Rémi Cléro
Remi gained admission in top standing to Sup'Aéro in France, the most elite Aeronautics and Space Institute in Europe. He earned a full scholarship to Stanford University Aero & Astro program where he conducted his thesis work in robotics. He graduated from Sup'Aero with an MS in Aerospace Engineering in 1986.
During his military service in 1986/1987, Remi worked as an engineer on the space and rocket programs at EADS (Aerospatiale) near Paris.
In 1987, he joined Martin Lockheed near Cape Canaveral FL, as team leader of algorithms for NATO's “Multiple Launch Rocket System” project. Remi discovered a breakthrough approach, improving significantly signal/noise ratio performance still used to this day in radar guided missiles.
He went to Harvard Business School in 1988, graduating with an MBA in June 1990.
From 1990 to 1994, at The Boston Consulting Group (New York), Remi was promoted from consultant to manager in less than four years, working for top executives in a wide range of industries. In the course of one of his assignments, he worked with Indra Nooyi, now a world renowned CEO who as she became CFO of Pepsico invited Remi to join as Director of Strategy, at the HQ in NY.
From 1994 to 1997, Remi was at Pepsico in NY, first as Director of Strategy at Pepsico Foods/Frito Lay International in charge of development and strategy. He was then promoted to Director of Strategic planning at PepsiCo Headquarters in Purchase NY, reporting to Indra Nooyi. Remi was in charge of a group which covered all aspect of strategic and business planning for the $30B company. One of his major accomplishments was to lead a strategic task force on the fast food retail businesses, leading to the spin-off of the restaurant division (Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC).
From 1997 through 2001, Remi was CEO of French luxury fragrance and fashion company Paco Rabanne, based in Paris. Focusing initially on fragrance sales development and launching Ultraviolet, the most successful feminine perfume launched by the brand, Remi also restructured the fashion division from 30 licences to one single prêt-à-porter line, including a change in artistic direction. Overall company turnover grew double digit during his tenure and profitability improved considerably.
In 2002, Remi joined Cradle Holdings, and in early2003 became CEO of L'Artisan Parfumeur, a high end perfume brand which he identified, approached and completed the acquisition of, on the behalf of Fox Paine. L'Artisan Parfumeur has grown threefold since 2002, and has become one of the leading high end perfume companies in the industry. It grew from five owned retail stores to thirty five. It holds top rankings at leading specialty stores such as Barneys NY, Bendel NY, Isetan Tokyo, Bon Marché, Paris…etc.
In September 2005, in addition to his position as CEO at L'Artisan Parfumeur, Remi became President & CEO of Penhaligon's (London) and Erno Laszlo (New York).
Since October 2009, Remi is a Director of the Board of Cradle Holdings where he remains a significant shareholder.
Rémi is 46 years old, married with three children. Jazz musician, ex-private pilot, and former marathon runner. Published photographer in equestrian sports (accredited Sydney Olympics 2000). Owner of high performance equestrian show jumping stables. Member of Harvard, Sup'Aero, and BCG alumni associations.
Larry Frakes
Larry A. Frakes, 58, has served as a director on our Board of Directors since April 2007. Mr. Frakes served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Everest National Insurance Company, which specializes in primary program insurance opportunities written through underwriting managers and is a subsidiary of Everest Re Group, Ltd. (NYSE:RE), from June 2001 through January 2007 and as President from June 1997 through June 2001. From November 1996 through June 1997, Mr. Frakes served as an Executive Vice President of Everest National Insurance Company. During his tenure at Everest National Insurance Company, he also served as an officer and director of various affiliated companies. Prior to joining Everest National Insurance Company in 1996, Mr. Frakes served as Senior Vice President and Director of Empire Insurance Group from November 1991 through November 1996. From 1970 through 1991, Mr. Frakes held various positions with CIGNA. Mr. Frakes received a B.S. in Business Administration from Northern Kentucky University in 1976.
Johan Gedda
Johan Gedda was raised in Gothenburg, Sweden. He attended M.I.T. (B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering/Thermodynamics), and Harvard Business School (M.B.A. 1988).
After graduation from engineering school, Mr. Gedda joined Royal Dutch Petroleum in The Hague, the Netherlands, later posted to Gabon, West Africa for 4 years of onshore and offshore exploration and production project management. Following business school Mr. Gedda was involved in several private and public software companies serving as COO, Country Manager and President. He successfully bought and sold a number of software businesses. Mr. Gedda is a co-founder of Rocket Software, a leading enterprise infrastructure software vendor where he continues to manage the company's M&A activities, completing over 25 acquisitions over the last decade. In addition to his involvement with Rocket, in the 1990's Johan was a partner with the Vitol Group of Companies, a privately held Swiss oil trading partnership, managing the partnership's London based investment portfolio.
Seth Gersch
Seth J. Gersch previously served as the Chief Operating Officer of Fox Paine.
He serves on the Board of Directors of Global Indemnity plc (NASDAQ: GBLI), Penhaligon’s Holdings (Cayman) Ltd., L’Artisan Parfumeur Holdings (Cayman) Ltd., and Erno Laszlo Holdings (Cayman) Ltd.
Prior to joining Fox Paine, in addition to other positions, Mr. Gersch was a Partner and Managing Director at Montgomery Securities which subsequently became Banc of America Securities. He was responsible for all aspects of the day-to-day operating functions of Montgomery and in 1995 Mr. Gersch founded the BrokerDealer Services Division of Banc of America Securities where he served as President and CEO. This division provided outsourced services to a select group of securities firms located throughout the United States
Mr. Gersch has served as a member of the Regional Firms Advisory Committee to the Board of Directors of the New York Stock Exchange and on the Securities Industry Association's Regional Firms Committee and Operations Committee.
Mr. Gersch is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco 49ers Foundation, the charitable arm of the San Francisco 49ers football organization and has served as a Board member of many charitable community organizations. He was raised in Brooklyn, New York and is a graduate of Pace University.
Eldad Weiss
Mr. Weiss is a co- founder and a Vice- chairman of Basilica Estate Development, a Cyprus based real-estate developer specializing in high-grade building projects in central Moscow, leading the company through rapid expansion, to result in an over 60,000 SQM of prime assets under development, funded through two rounds of equity investment totaling $47million and subsequent $20 million debt facilities from Bank of Austria.
Mr. Weiss is a founder and vice chairman of Paradigm, and served as its Chief Executive Officer for 18 years, since its inception in 1988. Paradigm, a $200M annual turn–over oilfield exploration and production technologies software company, based in the Cayman Islands. Under his leadership, Paradigm has grown from a small boutique technology player into a full-solution powerhouse, serving all the major oil and gas producing provinces in the world.
Mr. Weiss led Paradigm through ten strategic acquisitions as well as several financing rounds, including a NASDAQ IPO, a $100 million Going Private transaction with Fox Paine, and subsequent $40 million debt facilities from Bank of Scotland.
Previously, Mr. Weiss served as Senior Vice-President of Grant-Tensor Geophysical Corporation, a Houston-based oilfield services company (today a division of Geokinetics Inc - GOK ), where he headed its geoscience software division. From 2003 till February 2007 Mr. Weiss served as board member of Enegistics (http://www.energistics.org) a global membership-sponsored consortium for the development, deployment and maintenance of the upstream oil& gas standards. Mr. Weiss is a board member of Open Spirit a Houston based oil& gas data interoperability middleware provider.
As a business leader and industry visionary, Mr. Weiss's articles and interviews were published frequently in trade magazines and the business press, and he has served as keynote speaker at industry events. Mr. Weiss has been awarded, in 2002, the prestigious E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year award for the high-tech segment. Mr. Weiss holds a Bachelors and a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering.