Gérard López
Gérard López Fojaca (born 27 December 1971) is an entrepreneur-investor and an active Luxembourgish-Spanish businessman that invests in new technologies, energy sector and in the sports industry. In the 1990s, Lopez cofounded Mangrove Capital Partners, one of the top three Tech investors in Europe. Alongside Eric Lux, he created The Genii Group. From 2009 to 2015, Lopez was President of the Formula 1 Lotus F1 Team and is still one of its minority shareholder and administrator. He is chairman of Genii Capital and is also CEO of Nekton, an investment company in the energy sector, where  he spends most of his time. Lopez has been the President of Luxembourg's CS Fola Esch football club since 2007. Biography. Lopez grew up in a soot-covered house next to a steel mill in Luxembourg. He was recruited to Miami University in Western Ohio to play basketball on a partial scholarship in 1998. He studied integrated traffic management systems and in operational management in Miami University. He also has a degree in Asian Art. At age 22, he began managing a number of companies among which Icon Solutions and the leasing company ProLease. With Mark Tluszcz and Hans  Jurgen Schmitz, he founded Mangrove Capital Partners, a Luxembourg-based leading venture capital company specialized in future oriented technologies. Mangrove Capital Partners was one of the first investors in Skype selling a minority position to eBay in 2005 as part of the $2.6 billion acquisition. He founded with Eric Lux in 2008 Genii Capital, a finance consulting and investment managing firm. Lopez sits on the board of Directors of "WIx", Zink Imaging, Lotus F1 Team and is also a member of the Planning Advisory Committee of the Miami University Business School. In 2015, he founded Nekton, an investment company  and brokerage in energy field, active in South America, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. In recent years, Lopez has also taken an interest in Russia and is currently chairman of Rise Capital (Sweden) - a company controlled by Russian businessman Igor A. Snegurov that invests in public-private partnerships with a focus on Russian infrastructure projects, where construction contracts go to Snegurov's own construction group VIS, which often receives its orders or financial backing from Gazprom where Snegurov's friend and colleague Dmitriy Doyev heads Gazprom structures Tsentrremont and Tsentrenergogaz. Sports. As a sports fan, Lopez got into car racing  through operations made with Eric Lux and "Gravity Sport Management" in particular. He also participated in long-distance races with Gravity Racing International's team. In 2009, he bought out the Formula 1 Lotus F1 Team making Genii Capital the majority owner of the team. If the stable possessed very few sponsors at the beginning, Microsoft, Unilever and Coca-Cola soon became team partners. Through "Kick Partners" and "Mangrove Sport Business Intelligence", Lopez also takes care of the image and the transfers of football players. For one year, Lopez and his team are studying the French Ligue 1 championship for  an acquisition. In October 2016, Lopez entered into exclusive talks with President Michel Seydoux for the acquisition of the Lille OSC football club He eventually succeeded and become the majority owner of the French Ligue 1 club. He now owns Bordeaux instead. In Portugal, he is the owner of Boavista FC since 2021, a nationally-renowned sports club from Porto. Personal interests. Lopez owns what is considered by some to be one of the best car collections in the world. It has been featured in "Top Gear" magazine and in local newspapers.