Investor Relations
Shareholders structure
As of February 1st, 2024
Famille Swenden
12.7%
Lune Rouge
10.7%
William Vanderfelt
8.6%
Robert Taub
5.2%
Nikolaos Sofronis
5.1%
Christian Dumolin
4.0%
Les Abatteurs Jacques Elément
3.5%
Others
50.3%
Robert Blain
Chairman of the Board
Co-CEO of Groupe Lune Rouge and President of Guy Laliberté’s family office, Robert Blain, FCPA, has also contributed to the growth of Cirque du Soleil as its Chief Financial Officer. For over 20 years, he has cultivated relationships with prominent companies, such as MGM, Disney and Apple Corps (Beatles), as well as the trustees of the Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley estates. This long and illustrious career has led him to be involved in various committees and boards of directors; most notably, the One Drop Foundation, the CHU Sainte-Justine Foundation and the Guy Laliberté Foundation.
Nikolaos Sofronis
President & CEO
Mr. Sofronis is a Member of the Board of Aya Gold & Silver (AYA.TO) and the Chairman of the Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance Committee. The Aya’s community engagements are focused on the education, health and agricultural programs. He served on multiple boards and was the Chairman of Cyprotex, a bioscience company listed on the London Stock Market. Mr. Sofronis is a Board Member of Up2Green, an NGO created in 2009, which is concerned to provide concrete responses to climate changes. Up2Green is active on five continents. The commitments are the preservation of water resources, the reforestation, the soil restoration and the limitation of erosion. Mr. Sofronis was founder and president of BS Family Office Assets Management, Geneva, a firm specializing in private equity mainly in the mining and the natural resources sectors. He has over 16 years of experience in private banking, having held positions of significant responsibility at several of the foremost financial institutions including PARIBAS and Republic National Bank of NY.
Dr. Viviane Yargeau
Independent Director
Dr. Viviane Yargeau has co-developed the two Earth Alive flagship products, Soil Activator and ea1 and was a part-time Chief Technology Officer of Earth Alive from 2013 to 2018. She is a Professor at McGill University and an Associate Member of the McGill School of Environment. From 2018 to 2023, she served as Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering, and she is now Dean of the Faculty of Engineering. She is a recognized leader in the control of environmental pollutants and her research focuses on both fundamental and technological aspects leading to improvement of technologies to mitigate the release of pollutants in the environment and the development of green alternatives. She leads her own research group and has established strong collaborations internationally within academia as well as with various organizations and the industry. Her multidisciplinary research program also includes working closely with toxicologists to assess the impact of products and compounds on the environment and public health. Dr. Yargeau is a Fellow of the International Water Association (IWA) and of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE). The innovative aspects of her research have already been recognized by several publications in peer-reviewed journals, invited talks and research awards.
David Colon
Independent Director
David Colon is an engineer who graduated in 1995 from the Ecole Polytechnique (X93 – Paris) and in 1998 from the National School of Rural Engineering for Water and Forests. He is also a graduate of the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Défense Nationale (1992) and was decorated in 2021 with the National Order of Merit. Mr. Colon is a specialist in water management and forest engineering as well as the geopolitics of energy and natural resources. Since 2014, he is Director of Institutional Relations at Veolia Water and is also responsible for coordinating CSR and managing alerts and crises for the whole of France. Since 2021, Veolia group has generated an annual revenue of €37 billion, with approximately 230,000 employees in more than 70 countries. Between 1998 and 2014, Mr. Colon hel different fonctions mainly in the management of public water and sanitation services. He also managed companies of the Veolia group for public transportation and industrial cleaning. In 2009, David Colon founded Up2Green Reforestation, an NGO dedicated to community reforestation for populations affected by the disappearance of their ecosystems in Africa, India and Central America. He is still the volunteer President. David Colon is also the permanent delegate of the French Strategic Committee for the Water industry. He also played a key role in the creation in 2017 of the Filière Française de l’Eau, a confederation of public and private actors in the water sector, of which he was the first President. He is co-author of the book “Drinking water in France: between invoice and fractures”, published in 2017.
Valérie Renard
Independent Director
Since 2020, Valérie Renard is the Chief Executive Officer of Hedera-22, a biotechnology company active in the discovery of next generation biomolecules presenting human and/or plant health benefits, mainly from soil bacteria, using proprietary bio informatic predictive approaches based on machine learning algorithms. Before that, Mrs. Renard worked 25 years at Prayon S.A., a Belgium-based group specializing in phosphate chemistry. Mrs. Renard started at Prayon in 1995 as a Quality Manager, becoming a Technical Manager in 1999, a Vice President in 2003 and a member of the Executive Committee in 2011, by then being responsible for Sales, Logistics & Marketing for the group. Valérie Renard is a Civil Engineer in Chemistry (1988, ULiège (Belgium)/University of Coventry (UK); magna cum laude), has a Certificate in Global Management (INSEAD (France)) and a Certificate in Board Effectiveness (GUBERNA (Belgium)).
Nicolas Schlumberger
Independent Director
Nicolas Schlumberger is an international businessman who is currently President and Chief Executive Officer of Screencell Sa, a French biotech company that specializes in the early detection of cancers by way of liquid biopsy. The company was founded with the objective of designing and producing a simple and disposable technology allowing the fast and effective isolation of Circulating Tumor Cells from cancer patient’s blood. Mr. Schlumberger is also advisor to Skyre Inc., a US-based company with a focus on static electro-chemical separation of gases. Skyre’s mission is to work to decarbonize the world’s energy system by recycling to leave less waste, paving a smarter way to a better world. Mr. Schlumberger is actively involved in Coral Reef Capital, a private equity firm based in New York, specialized in natural resources founded by his eldest son, engaged in several mining operations in Nevada, He is a member of the board of directors of Western Exploration, a gold and silver district located in Aura County. From 2000 to 2020, Mr. Schlumberger was a successful entrepreneur in China. (Chengdu,Shanghai, Beijing) in multiple sectors introducing Western technologies and expertise: hi-tech manufacturing, leisure, telecom, TV broadcasting, water…
Erik Bomans
Independent Director
Since 2013, Erik Bomans is the Chief Executive Officer of Deminor Recovery Services, a company focused on legal finance solutions for businesses, investors, public authorities and charities. Deminor Recovery Services has offices in 9 countries and has conducted activities in more than 20 different jurisdictions. Its clients include some of the world’s largest institutional investors and corporations. Mr. Bomans founded Deminor Recovery Services in 2008 as a business unit of the Deminor group, from which it was spun off in 2013.
Prior to 2008, Erik Bomans was a partner of Deminor International. In this capacity, he advised and represented investors on various high-profile corporate finance transactions, special situations, as well as corporate governance and investor protection matters. A frequent speaker, he is considered an expert in corporate governance by the European and international press.
Prior to joining Deminor, Mr. Bomans practiced as a lawyer at the corporate law department of De Bandt, Van Hecke & Lagae (subsequently merged with Linklaters) in Brussels. Passionate about the environment, nature and organic farming, he founded Terre et Sens in 2020, a nature and organic farm based in Belgium.
Mr. Bomans has a law degree from the University of Leuven (Belgium) where he graduated in 1991. In 1993, he graduated from the Johns Hopkins University (Washington, D.C.) as a Master of Arts in international politics and economics. He was admitted to the Brussels Bar in 1996 and in 1997-1999, he pursued a two-year executive program in financial analysis organized by the Belgian Association of Financial Analysts (ABAF) and subsequently obtained the diploma of certified international investment analyst (CIIA).
Vladimir Wendl Ibarra
Independent Director
Vladimir Wendl Ibarra is a Businessman, Chairman and Member of selective boards specialised in Biotech, Health & Environment. Since 2023, he is Chairman of Enedria AS, a Norwegian biotechnology company developing dietary supplements addressing modern lifestyle dysfunctions. The company offers a wide range of possible applications of their products towards neurodegenerative and metabolic disorders. Mr. Wendl Ibarra is currently also Vice-chairman of Norinsect, the Norwegian and nordic leader company in insects as environmentally friendly animal protein feed. The main goal of the company is in line with the growing global need for sustainable food production with minimal resources use and a small environmental footprint. He is also an active entrepreneur in the electricity industry and hospitality real estate areas. Before becoming a private entrepreneur, he spent 30 years in 7 different countries as a top executive for Nestlé, the world largest Food & Beverages company. Most recently, from 2016 to 2023, he was CEO of Nestlé Norway and Iceland after heading the company in 3 different continents. From 2011 to 2016, in Nestlé Ukraine & Moldova, from 2008 to 2011, in Nestlé Ivory Coast and from 2003 to 2008, he took his first position as CEO in Nestlé Paraguay. Before that, he took middle management positions in Nestlé Russia and Mexico after starting his career in Nestlé Switzerland in 1992. Mr. Wendl graduated from the “Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales” (HEC) of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland and is now based in Oslo, Norway.