Maëlle Gavet (born May 22, 1978) is a French businesswoman, author, and entrepreneur.[1][2]

Maelle Gavet
Gavet in 2022
Born (1978-05-22) May 22, 1978 (age 46)
OccupationCEO of Techstars
Known forOzon.ru, Priceline,
Compass, Inc.
Board member ofEdenred

Birth and education

edit

Gavet was born in the Paris region of Boulogne-Billancourt, France in a “lower middle class” home.[2] She started her first business organizing children's birthday parties in the Paris suburbs when she was 16.[3] She studied Russian language in school in order to increase her chance to get into an elite college.[3]

In 2000 she graduated from the Sorbonne, in 2002, from the Institut d'Etudes politiques de Paris, and in 2003, from the Ecole Normale Superieure de Lettres et Sciences humaines. Gavet speaks French, Russian and English.[3]

Career

edit

After college, Gavet joined the Boston Consulting Group and worked there from 2003 to 2009.[2] She left there as a principal, having lived in France, UK, India and South Africa.

In 2009, Gavet joined OZON, "The Amazon.com of Russia," as Sales and Marketing Director. She was promoted to Chief Executive Officer of OZON Holdings in July 2011.[2] Gavet led the company through two rounds of funding, 2011 ($100 Million) and 2014 ($150 Million). In February 2012 Gavet led OZON to acquire Sapato.ru, Russia's online shoe and accessory retailer. In May 2014, OZON acquired a stake in the Russian eBook distribution platform, LitRes.ru.

Gavet then joined The Priceline Group in June 2015 as executive vice president of Global Operations.[4]

In January 2017, following the abrupt departure of CEO Darren Houston, Gavet joined Compass, Inc. as COO.[5] In September 2019, Gavet publicly announced she would leave Compass, Inc. in October 2019.[6]

In 2020, Gavet wrote the book, Trampled by Unicorns, about technology and empathy.[2] She was also raising money from investors to buy a technology company.[2]

In January of 2021, Gavet became CEO and a board member at Techstars.[7] On May 22nd, 2024, Maëlle Gavet announced her departure from Techstars.[8]

Mentions

edit

Gavet entered into several international ratings, including one called "The world’s most powerful women — Women to watch", made by Forbes.[9] She also took 10th place out of 100 in a list of "Most creative people in business" by Fast Company[10] and 26th place in rating 40 under 40 by Fortune.[11][12]

She has been ranked as one of the top 100 French young leaders by Le Figaro and Choiseul 100:

  • In 2014 she was ranked #96
  • In 2015 she was ranked #39 [13]
  • In 2016 she was ranked #4 [14]

In 2014 she was listed fifth among Times Magazine's List of The Top 25 Female Techpreneurs.

In 2015 she was listed as one of 50 most powerful tech women in Europe by Inspiring 50 and the European Commission.[15]

In 2016 she was recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.[16]

References

edit
  1. ^ Kusisto, Katherine Clarke and Laura (25 September 2019). "SoftBank-Backed Real Estate Broker Compass Hit by High-Level Exits". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2019-11-26.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Weinberg, Cory (2019-11-25). "On the Market: Veterans of Airbnb, SoftBank, Facebook and Microsoft". The Information. Retrieved 2019-11-26.
  3. ^ a b c Chafkin, Max (2012-08-08). "Is This The Jeff Bezos Of Russia?". Fast Company. Retrieved 2019-11-26.
  4. ^ "Why This Top Priceline Executive Just Quit Her Job". Fortune. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
  5. ^ "Maelle Gavet is the new COO at real estate startup Compass". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
  6. ^ "SoftBank-Backed Real Estate Broker Compass Hit by High-Level Exits". Inman. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  7. ^ "Introducing Maëlle Gavet as CEO of Techstars". Hi, I'm David G. Cohen. 2021-01-12. Retrieved 2021-04-15.
  8. ^ "Techstars CEO Mäelle Gavet is out". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2024-05-22.
  9. ^ Women to watch. Forbes. forbes.com. (2012)
  10. ^ 100 most creative people in business. Fast Company.. fastcompany.com (2012)
  11. ^ "Maelle Gavet – one of the world's most powerful women is coming to Web Summit". Web Summit | Lisbon. 2014-10-02. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
  12. ^ "40 Under 40 2012". Fortune. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
  13. ^ Les 100 nouveaux leaders de l'économie française
  14. ^ "Choiseul-Le Figaro 100 2016". Archived from the original on 2016-03-25. Retrieved 2016-03-25.
  15. ^ Meet The Fifty Most Inspiring Women In European Tech Archived 2015-09-25 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ YGL 2016
edit