Francois Helou

Fracois Hélou began consulting for Athenian Venture Partners in 1998, joining the firm as a senior partner in 1999 and leading the IT investment practice. In addition to more than 14 years of venture capital investing experience, Hélou brings nearly two decades of industry operating experience in information technology and communications companies. Currently he represents Athenian as a director on the boards of Manta Media, Comet Solutions and Sendio, and as an observer on the board of Cyber-Rain. Previously, he served on the boards of Chaparral Network Storage, 5x5 Networks, Alloptic and PacketMotion. Prior to Athenian, Hélou was a strategic consultant to technology firms, serving such fields as electronics, banking and wireless telephony. In addition his IT operational experience spanned R&D, engineering, marketing, sales, business unit management and strategy development at such companies as Brown Boveri, Compugraphic, Fujitsu-ICL, Cambridge Positioning Systems and Logica. Hélou holds an MS degree in Electrical Engineering from the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland and an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.