Michiel Mol (born 4 August 1969) is a Dutch businessman, and former director of

Spyker F1 The Spyker F1 Team, known as the Etihad Aldar Spyker F1 Team for sponsorship reasons, was a Formula One team that competed in the 2007 Formula One season, 2007 Formula One World Championship with a List of Formula One constructors#Team's nationa ...

and

Force India Force India Formula One Team Limited, commonly known as Force India and later Sahara Force India, was a Formula One racing team and constructor based in Silverstone, United Kingdom, with an Indian licence. The team was formed in October 20 ...

Early life and career

Mol was born in Delft, Netherlands. His father, Jan Mol, co-founded the software company Volmac in 1966. The company was successful, and following flotation on the stock market in 1988, Volmac was purchased by

CAP Gemini Capgemini SE is a multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company, headquartered in Paris, France. History Capgemini was founded by Serge Kampf in 1967 as an enterprise management and data processing company. The comp ...

in 1992. After obtaining a master's degree in computer science from

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city o ...

, Mol himself went into the software business. In 1993 he set up '' Lost Boys'' with several friends, developing software for the

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both com ...

market. With the rapid growth of the Internet, the company started making internet software as well as moving into game development. ''Lost Boys'' then merged with Swedish company ''IconMedialab'' in 2001. Mol remained on the board and kept the ''Lost Boys Games'' division, before establishing a new company called ''Media Republic'', aiming to use new technology to market products. ''Lost Boys Games'' was transformed into '' Guerrilla Games'', notable for developing the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on ...

game Killzone, during 2004 and a year later it was sold to

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

Formula One

Mol supported Dutch driver

Jos Verstappen Johannes Franciscus Verstappen (; born 4 March 1972) is a former (Formula One) racing driver. Verstappen was the German Formula Three champion and Masters of Formula Three winner in 1993. In Formula 1, Verstappen raced for seven different te ...

through his ''Lost Boys'' brand, including sponsoring the

Arrows Grand Prix Arrows Grand Prix International was a British Formula One team active from to . It was known as Footwork from 1991 to 1996. Origins The Arrows Grand Prix International team was founded in Milton Keynes, England in November 1977, by Italia ...

team. Later, Mol would support another Dutch driver

Christijan Albers Christijan Albers () (born 16 April 1979) is a Dutch former professional racing driver. After success in the DTM he drove in Formula One from until the 2007 British Grand Prix, shortly after which he was dropped by the Spyker F1 team. In ...

. In 2006, Mol led a group of directors with the

Spyker Cars Spyker Cars (, ) is a Dutch sports car marque. The modern Spyker Cars held the legal rights to the brand name. The company's motto is "''Nulla tenaci invia est via''", Latin for "For the tenacious, no road is impassable". The marque's logo d ...

company to purchase the

Midland F1 Midland F1 Racing (also known as MF1 Racing, or simply "Midland") was a Formula One constructor and racing team which competed in the 2006 Formula One season with drivers Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro. The team was created by the renami ...

Team from

Alex Shnaider Alexander Yevseyevich Shnaider (russian: Алекса́ндр Евсе́евич "А́лекс" Шнайдер; he, אלכסנדר (אלכס) שניידר; born 3 August 1968) is a Russian-born Canadian entrepreneur and former commodities tra ...

for $106.6million. Mol was appointed F1 Race Director of the newly formed team. On 16 May 2007, Mol was appointed interim CEO of Spyker Cars. During 2007, there were reports of financial difficulties at Spyker Cars and rumour the Formula One team may split. Mol resigned as Interim CEO to concentrate on the Formula One team project in August. In September 2007, Spyker Cars announced that a consortium of Michol Mol, Jan Mol and

Vijay Mallya Vijay Vittal Mallya (born 18 December 1955) is an Indian businessman, former politician and fugitive. He is the subject of an extradition effort by the Indian Government to return him from the UK to face charges of financial crimes in India. ...

had purchased the team for €80million. From 2008, the team became known as

and Mol retained a shareholding until 2018 when the team went into administration and was purchased by Lawrence Stroll.

Space Expedition Corporation

Mol is a co-founder of Space Expedition Corporation (SXC), which intends to offer suborbital space tourism flights and scientific research missions out of Space Port Curaçao. The company was since renamed

XCOR Aerospace XCOR Aerospace was an American private spaceflight and rocket engine development company based at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, Midland International Air and Space Port, Midland International Air and Spaceport in Midland, T ...

, and filed for bankruptcy in 2017.

Personal life

In July 2004, Mol married Paulien Huizinga, a former Miss Universe Netherlands and now a Dutch TV personality. They lived together in Blaricum. Together they have a daughter and a son. In August 2011 it was announced that Huizinga and Mol would divorce. In 2018, Mol married Marlous Mens.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mol, Michiel 1969 births Living people Dutch businesspeople Dutch motorsport people Formula One team owners Spyker People from Breda Force India