe started the entrepreneurship program at ESSEC and the French Institute of Political Sciences. In 2006 he launched a public initiative (« 100.000 entrepreneurs ») to promote entrepreneurship in high schools. That non-profit organization is focused in bringing the entrepreneurship spirit to High Schools and helping students open their professional horizons. Since its inception, more than 50,000 students have talked to entrepreneurs in their classroom. Thanks to those meetings, they understand better the meaning of entrepreneurship, the way a company works, and the use of studies. The organization works closely with the French Ministry of Education. More than 3,000 entrepreneurs belong to that network throughout France. Philippe is a graduate from Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (ESSEC).