Joseph Oughourlian
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Joseph Oughourlian | |
|---|---|
| Joseph Marie Oughourlian | |
_69.jpg) RC Lens – US Orléans (17-05-2019) | |
| Born | February 15, 1972 |
| Education | HEC Paris Sciences Po Sorbonne |
| Occupation | President Prisa |
| Years active | since 2010 |
| Spouse | Jennifer “Jennie” Banks |
| Children | 3 |
Joseph Oughourlian (born 1972), is a French financial businessman of Lebanese origin.[1] Founder of the activist fund Amber Capital,[2][3] he invests in football teams.
Oughourlian was born in Paris on February 15, 1972. He is the son of the neuropsychiatrist Jean-Michel Oughourlian and the grandson of Mr. Oughourlian who was, from 1962 to 1983, first vice-governor of the Banque du Liban (Central Bank of Lebanon) and a survivor of the Armenian genocide.[4] His mother, a nurse, is English.[5]
He attended secondary school at Sainte-Croix de Neuilly, where he obtained his baccalaureate in 1989. He graduated from the École des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Paris (HEC Paris) and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po),.[5][6] He obtained a master's degree in economics at the Sorbonne.[7]
Career
Oughourlian began his career in cooperation at Société Générale in 1994.[5] In 1996, he moved to New York City where, the following year, he began to manage funds directly for Société Générale.[8] This is how he created in October 2001 the first Amber fund, by split,[8] using seed capital from the bank.[9] He then headed a fund with more than $6 billion in assets.[8]
In 2005, he founded the activist investing fund Amber Capital in New York, but three years later, the 2008 financial crisis undermined his clientele and the assets he managed.[8] In 2012, he relocated the management company to London due to numerous investments in Europe, but also with offices in Milan;[8] Oughourlian has also been investing in around twenty different companies in Italy.[4]
In December 2015, Oughourlian was appointed to the board of directors of the Spanish press group Prisa.[10] On April 29, 2019, he was appointed vice-president, being the main shareholder through the company Amber Capital, then appointed chairman of the board of directors in February 2021.[11] Once his actions in the Lagardère group were completed in France, he invested more particularly in its affairs in Madrid; in 2021 it owned almost a third of the Prisa group while Vivendi, which became a partner following the raid on Lagardère, owned almost a tenth of the shares.
As of March 1, 2020 i.e. after the stock market crash of 2020, Amber Capital managed 1.1 billion euros in assets.[5]
Activism
Via Amber Capital, Oughourlian has invested in companies that he considered to be badly managed and whose management he sought to influence (activist shareholder).[5] He has refuted the label of activist shareholder and has preferred to define himself as an "active manager".[8]
In 2014, he obtained the departure of Frédéric Vincent from his position as CEO of Nexans.[5] In 2015, he became the first shareholder of Prisa, then forced it to restructure and sell its stake in Le Monde. In 2016, he took a stake in Gameloft and raised the stakes between Vivendi and Ubisoft before allowing Vivendi to win.[5] He also encouraged Total to raise its offer for Saft.[4]
In 2017, he led Solocal to restructure its debt and pushed Lactalis to raise its offer for Parmalat.[4] Two years later, he asked Suez to rethink its strategy and sell its Spanish subsidiary Agbar.[citation needed]
In 2020, he was personally at the origin of a high-profile campaign to oust Arnaud Lagardère, whom he accused of poor management, from his group,[4][12][13] by demanding the revocation of Lagardère's supervisory board.[14][15] This battle of shareholders also became a battle between Oughourlian and Lagardère[8] and lasted four years.[citation needed]
In 2025, Oughourlian was appointed president of the media company PRISA.
