Pascal Cagni is a French business leader best known for his years as Vice-President of Apple Europe, Middle East, India and Africa from 2000, when he was recruited by Steve Jobs, to 2012. He is today CEO at C4 Ventures, the venture capital fund he created in 2014. In 2017, he was appointed by French President Emmanuel MacronChairman of the Board of Business France and Ambassador to international investments.
In 1995, he was hired by Packard Bell to create new R&D, manufacturing and operational divisions. He established a highly successful pan-European sales and marketing structure, and was promoted to Vice President of Europe for Packard Bell in 1997 after its merger with NEC Computer International.
Apple
In 2000, Steve Jobs hired Pascal Cagni as General Manager and Vice President of Apple Europe, Middle East, India and Africa. Under his 12-year tenure, Apple's EMEIA region consistently delivered the highest revenue growth rates within Apple for several years. Revenue increased from $1.3bn in 2000 to nearly $40bn in 2012. During this time, he strengthened the positioning of the Apple brand by establishing Apple Shops and by creating the Apple Premium Reseller network, an Apple concept exported all over the world which now represents more than 1,200 stores to date and a turnover superior to $8 billion. Pascal Cagni left Apple on 31 October 2012.
Investor / C4 Ventures
In 2014, Pascal Cagni founded C4 Ventures, a European venture capital fund. Based in London and Paris, C4 Ventures invests in early stage and later stage startups seeking to expand into European markets. It focuses on partnering with entrepreneurs to navigate the complex European landscape. C4 Ventures chooses to focus on three investment themes: Smart Hardware, Future of Commerce and Digital Media. Portfolio companies include Anki, Applicaster, Cleeng, Clippings, Formlabs, Foursquare, Graphcore, ISKN, MUBI, Nest, Netatmo, Riskified, Unmade, Upmem, VIA, Remedee and Tempow.
Business France
In addition to his tenure at C4 Ventures, he was appointed in 2017 by French President Emmanuel Macron as Chairman of the Board of Business France and Ambassador to international investments. As such, he was tasked with promoting France as a land of international investment, by regularly explaining the reforms in France, especially during major economic events, maintaining permanent and high-level contacts with foreign investors and liaising with economic and international networks of influence
Other mandates
Pascal Cagni is also an independent director at Banque Transatlantique since 2006. He was a non-executive director at Kingfisher from 2010 to October 2019 and at Vivendi from 2012 to 2017. Between 2015 and 2017, he was also on the Board of Style.com, a Condé Nast-owned ecommerce platform.. In 2014, at the request of Natalie Massenet and the Richemont Group, he conducted an in-depth 6 month review of the Net-a-porter group’s operations with a view of joining the company as CEO. This appointment did not materialise when Richemont decided to merge company with the Yoox Group which saw Federico Marchetii assume the CEO role of the merged entities. He is a member of the Cercle d’Outre Manche, a society of business leaders committed to promoting best practices in France and the United Kingdom. He was also appointed French Foreign Trade Advisors in 2009. Since 2014, Pascal Cagni has served as a Commissioner for the Global Commission on Internet Governance.
The Cagni Foundation aims at facilitating access for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to higher education, art and culture. In this regard, Pascal Cagni is a High Benefactor of the HEC Foundation.
