Gérard López Fojaca (born 27 December 1971) is a Luxembourgish-Spanish businessman active in technology, energy, and sport. He is the co-founder (with

Eric Lux Éric Roger Lux (born 19 December 1967) is a Luxembourgish businessman. He is the CEO of Genii Capital, co-founded with Gerard Lopez, an investment management and financial member of the Genii Group and former owner of the Lotus F1 Team. He ...

) and chairman of

Genii Capital Genii Capital (simply known as Genii and stylized as GƎИII) is an international financial advisory and investment firm, which specialises in brand management, technology, motorsport and a range of venture capital activities. It was created in ...

. López has been the owner of French club

FC Girondins de Bordeaux Football Club des Girondins de Bordeaux (), commonly referred to as Girondins de Bordeaux () or simply Bordeaux, is a French Association football, football club based in the city of Bordeaux in Gironde (department), Gironde, Nouvelle-Aquitain ...

and Portuguese club

Boavista FC Boavista Futebol Clube (), commonly known as Boavista, is a Portuguese professional sports club from the of Porto that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football, at the Estádio do Bessa. It is one of the oldest clubs ...

since 2021. From 2009 to 2015, Lopez was president of the

Lotus F1 Team Lotus F1 Team was a British Formula One racing team. The team competed under the Lotus name from until , following the renaming of the former Renault team based at Enstone in Oxfordshire. The Lotus F1 Team was majority owned by Genii Capital ...

. In 2022, Lopez launched The Lydian Group, a tech conglomerate operating across the digital assets space. As a co-founder, he was the owner of Mangrove Capital Partners from 2000 to 2014.

Early life

López grew up in a soot-covered house next to a steel mill in Luxembourg. He was recruited to

Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public university, public research university in Oxford, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1809, it is the second-oldest List of colleges and universities in Ohio, university in Ohi ...

in Western Ohio to play basketball on a partial scholarship in 1998. He studied management and technology there. He also has a degree in Asian Art.

Career

While at university, he founded Icon Solutions, a web services company. 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 Skype () was a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also had instant messaging, file transfer, ...

selling a minority position to

eBay eBay Inc. ( , often stylized as ebay) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that allows users to buy or view items via retail sales through online marketplaces and websites in 190 markets worldwide. ...

in 2005 as part of the $2.6 billion acquisition. He founded with Eric Lux in 2008

, a finance consulting and investment managing firm. López sits on the board of Directors of ''WIx'', Zink Imaging,

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. He is also the CEO of the company. López was formerly chairman of RISE Capital AB, which alongside Nekton, was a co-owner of RISE Capital AB Projects. Nekton divested itself of its interests in RISE in December 2020. Some of López's companies were said to have featured in the

Panama Papers The Panama Papers () are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) published beginning April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. These document ...

leak in 2016, however the

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Inc. (ICIJ), is an independent global network of 280 investigative journalists and over 140 media organizations spanning more than 100 countries. It is based in Washington, D.C., with ...

released a statement to say: "No wrongdoing is being alleged by the ICIJ: 'There are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts. We do not intend to suggest or imply that any people, companies or other entities included in the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database have broken the law or otherwise acted improperly,'” when discussing the Bahamas Papers. In 2022, Lopez and his business partner, Greg Fishman, launched The Lydian Group, a tech

conglomerate (company) A conglomerate () is a type of multi-industry company that consists of several different and unrelated List of legal entity types by country, business entities that operate in various industries. A conglomerate usually has a Holding company, p ...

operating across the digital assets space. The advisory board includes Mark Tluszcz and Andrea Rossi, the former CEO of

AXA Investment Managers Axa Investment Managers (Axa IM) is a global investment management firm. It operates as the investment arm for Axa, a global insurance and reinsurance company. History In 1994, Axa created an investment management subsidiary under the name, ...

Sports

As a huge sports fan, López got into car racing via

and ''Gravity Sport Management''. He also participated in long-distance races with Gravity Racing International's team. In 2009, he bought out the Formula 1 Renault F1 Team, making

the majority owner of the team. While it possessed very few sponsors at the beginning,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

Unilever Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...

and

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

soon became team partners. With ''Kick Partners'' and ''Mangrove Sport Business Intelligence'', López takes care of the public image and the transfers of football players. In October 2016, Lopez entered into exclusive talks with President Michel Seydoux for the acquisition of the

Lille OSC Lille Olympique Sporting Club (), commonly referred to as LOSC, LOSC Lille or simply Lille, is a French professional association football, football club based in Lille, Northern France competing in Ligue 1, the top division of Football in Franc ...

football club, which he purchased and later sold. Lopez acquired

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

in June 2021. In Portugal, he is the owner of

since 2021, a nationally-renowned sports club from

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

Political donations

In August 2016, it was reported that López had given the

British Conservative Party The Conservative and Unionist Party, commonly the Conservative Party and colloquially known as the Tories, is one of the two main political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Labour Party. The party sits on the centre-right to right- ...

£400,000, in support of his friend

Zac Goldsmith Frank Zacharias Robin Goldsmith, Baron Goldsmith of Richmond Park, (born 20 January 1975) is a British politician, life peer and journalist who served as Minister of State for Overseas Territories, Commonwealth, Energy, Climate and Environmen ...

as a candidate in the mayoral election at the time.

Personal life

López owns a car collection and it has been featured in ''Top Gear'' magazine and in local newspapers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:López, Gérard 1971 births Living people Spanish businesspeople Sports businesspeople Luxembourgian sports businesspeople Formula One team owners Formula One team principals Miami University alumni Luxembourgian people of Spanish descent Spanish people of Luxembourgian descent Luxembourgian expatriates in Spain Lille OSC non-playing staff 24H Series drivers People named in the Panama Papers Luxembourgian racing drivers People from Esch-sur-Alzette