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I began my career with Exane, in the trading room. But selling structured debt products did not satisfy my entrepreneurial spirit. In 1999, I joined MGT and discovered the world of corporate finance and M&A advisory, which was booming at the time due to the “dotcom bubble”. It was an exceptional time of unique energy and intensity. When the bubble burst, I left M&A to become an entrepreneur, but remained in the technology sector. For six years, I turned around, created, invested in, shut down and sold companies. I had met David Salabi when I worked for MGT. In 2009, I decided to join him and became a partner at Cambon.
As a member of the team, I helped develop our counterparty network and international deals, and then set up the Travel & Hospitality practice, which over the years has become a strategic vertical.
At Cambon, I rediscovered how intensely interesting and rewarding investment banking can be. It is a tremendously exciting business, because it calls on a broad spectrum of skills and enables you to establish truly meaningful relationships with people. Negotiations also require a particular type of intelligence that is a combination of strategic thinking, ingenuity, technical expertise and subtle argumentation.
Our first objective in serving our clients is to ensure that the transaction is secure. However, the various processes involved are becoming more and more sophisticated and we now have the same level of complexity in mid-cap as in large-cap. To optimize deals and exceed our clients expectations, we must combine technical competence with creativity. We also have to know our clients’ sectors inside and out, which is why we have decided to develop specific sector expertise.
At Cambon, we have great admiration for entrepreneurs. The many deals we have completed over the years have convinced us that by serving them we are also serving the economy. By helping small and medium-sized companies obtain funding and by leveraging the means of value creation in the most dynamic sectors, we investment bankers also contribute to growth.