Management
Tom Paemeleire – CEO
Tom was appointed as CEO of Kebony in October 2023, bringing over twenty years of international experience dedicated to business transformation. Prior to joining Kebony, he was CEO of Belgian-based firms Incendin and Malysse NV, where he was responsible for the implementation of new market strategies, organic and acquisitional growth, and organisational integrations, driving sustainable agendas in all areas.
Tom has a background in engineering and logistics, beginning his career at Katoen Natie, where he worked for 11 years, culminating in a role as Managing Director. He holds masters degrees in Work and Organisational Psychology and Communication Science from Ghent University, and an MBA from Vlerick Business School.
Luc Van fraeyenhoven – CFO
Luc has been appointed as CFO at Kebony since October 2024. He is a business oriented finance executive bringing a lot of international experience, both in Marketing-Sales-Distribution and Manufacturing.
Prior to joining Kebony, he was CFO for Volvo Cars Europe and for the manufacturing plant in Ghent (Be), where he contributed to the expansion and the optimization of the structure in a fast changing environment.
Recently Luc was active as CFO in different PE owned life sciences/biotech companies where he gained experience in fundraising, M&A and buy & build strategy (ActioBio Therapeutics, Arseus Medical and The Akkermansia Company).
He holds a Master in Business Engineering as well as a Master in Financial Management.
Pavel Holub – CTO & COO
Pavel joined Kebony in April 2022 as CTO, bringing 24 years experience in R&D and Innovation within the building chemicals and materials sector. Before joining Kebony, Pavel was most recently Director Global Innovation at Armacell, the inventor of flexible foam for equipment insulation and a leading provider of engineered foams developing innovative and safe thermal, acoustic and mechanical solutions that create sustainable value for its customers.
Prior to Armacell Pavel held senior R&D/Innovation roles in Foseco, Hexion, Momentive and Eastman. He brings a strong background of Innovation, Research and Development, IP management, together with strategy development, M&A and change management experience. Pavel studied Polymer chemistry and technology at University of Chemical Technology in Prague.
Board
Jean-Marc Daillance – Board Chairman
Jean-Marc has been an Operating Partner with Jolt Capital SAS since 2012. He is an experienced and sophisticated operational executive with strong transactional skills. At Zodiac, when in charge of corporate development, he initiated and conducted acquisitions in the areas of recreational and military boats, swimming pools, and equipment for the civil aviation business. Operationally, he developed the Marine segment of Zodiac, comprised of 6 divisions, and conducted several build-ups, all global, mixing internal and external growth (24 transactions).
As a non-executive, Jean-Marc was Vice-Chairman of the supervisory board, Chairman of the audit committee and a member of the Strategy & Technologies committee of SAFT Group, a world leader in the design and manufacture of advanced technology batteries for industry, up to the acquisition of this public company by TotalEnergies. He also is a Senior advisor of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. He holds a degree of Ingénieur de l’École Polytechnique (France), an advanced degree in Computer Science from Telecom ParisTech, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Dr. Cornelius Walter
Cornelius is an impact investor focusing on climate change, green infrastructure as well as industry innovators. He invests in and serves on the boards of early and later-stage companies with environmental, social, and governance goals and sustainable business models. Cornelius is also an advisor at Lightrock, a leading global impact investing platform backed by the Liechtenstein family. At Lightrock, he spends s significant portion of his time predominantly focusing on energy transition and how to further scale the platform overall.
Prior to embarking on his journey as an impact investor, board member and advisor, Cornelius was a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he advised financial institutions, energy companies, public-sector organizations, and clients in a broad range of other industries on growth strategies and large-scale transformations. He served as Managing Partner of McKinsey in Central Europe and, before that, Managing Partner of McKinsey’s Budapest office.
Kevin Bone
Kevin Bone is a Partner at Lightrock, a leading global impact investor. He believes the alignment of world-class, purpose driven entrepreneurs and supportive capital is essential to creating the world we want to live in. Prior to Lightrock, Kevin founded a fund backing businesses across South-East Europe, executed a secondary buyout of a global portfolio of TMT investments and spent 8 years leading turnarounds and restructurings. Kevin holds a degree in Japanese & Economics from Sheffield University and a Diploma in Aid Economics from Chuo University, Tokyo. When not fulfilling various charity Trustee roles, Kevin can be found in the boxing ring or on a football field desperately trying to put off the day when his kids can best him at all sports
Maxime Van Peel
Maxime Van Peel joined PMV as a Senior Investment Manager in 2023, after a decade of experience in the chemical industry with French multinational Air Liquide. He started his career in engineering, then moved to project management on large industrial plants. Maxime then moved to business development, where he secured major investments opportunities for the company for large steel and chemical customers. After a short financial controlling appointment, Maxime’s last assignment was leading European business development for hydrogen mobility applications. At PMV, Maxime’s focus is on cleantech investments. He holds a MsC in bioengineering from the University of Brussels with complementary education from London Business School.
Rebekah Braswell
Founding member and CCO of Land Life Company, Rebekah Braswell leads the company’s business and product development as well as its marketing and communications functions. She works daily with international corporations, local and national governments, nonprofits and foundations to translate the CO2 emissions of organizations into large-scale, technology-driven reforestation projects that help mitigate climate change and restore vital ecosystems. Prior to joining Land Life Company, Rebekah was an associate partner with Monitor Group and worked on issues of economic development and food security across Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Rwanda and Ghana. She holds a BA from Brown University and an MSc from Oxford University
Didier Roux
Didier Roux was born in 1955, a former student of ENS Saint-Cloud, member of the CNRS from 1980 to 2005. He is a laureate of numerous awards and honors. He holds the CNRS silver medal. He created two start-ups in 1994 and 1998, he was deputy scientific director of Rhône Poulenc and Rhodia between 1997 and 2005. He held the position of Director of R & D and Innovation of the Saint-Gobain Group between 2005 and 2017 Saint Gobain. He is a member of the Institut de France (Academie des Sciences) and the Academie des Technologies. He was a professor at the Collège de France (2016-2017 annual chair “Technological Innovation Liliane Bettencourt”). He is President of Unitec, Vice-President of the Foundation La Main à la Pâte.
Antoine Trannoy
Prior to joining the Jolt Capital in 2017, Antoine was most recently the Managing Director for Hoist Group France. Before this, Antoine had been serving as CTO & Director for Locatel whereupon it ultimately merged with Hoist in 2014. Antoine has also had various other top executive roles including; VP Operations for Completel, CIO for AVIP/Dresdner Group, CTO for Mentum (acquired by InfoVista), and CTO for Fileas (acquired by Telespazio).
An engineer by training – a graduate of Telecom Sud Paris – Antoine’s career initially began with nearly a decade of research working in top-tier research labs including CERN (CH), IBM (USA), CRS4 (IT) working on networking and grid computing projects. He was part of the SHIFT project at CERN which was awarded the “2001 Computer World Honors” (best scientific application of the decade). In addition, Antoine is the joint inventor of 3 patents, filed while he was CTO of Locatel. Antoine is currently on the Board of 4JET, Interel and Kebony.
Main Shareholders
Jolt Capital
Jolt Capital provides growth equity financing to European B2B technology companies about to go global and with current revenue from €15m to €50m. Led by seasoned investors and former C-level executives, Jolt Capital actively drives portfolio companies’ expansion and exits. Jolt Capital’s proprietary AI platform, Jolt.Ninja, exponentially improves mapping of Europe’s technology ecosystem, ESG-compliant deal flow generation, due diligences and post-investment activities.
Lightrock
Lightrock is a global private equity platform backing purpose-driven entrepreneurs tackling the world’s biggest challenges. Since 2007, Lightrock has invested in companies that pursue scalable and tech-driven business models around the key impact themes of people, planet, and productivity/tech for good. Lightrock’s portfolio includes more than 60 high-growth companies, supported by over 50 professionals based in 7 cities across Europe, Latin America, India and Africa. Lightrock is backed by the Princely House of Liechtenstein and LGT, the international private banking and asset management group.
Participatie Maatschappij Vlaanderen NV
PMV NV is a Flemish investment company, financing promising entrepreneurs from conception through to the internationalization of their business, investing in large infrastructure projects. PMV has a particular focus on the sustainable economic development of Flanders, with demonstrable added value for both economy and society. Flemish government and PMV have set up a unique investment fund called TINA, which is a market-driven investment fund managed by PMV, activating 200 million euros in risk capital. This funding reinforces innovation, unlocks its strategic potential and accelerates commercialization.
SFPI-FPIM
The Federal Holding and Investment company was established in November 2006 and is owned by the Belgian state. SFPI-FPIM has 3 missions: stimulating public initiatives in the interest of the Belgian economy, supporting private companies in their development and growth process and, on specific request, managing strategic assets for the account of the Belgian government (delegated assignments). Primary focus lies on home based aviation, airports, networks (supply & infrastructure), real estate and innovation. Some of the company’s most important shareholdings are Belfius, BNP Paribas, Bpost, Brussels Airport Company, Euronext and Fluxys.
Other
Goran Enterprises Limited
Munich Venture Partners
Munich Venture Partners is a Venture Capital firm. The company is managed by senior managers from the high technology and energy industry, and experienced Venture Capital professionals. As the prime partner of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, one of the world’s leading research organizations for applied research, Munich Venture Partners is investing into selected high-tech startups in the environmental technology and energy sector.