Waldemar Kita (born 1953) is a Polish millionaire businessman residing in France.
Boursier.com et Reuters, published 28 July 2007, retrieved on 10 June 2009.

Optics

Kita was born in Szczecin, Poland. He made his fortune by establishing Cornéal in 1986. The company grew to become the foremost French, and fourth largest European firm designing and manufacturing

intraocular lens Intraocular lens (IOL) is a lens (optics), lens implanted in the human eye, eye as part of a treatment for cataracts or myopia. If the natural lens is left in the eye, the IOL is known as Phakic intraocular lens, phakic, otherwise it is a pseudop ...

es for cataract surgery and in the treatment of glaucoma. In December 2006, Kita sold Cornéal to

Allergan Allergan plc is an American, Irish-domiciled pharmaceutical company that acquires, develops, manufactures and markets brand name drugs and medical devices in the areas of medical aesthetics, eye care, central nervous system, and gastroenterology. ...

for

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

180 million.Allergan, acquiert le français Corneal
Bienvoir.com, published 9 November 2006, retrieved on 10 June 2009.

Football

Kita is a passionate football fan and in 1998 he bought Swiss club

FC Lausanne-Sport FC Lausanne–Sport (also referred to as LS) is a Swiss football club based in Lausanne in the canton of Vaud. Founded in 1896, Lausanne Sport played in the Swiss Super League in their most recent 2021-22 season, the highest tier of football i ...

, which he led as chairman up until 2001, when he sold the club again. In 2007, he then bought Ligue 1 club

FC Nantes Football Club de Nantes (; Gallo: ''Naunnt''), commonly referred to as FC Nantes or simply Nantes (), is a French professional football club based in Nantes in Pays de la Loire. The club was founded on 21 April 1943, during World War II, as a ...

, an eight-time French football champion. Kita reportedly paid around €10 million for the at the time financially strained club."Polish businessman Waldemar Kita buys Nantes" by ''Extra Football'', 29 July 2007
retrieved on 15 September 2008. He has been the chairman of the club ever since. He was chosen as the best executive in French Football in 2014 by the prestigious magazine ''

France Football ''France Football'' is a French weekly magazine containing football news from all over the world. It is considered to be one of the most reputable sports publications in Europe, mostly because of its photographic reports, in-depth and exclusi ...

''.

References

1953 births Living people Polish businesspeople Polish expatriates in France French football chairmen and investors People named in the Panama Papers {{Poland-business-bio-stub

Optics

Football

See also

References