Meet Our Team

Michael Zaoui

Chairman

Mr. Michael Zaoui is the Chairman of the Board of Odyssey Acquisition and a Sponsor Principal. Mr. Zaoui is a Co-Founding Partner of Zaoui & Co., and a former Vice Chairman of Morgan Stanley’s Institutional Securities Group and Chairman of Morgan Stanley’s European M&A.

He began his 22 year career at Morgan Stanley in 1986 in New York and led some of the firm’s major transactions on both sides of the Atlantic. He moved to London in 1990 and became Chairman of European M&A in 1999, leading Morgan Stanley to the top of European league tables for several years. In 2006 he was promoted to Vice Chairman of Institutional Securities, a position he held until retiring from the firm. Prior to his career at Morgan Stanley, Michael worked at Banque Rothschild in Paris and the consulting firm MAC in London.

Mr. Zaoui is a graduate of Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris, of Université de Droit Pantheon-Sorbonne, and of Harvard Business School; he also did graduate research in Finance at the London School of Economics. He is a member of the Belfer International Council of the Harvard Kennedy School, a former Governor of the SouthBank Center and a member of the Royal Commission for Economic Development of Morocco.

Yoel Zaoui

Co-CEO & Board Member

Mr. Yoël Zaoui is Co-CEO and a member of the Board of Odyssey Acquisition and a Sponsor Principal. Mr. Zaoui is a Co-Founding Partner of Zaoui & Co., and the former Co-Head and Head of Goldman Sachs’s Europe M&A, Europe Investment Banking and Global M&A.

He began his career at Goldman Sachs in 1988 in the Mergers and Acquisitions department in New York and moved to London in 1989. During his 24-year career at Goldman Sachs, he was responsible for some of Europe’s largest and most defining corporate transactions in a period of unprecedented growth. He was one of Goldman Sachs’s pioneers in its expansion and leadership in Investment Banking in Europe and became a Partner in 1998. Mr. Zaoui was the first European investment banker to have joined Goldman Sachs’s select Management Committee, a position he held from 2008 until 2012. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Mr. Zaoui worked at Arthur Andersen in Paris.

Mr. Zaoui holds a diploma from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales in Paris, a DEA doctoral degree in Finance from Université Paris-Dauphine and an MBA from Stanford University.

Jean Raby

Co-CEO

Mr. Jean Raby is the Co-CEO of the Odyssey Acquisition and a Sponsor Principal. Mr. Raby is the former CEO of Natixis Investment Managers and a former member of the Senior Management Committee of Natixis.

Mr. Raby started his career as a corporate lawyer with the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell in New York (1989-1992) and in Paris (1992-1996). He then spent 16 years in various roles with increasing responsibilities within the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs in Paris, where in 2004 he became a Partner and CEO of the division for France, Belgium and Luxembourg. In 2006, Mr. Raby became co-head of the Goldman Sachs's Paris office before becoming Co-CEO of Goldman Sachs in Russia in 2011. From 2013 to 2016, Mr. Raby was Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial and Legal Officer of Alcatel-Lucent. In 2016 and before joining Natixis in 2017, Mr. Raby was appointed CFO of SFR.

Mr. Raby holds a Bachelor of Laws degree (LLB) from Université Laval, an M.Phil. in International Relations from Cambridge University and a Master of Laws degree (LLM) from Harvard Law School.

Dr. Olivier Brandicourt

Industry Expert - Healthcare

Dr. Olivier Brandicourt, is a Sponsor Principal and an adviser to Odyssey Acquisition. Dr. Brandicourt, is currently a Senior Advisor at Blackstone Life Sciences, is the former CEO of Sanofi and former Chairman and CEO of Bayer HealthCare. Dr. Brandicourt is a Board member of Dewpoint Therapeutics and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals.

He began his career as a doctor in the Republic of the Congo for 2 years. He then spent 8 years at the Institute of Infectious and Tropical Diseases within the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, where he focused on malaria research in West and Central Africa. In 1990 Dr. Brandicourt joined Parke-Davis, the pharmaceutical division of Warner-Lambert, where he held several senior positions in medical, marketing and country management before joining Pfizer in 2000. At Pfizer Dr. Brandicourt spent 13 years in various operational assignments including President and General Manager of several Global Business Units: Specialty Care, then Primary Care and later Emerging Markets and Established Products. He was a member of the Pfizer Executive Team from 2010 to 2013. From 2013 to 2015, he was Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer HealthCare AG, where he was responsible for leading the company's healthcare portfolio globally. Dr. Brandicourt was appointed CEO of Sanofi in February 2015 and stepped down in 2019.

Dr. Brandicourt formerly served as Chair of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) Board, is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London, and is a Board member of the National Committee of United States-China Relations in New York.

Dr. Brandicourt earned his medical degree from Paris-VII University and a DEA doctoral degree in Cellular and Immunological Pathophysiology from Paris Descartes University.

Michel Combes

Industry Expert - TMT

Mr. Michel Combes is a Sponsor Principal and an adviser to Odyssey Acquisition. Mr. Combes is the current President of SoftBank International Group (since 2020) and the former CEO of several major telecommunications companies including among others Sprint, Altice, Alcatel-Lucent, Vodafone Europe and TéléDiffusion de France (TDF). Mr. Combes is a Board member of Philip Morris International and Etisalat.

He started his career in 1986 at France Telecom. From 1991 to 1995, he served as a technical advisor to different French ministers in charge of Telecommunications, Space and Transportation. Between 1995 and 2002, Mr. Combes served as CEO of several subsidiaries within France Telecom, as CEO of Nouvelles Frontieres, a major French tourism player, and of Assystem, an industrial engineering specialist. From 2003 to 2006, he was Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Strategic Committee group at France Telecom. In this capacity he first led the implementation of the TOP plan, which enabled the recovery of France Telecom, and then the implementation of the NExT plan, which enabled France Telecom’s transformation into an integrated operator. He also held the positions of Chairman and CEO of the French national broadcasting operator TDF Group. Mr. Combes was appointed CEO of Vodafone Europe in 2008 and joined the board in 2009. As CEO of Vodafone Europe, he led the group’s recovery in the region, steering it to regain its lead in two key countries, Italy and Germany. Mr. Combes joined Alcatel-Lucent as CEO in 2013 where he led the turnaround of the company and the merger with Nokia. Michel then joined Altice as CEO in 2015 and finally Sprint in 2018 as CEO, where he led the merger with T-Mobile.

Mr. Combes is a graduate of École Polytechnique and the École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications. He also holds a Doctorate from Université Paris Dauphine.