Bio

Philippe has 25+ years of experience in the tech industry. He and his team help building partnerships between Vodafone Group and like-minded organisations; manage a series of existing partnerships; and represent the interests of the company upon request in the 100+ countries where it delivers services. Separately from his executive duties, he sits as non-executive director on the Board of 4 companies (3 in Europe + 1 in Africa) and 1 advocacy org, Global Citizen (USA), and teaches to the next gen MBA. Philippe started doing partnerships as a consultant 20 years ago, originally to support the international expansion of Telenor, Bertelsmann, and Orange. He then worked 10 years in OpCo in Europe and in the Middle East for Orange and Ooreedoo. Philippe joined Vodafone Group in 2012, originally supporting business around the world. He ended up putting together a concept of repeat cooperation with certain types of partners, with a view to shorten project lead time. This led inter alia to a strategic alliance being formed with Sumitomo Corporation; to a partnership being formed with the Government of Oman to deploy a 4th generation mobile operator; to partnerships with the public authorities of Spain and Germany to build tech R&D centres; and to cooperation agreements with a series of local, national, and international organisations. In 2021 the 303 people team led by Philippe won a license to operate in Ethiopia, a country of 118m. This is the biggest win of Vodafone in emerging markets in 20+ years. Vodafone (UK), Vodacom (SA), Safaricom (KE), Sumitomo (JA), BII (UK), AST (US) and 75 local companies have since launched what will become a unique combo of terrestrial mobile and low orbit satellite networks, ending a 127 years old monopoly. Safaricom Ethiopia crossed the 1m clients mark in 5 weeks only. This project has received several intl awards in 2022 including Best partnership in the world; Best investment in Africa; and (second) Best corporate deal in the world. The same partners are now working together on 25+ projects. Philippe holds a master's degree in Law, with post-grad specializations in telecoms law and in competition law; a master's degree in media & comms; and an exec MBA. He has lived in 10 countries and worked in 74 so far. Roles held incl. Director; various global or regional roles for MNCs; Deputy CEO; Chief Strategy Officer; General Counsel; COO; Company Secretary; Head of Legal & Regulatory; and a series of legal, regulatory, and strategy positions for MNCs covering Europe, Africa, Asia, Latam, the Middle East, and the US.