Eric Nicolas

Experience & Background

Executive in Residence Eric Nicolas is an accomplished COO and CFO with demonstrated success in enabling sustainable business growth across US, Europe, North America, Latin America, China, and Asia. 

Nicolas was Chief Operating Officer at Firmenich, the world’s largest privately owned perfume and taste company, which has a turnover of CHF 4.8 billion. He previously served as Chief Financial Officer. Drawing on his experience of leading 14 M&A integration projects in the past six years, he has completed the merger between Firmenich and DSM to create a publicly listed $12bn turnover, 28,000 FTE industry-leading business. 

With experience in building world-class finance functions and teams, designing end-to-end key business processes, and applying artificial intelligence to advance core business success factors, executing e-commerce strategy, Nicolas is also an architect of robust cyber security, and, having led several M&As with integration, a leader of organizational and cultural transformation and a key driver of digital transformation. 

He had executive responsibility for developing and implementing a deep digital transformation, securing four priorities by collaborating seamlessly with the executive team to drive artificial intelligence for fragrance/taste creation and biochemistry discovery, create e-commerce platforms leading to a substantial incremental revenue, traceability for natural raw material from the farm fields, Industry 4.0 and end-to-end process optimization including robotization, and the design and implementation of a cybersecurity framework. 

As expert at leading during times of crisis, he also successfully led a team of 5,000 colleagues to ensure production and global delivery to all Firmenich clients throughout the COVID pandemic without raw material shortage or logistic disruption. 

Nicolas’ career history includes a position as Head of Global Corporate Strategy and M&A and experience in digitalization and information services, business process excellence, global workplace solutions, and manufacturing and supply chain. 

As Senior VP of Group Strategy and Group Controller at Renault Group in Paris, he accomplished the consolidation of the combined performance of the Renault Nissan Alliance, coordinated strategic projects, and led the acquisition of Avtovaz manufacturer in Russia. He also served as the SVP for Corporate Finance and Administration EMEA at Nissan. 

A French and Swiss national, he holds a PhD in economy and organizational sciences from the Dauphine University, a Master’s degree in econometrics from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, a Master’s in finance from HEC Paris, and has completed the International Directors Program at INSEAD. He is based in Geneva and Paris. 

Expertise & Interests

Entrepreneurship, digital transformation, e-commerce, strategy, finance, cybersecurity