Corinne Danièle Goddijn-Vigreux, commonly known as Corinne Vigreux (born 9 December 1964), is a French
business executive
A business executive is a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization.
Executives run companies or government agencies. They create plans to help their organizations g ...
and entrepreneur. She is a co-founder of the Dutch consumer electronics company
TomTom
TomTom N.V. is a Dutch multinational developer and creator of location technology and consumer electronics. Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Amsterdam, TomTom released its first generation of satellite navigation devices to market in 2004. ...
where she has been Managing Director of the Consumer Business Unit since 2008.
Early life and education
Born in
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...
, France, in 1964, Vigreux was brought up in the working-class suburb of
Vaulx-en-Velin
Vaulx-en-Velin () is a commune in the Metropolis of Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in eastern France. It is the third-largest suburb of the city of Lyon, and is located to its northeast, on the river Rhône.
History
The rivers, including th ...
where her father was a commercial buyer for a chemical company and her mother, a pharmacy dispenser.
After specializing in physics and maths at school (
Lycée du Parc
The Lycée du Parc is a public secondary school located in the sixth ''Arrondissements of Lyon, arrondissement'' of Lyon, France. Its name comes from the Parc de la Tête d'Or, one of Europe's largest urban parks, which is situated nearby.
It pro ...
), she studied at the
ESSEC Business School
The École Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (more commonly ESSEC Business School or ESSEC) is a major French business and management school, with non-profit association status (French association law of 1901) founded in 1907 ...
in Paris where she graduated in international business in 1987.
Career
In 1987, Vigreux started working in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
for the
Psion consumer electronics company where she managed exports, travelling to
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
and around
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
.
[ While working at Psion, she met ]Harold Goddijn
Harold Goddijn (born April 23, 1960) is the CEO of the Dutch consumer/business electronics company TomTom since 2001.
Early life and education
He studied Economics at the University of Amsterdam from 1982 till 1986.
Early career
Goddijn s ...
who was interested in distributing the company's products in the Netherlands
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, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. They married in 1991 and moved to the Netherlands where for a few months she worked for a dairy cooperative while her husband worked for Psion. Attracted back to technology, Vigreux teamed up with two of Goddijn's friends, Peter-Frans Pauwels
Peter-Frans Pauwels (born June 1965) is a Dutch entrepreneur.
In 1991, soon after he completed his studies in Business and Computer Science at the Universiteit van Amsterdam, he founded, with his former university mate Pieter Geelen, a company ...
and Pieter Geelen
Pieter Geelen (born 1964) is a Dutch entrepreneur.
Geelen was born in January 1964 in Hilversum as the oldest child of the illustrator Harrie Geelen and the children's author Imme Dros. In 1991, he dropped off his Ph.D. research in Computer Scien ...
, and founded Palmtop Software which later became TomTom.
Initially, Palmtop produced products for popular handheld devices but by the early 2000s, Vigreux and her colleagues realized there were opportunities for producing dedicated mapping devices after Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
opened up the military GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...
system for generalized access. The TomTom, the first stand-alone navigating device, with its own touchscreen facility, was released in March 2004. The market exploded over the next four years with revenues increasing from €42 million to €1.8 billion. In 2008, Vigreux was appointed managing director, sales director and chief commercial officer for TomTom, positions she still holds.[
In recent years, the ]satnav
A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning. It allows satellite navigation devices to determine their location (longitude, latitude, and altitude/elevation) to high pre ...
sector has suffered from Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
's development of mapping systems for smartphones. Vigreux subsequently led TomTom's entry into the sport watches for everyday athletes and in April 2015 launched TomTom Bandit a highly innovative action camera. Nevertheless, Vigreux sees new opportunities for mapping systems in applications for self-driving vehicles.[
Corinne Vigreux founde]
CODAM
a new coding college in the heart of Amsterdam. CODAM is a private, nonprofit and tuition-free computer programming
Computer programming is the process of performing a particular computation (or more generally, accomplishing a specific computing result), usually by designing and building an executable computer program. Programming involves tasks such as ana ...
school. Codam builds on the pioneering work of 42 School in Paris.
Boards and Honors
*Corinne Vigreux is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees at th
Sofronie Foundation
since January 2006. The Sofronie Foundation works with charities and not for profit organisations that focus on improving the lives of disadvantaged young people through educational or vocational programmes.
*Corinne Vigreux was elected on May 4, 2016 as an independent member of the Board of Directors for a term of four years at ILIAD, a parent company of Free.
*Vigreux is on the Board of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Netherlands (CFCI) and a member of the Conseil de Coopération Franco-Néerlandais (CCFN).
*She is also on the advisory board of the Dutch National Opera & Ballet.
*In 2012, she was decorated as a Knight of the Legion of Honour
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...
for her business success and social commitment.
*In October 2016 Corinne Vigreux was elected member of the advisory board
An advisory board is a body that provides non-binding strategic advice to the management of a corporation, organization, or foundation. The informal nature of an advisory board gives greater flexibility in structure and management compared to th ...
at Takeaway.com
Just Eat Takeaway.com N.V. (formerly Takeaway.com; founded as Thuisbezorgd.nl) is a Dutch multinational online food ordering and delivery company, formed from the merger of London-based Just Eat and Amsterdam-based Takeaway.com in 2020. It is ...
.
*November 2016, Corinne Vigreux was decorated "Officier in de Orde van Oranje-Nassau".
Personal life
Vigreux, who now lives in Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
, is married to Harold Goddijn
Harold Goddijn (born April 23, 1960) is the CEO of the Dutch consumer/business electronics company TomTom since 2001.
Early life and education
He studied Economics at the University of Amsterdam from 1982 till 1986.
Early career
Goddijn s ...
who is chairman and managing director of TomTom
TomTom N.V. is a Dutch multinational developer and creator of location technology and consumer electronics. Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Amsterdam, TomTom released its first generation of satellite navigation devices to market in 2004. ...
. The couple have two children studying at universities.[
]
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vigreux, Corinne
1964 births
Living people
Businesspeople from Lyon
21st-century French businesswomen
French business executives
Recipients of the Legion of Honour
ESSEC Business School alumni
Automotive businesspeople