Olivier YOUNES

Dr. Olivier Younès, PhD, is an HEC Affiliate Professor with a focus on entrepreneurship, private equity and venture capital.

He is the founding CEO of EXPEN (www.expen.com) a corporate finance boutique established in 2013. With a team of 10 consultants and 100+ industry experts worldwide, EXPEN advises 5+ deals per month in fund raising, M&A, due diligence and company’s valuation. Its recent track-record showcases a unique expertise in entrepreneurial finance and in innovation: EXPEN advised the financial rounds of the unicorn Deliveroo (on-demand delivery, 275MUSD), Heetch (private hire vehicles platform, 16,5M€), Vekia (machine learning, 12M€), Medday (multiple sclerosis treatment, 34M€). The company received the award of “Best International Tech Transactions Advisory of the Year" in 2017 and 2018 by the magazine Acquisition International (UK).

In parallel, Olivier is also a visiting professor at UC Berkeley in California (Entrepreneurship track), at Dauphine University (Master 225 Corporate Finance) and a mentor at Singularity University (Nasa Campus). He is often invited to give master classes in Silicon Valley, including at Singularity University, Plug and Play, Skydeck by Berkeley and French Tech Hub. He is being involved within the French Private Equity Association (AFIC) as a trainer and a member of the National Training Commission over the last years.

Olivier gained a 10-year experience in private equity investment, as a VC (18 SMEs financed, 15 exited of which 2 IPOs, cash-to-cash positive track-record) and as an emerging markets investor (several funds designed, raised, and managed for USD200M). His PhD thesis proposes a specific private equity approach to emerging markets - based on Silicon Valley venture capital best practices. Prior to joining the private equity arena, Olivier had a 5-year track in audit and corporate finance.