Luc Burgun

Luc Burgun is a successful executive and entrepreneur with 30 years of experience in the semi-conductor and the trading industries. He joined NovaSparks in 2013, as a board member and then took on the role of CEO in 2014. He actively supports multiple French startups operating in the electronics and finance sectors. Prior to joining NovaSparks, Luc was VP Engineering at Synopsys. Before that, he was CEO for EVE, the leader in standard FPGA-based emulator, which he co-founded in 2000. Prior to EVE, Luc was managing the emulation engineering team at Mentor Graphics. Luc Burgun holds a Ph.D degree in Computer Science from the University of Pierre and Marie Curie, Paris VI.

Estelle Berbach

Estelle is an experienced and versatile financial executive, having spent much of her career in the electronics industry. She joined NovaSparks as Chief Financial Officer in December 2023 and oversees NovaSparks’ finance, human resources and corporate services departments. Prior to joining NovaSparks, she worked as Financial Controller for Socotec Equipements, a leader in the Technical Inspection and Verification of heavy equipment across all business sectors. Before Socotec, she spent ten years in the FPGA emulation division of Synopsys: first as finance manager of the French entity resulting from the 2012 EVE acquisition, a leader in the FPGA emulation and prototyping, then as business project analyst in the manufacturing team to leverage processes. Estelle holds a Law degree from the University Robert Schumann, Strasbourg and a Master’s degree in Finance, Taxation and Law from ISC Paris.

Loic Maitre

Loic is a seasoned hardware leader with 12 years’ experience in the semiconductor and the trading industries. He joined NovaSparks in 2016 and has held various roles within the R&D organization including Hardware Manager, FPGA Manager and Tick-to-Trade Project Manager. In his current role at NovaSparks, he leads the entire engineering team and is based in Paris. Prior to joining NovaSparks, Loic worked several years as a hardware development engineer for Imagination Technologies, a leader in the Graphics IP products in United Kingdom. He also spent several years in Canada and Switzerland during his studies and early career. Loic graduated from INPG, Institut National Polytechnique from Grenoble and holds a Master’s degree in Electronics Engineering.

Cliff Maddox

Cliff has over 30 years’ experience in the trading industry. He joined NovaSparks in 2017 as a U.S. Sales Manager and now leads the sales team. Prior to joining NovaSparks, Cliff worked at Activ Financial Systems for eight years, holding various positions in the business and sales organization. Prior to that, Cliff spent 20 years developing his capital market expertise by leading numerous software development projects for half a dozen major banks and trading firms. Cliff graduated from Rutgers University and holds a bachelor’s degree with a double major in Computer Science and Economics.

Predrag Filipovic

Predrag is an experienced multi-facet manager and a leader with a proven track record of success in leading all aspects of effective planning and execution of multiple technologically challenging projects for top-tier organizations. He spent most of his career in R&D for the semi-conductor, wireless and the multimedia industries with a strong focus on hard real-time and mission critical systems design. In his current role, he manages the global application team for NovaSparks and is based in New York City. Predrag holds a PhD in Electrical Computing Engineering / System Control from Drexel University

Yves Charles

Yves Charles is VP of Business Development for NovaSparks. He led the company as a former CEO from 2010 to 2014. Prior to joining NovaSparks, Yves was CEO of Sysload Corporation, a worldwide leader in systems management from 2007 to 2009. From 1996 to 1997, Yves was Chief Executive Officer of Quallaby a software editing firm in network performance management, a firm Yves founded in 1996. After moving Quallaby headquarters to the United States, Yves was responsible for running the International Operations until its acquisition by Micromuse in 2006. Earlier in his career in 1992, Yves founded Apogee Communications, a systems integrator in network and systems management and held the position of Chief Executive Officer until 1997. During this period the revenue of Apogee, grew from $1 million to $30 million.

Antoine Brousse

Antoine is a managing partner of Peninsular Capital since 2016. Prior to joining Peninsular, Antoine worked in the M&A department of Rothschild & Cie bank in Paris and then for the real estate investment teams of Mubadala Development Company, a sovereign wealth fund of the emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Antoine Brousse is a graduate of Sciences Po Paris and holds an MBA from Dartmouth University (USA).

Adrien d'Auriol

Adrien is a managing partner of Peninsular Capital, which he founded in 2015. He started his career at Deutsche Bank in Corporate Finance in Paris and London and then he worked for the private equity fund ING Parcom before joining the Development and Investments department of the Casino group.
Adrien is a graduate of EM Lyon and Panthéon-Sorbonne University.

Michaël Levy

Michaël has 30 years’ experience in financial markets.
He was in charge of foreign exchange options desks of European banks (Société Générale, Commerzbank and Barclays) in London and New York. In 2001, he became portfolio manager at Société Générale Asset Management Alternative Investments (SGAM AI) in Paris.
In 2009, he co-founded 360 Asset Managers, a Paris-based partnership mainly dedicated to financial advisors. He built long-only products, contributing his expertise in convertible bonds and derivatives. He was also in charge of funds selection and cross-asset strategies.
Since 2015, he has been running Yuma Advisory LTD, an FCA approved London firm which assists fund managers in allocation as well as portfolio hedging
Michaël is a graduate of Ecole des Mines de Nancy and holds a Master´s degree in Management from M.I.T. Sloan School.