Francois Helou – Senior Partner, Athenian Venture Partners

Mr. Helou, 51 yrs, joined Athenian in 1999 as a partner of the firm, following having served it as a senior advisor/consultant for two years (1998-1999). He has ten years of information technology venture capital investing experience and an additional 17 years of industry experience in information technology and communications companies, including operating experience in the computer industry in engineering, marketing, management and strategy development. He met Mr. Elderkin in 1992 and began working professionally with him in 1994, when Mr. Helou was a business and technology consultant to Generics Asset Management, advising on some of its portfolio companies.

During 1996-1999 Mr. Helou was a strategic consultant to technology firms, serving such fields as electronics banking and wireless telephony.

From 1987-1996, he worked for International Computers Limited (ICL, now Fujitsu), at the time the UK's largest information technology company. Mr. Helou joined ICL following graduation from INSEAD in 1986. He held international business development and general management positions, including running ICL's financial services software business unit. From 1983-1985, he was an engineer with Compugraphic Corp. in the field of microprocessor technology for phototypesetting systems.

Mr. Helou began his career in 1981 through 1982 as an electrical engineer with Brown Boveri (now ABB) in Switzerland.

He holds an MS degree in Electrical Engineering from the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland and an MBA from INSEAD.