Leadership team and board

Andy was the Chairman of Inmarsat plc until its acquisition and was previously its Executive Chairman and CEO. He was the Senior Independent Director of Sky plc until his resignation in October 2018. He was previously Chairman of Ziggo N.V., Xyratex Technologies and Telenet and also Deputy Chairman of O2 plc. He has been an advisor to Apax Partners and Warburg Pincus. He has previously been Chief Executive Officer and President of Sprint PCS, a NYSE listed global national wireless carrier, and Chief Executive Officer of NTL Limited. He has also held various management positions with US West and AT&T and been a Non-Executive Director on various listed companies. Andy holds a BBA and MBA respectively from the University of Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Rupert has been Inmarsat’s Chief Executive Officer since January 2012. He joined Inmarsat in January 2005 and between then and 2011 he was General Counsel and Senior Vice President, Inmarsat Enterprises. Previously, Rupert was a partner in Atlas Venture, a leading transatlantic venture capital investment boutique, specialising in the IT, communications and biotech sectors. Before Atlas Venture, he was also a partner at the international law firm Linklaters, specialising in corporate finance, mergers & acquisitions and private equity transactions. Rupert received an MA (First Class) in Modern History from Oxford University and won the 1995 Fullbright Fellowship in U.S. securities law, studying at the Georgetown Law Center. He has been a visiting fellow of the Imperial College Business School, London lecturing on the school’s Entrepreneurship programme, and is the co-author of Raising Venture Capital (Wiley). Rupert is a Member of the Board of Directors of the EMEA Satellite Operators Association (ESOA); Commissioner on the Broadband Commission for Digital Development and Member of the Steering Committee of the Smart Africa Initiative.

Max joined Warburg Pincus in 2007 and is a Partner and Managing Director. He is a Director of 1&1 Ionos and MAX (fka Leumi Card). He was involved in the firm’s investments in inexio, IPAN, Network International, Accelya, easycash, MACH, Evenex, Blue Yonder and United Internet. Prior to joining the firm, he worked at McKinsey & Company. Max holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering and Business Administration from Technische Universität Berlin and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Eric is responsible for origination, execution, and management of direct investments in the technology, media and telecom sectors across Europe, as well as geographic coverage for the Nordics at Ontario Teachers’. Eric currently serves on the board of Memora. Prior to joining Ontario Teachers’, Eric worked in investment banking at RBC Capital Markets, most recently as part of the London based Power, Utilities and Infrastructure group.

General Kehler served on the Inmarsat plc Board for six years as a Non-Executive Director until his resignation on 4 December 2019. General Kehler retired from the US Air Force on 31 December 2013 with over 38 years of service. Over his career, he served in a variety of important operational and staff assignments, and successfully led large organisations with global responsibilities. In his final two major command assignments he oversaw a global network of satellite command and control, communications, missile warning and launch facilities, and was directly responsible to the Secretary of Defense and President for the plans and operations of all U.S. forces conducting strategic deterrence, space, and cyberspace operations. General Kehler is a Non-executive Director of MAXAR Technologies, a Trustee of the Mitre Corporation and Director of Monocle Acquisition Corporation.

Pascal focuses on the healthcare and consumer sectors and is also responsible for investments in Germany, France and the Benelux for the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). Prior to joining CPP Investments, Pascal was a Partner at Bregal Freshstream, where he was responsible for their Private Equity activities in France and the Benelux. Previously Pascal was a Partner at Doughty Hanson, where he spent 13 years focusing on mid-market buyouts across Europe. Pascal trained as an accountant at PwC.

Christoph has over 25 years’ experience in the aviation, logistics and tourism industry. He was the Chief Digital and Innovation Officer of Emirates Group and former Chief Executive Officer of Malaysia Airlines. Christoph was the CEO of Irish airline Aer Lingus where he repositioned the loss-making company as a service airline to compete with low budget alternatives. He is a qualified accountant.

Ashvin joined Ontario Teachers’ in 2002 and has nearly 20 years of private equity investing experience. He currently also serves on the Board of Directors of 24-7 Intouch, Camelot Lottery Solutions, Compass Datacenters and Premier Lotteries Ireland. Prior to joining Ontario Teachers’, Ashvin was an Analyst at TD Capital, the private equity arm of TD Bank Financial Group.

Salim is a Partner in the Tech & Telco team of Apax Partners and is based in London. He is also a member of the Investment Committees for the Apax Buyout Funds, Apax Digital Fund and Apax Global Alpha. Salim joined Apax Partners in 1999 specialising in the Tech & Telecom space. He has both led and participated in a number of key deals including ThoughtWorks, Candela, EVRY, GlobalLogic, iGATE, Orange Switzerland, Sophos, SMART Technologies, Weather Investments, Tim Hellas, Promethean and Mobifon. Prior to joining Apax Partners, Salim was an Engagement Manager with McKinsey & Company where he specialised in advising clients in the telecom sector.

René joined Warburg Pincus, a leading private equity firm, as a Partner and Managing Director in February 2015. Subsequent to investments made by Warburg Pincus, he assumed roles as Chairman of the Board at 1&1 IONOS and was a Supervisory Board Member at inexio. He is a Member of the Board of Directors of Airbus. René worked as CEO of Ziggo in The Netherlands in 2014 until the merger with LibertyGlobal’s UPC. Prior to Ziggo, René worked at Deutsche Telekom Group (DT) from 1998 until 2013. After running DT’s mobile division (T-Mobile International), he was appointed as CEO of Deutsche Telekom in November 2006, where he remained until December 2013. René began his career with a business traineeship at BMW in Munich. Next, he founded his own business in 1986: ABC Telekom, a company distributing telecommunication equipment and providing technical services. After the acquisition of ABC Telekom by Hutchison Whampoa in 1991, René became Managing Partner of the resulting company: Hutchison Mobilfunk. Between 1993 and 1998, he was CEO of that company.