E101: Candace Johnson - The Greater Good as the Compass to achieve your full potential

Candace Johnson is a global infrastructure, network and
innovation expert and entrepreneur.   Currently, she is
Vice Chair of NorthStar Earth and Space, the world’s first
private satellite constellation dedicated to solving two of the
most important issues of our time — space debris and climate
change.  She is also Chair of the Advisory Board of Seraphim
Space Capital, the world’s largest venture capital fund dedicated
to space and space-related ventures.  She is co-initiator of
SES/ASTRA for which she was named an Officer of the Luxembourg
Oak Leaf Crown and architect of SES Global, one of the world’s
largest satellite systems for which she was named Commander of
the Luxembourg Order of Merit.  She is also founding
President of Europe Online Investments S.A., the world’s first
internet-based online service and satellite broadband network,
and founder of Loral Cyberstar-Teleport Europe, Europe’s first
independent private trans-border satellite communications network
for which she was named an Officer of the German Federal Order of
Merit.


Ms. Johnson has recently co-founded Oceania Women’s Network
Satellite (OWNSAT).  OWNSAT has become a founding investor
in the Kacific Satellite System based in Singapore, where Ms.
Johnson has also been a Member of the Board.  Ms. Johnson is
also founding President of the VATM, the Association of Private
Telecom Operators in Germany and founding President of the Global
Telecom Women’s Network (GTWN). In 2012 she and a group of
engaged women created the Global Board Ready Women initiative,
(GBRW).  She has continued to be a long-time Member of the
Board of Directors of all of these companies and organizations at
various times throughout the years.


She also served as President of EBAN, the European Business Angel
and Early-Stage Investment Network from 2014 – 2018, the maximum
mandate allowed by the EBAN Statutes. Ms. Johnson is also the
Co-Founder of ABAN, African Business Angels Network and MBAN,
MENA Business Angels Network as well as the Global Business
Angels Network (GBAN).


Ms. Johnson is a Non –Executive Director of SES-ESL, the world
leader in digital retail and a a publicly quoted corporation on
the French Stock Exchange. Ms. Johnson is also President of
Johnson Paradigm Ventures (JPV) which is a principal founding
shareholder with AXA, Caisse des Depots, Bayerische Landesbank,
and the SPEF of Sophia Euro Lab, Europe’s first trans-border
early-stage investment company based in Sophia Antipolis. 
JPV is also a principal founding shareholder in London-based
Ariadne Capital, “Architecting Europe.net”, one of the earliest
supporters and promoters of Skype, the global VoIP
phenomenon.  Ms. Johnson has served as Founding Member of
the Boards of both companies.


In her personal capacity, Ms. Johnson is a Member of the
Strategic Committee of Iris Capital (Europe) and was a founding
member of Inovent (Turkey). Ms. Johnson is founding Member and
was President of the Board of the Sophia Business Angels in
Sophia Antipolis, France from 2006 – 2008 as well as founding
president of three multi-million Euro investment vehicles, Succès
Europe, Croissance Europe and Innovation Europe, together with
Meeschaert Gestion Prive. Succès Europe has an AMF (Autorite
Marche Francaise) Visa and also co-invested with the European
Union Feder program.  Ms. Johnson is also Founding Member of
the Cologne Business Angels, Galata Business Angels and Advisory
Board of the Luxembourg Business Angels Network. Ms. Johnson was
a minority owner of FMN, a German telephone manufacturing
company, and a member of their Supervisory Council from 1993 –
2008.  She was also a minority owner of Alpha Com, a
wireless data manufacturing company.


Through her global investing activity, Ms. Johnson has widened
her scope of expertise to include CleanTech and MedTech and has
been actively involved in financing such companies as Nheolis, a
unique home-turbine energy concept company, and CertiNergy,
France’s first B2B2C energy-credit trading company as well as
Quotient Diagnostic and AboDiag, life-sciences technology and
services companies. In 2006, she created the Festival of the
Fourth Dimension, the world’s first festival of the Arts,
Technology, and Sciences, which has since become a major French
government global initiative for Industrial Innovation and
Creativity (Pole ICI) of which she became the 1st Vice President.


Ms. Johnson is also a member of the Advisory Board of numerous
European and US ventures as well as being a Member of the Board
of Governors of EDHEC, France’s largest business school, Sabanci
University in Istanbul Turkey, and the International Board of the
Hong Kong Polytechnic University as well as being a Senior
Enterprise Fellow for the University of Essex/LEEDS Program of
the OECD. Recently, she has joined the International Innovation
and Entrepreneurial Advisory Board of the King Abdulaziz City for
Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia (KACST).   Ms.
Johnson is a well-known speaker on innovation and
entrepreneurship for such companies as Alcatel-Lucent, Qatar
Telecom, IBM, Hewlett Packard, etc. and has been a featured
speaker at the Cambridge University Center for Entrepreneurial
Learning and the OECD International Entrepreneurship Forums in
Shanghai, Riga, and Cape Town.


Ms. Johnson was also Vice President Worldwide of Iridium and
brought it into the GSM MoU, the ITU and ETSI as well as
obtaining its global frequencies and country codes.  She was
Director of Marketing for the German manufacturing company FuBa
and globalized its manufacturing and commercial activities.


Ms. Johnson has been featured in articles in Time Magazine, the
Financial Times, the Economist, Le Monde, WirtschaftsWoche,
Manager Magazin, Les Echos, and the International Herald Tribune
to name a few.  She has been decorated as Commander of the
Luxembourg Order of Merit and Officer of the Couronne de la Chene
as well as Officer of the Bundesverdienst Kreuz 1. Klasse (FRG)
for her work in de-regulation, innovation, privatization, and
globalization and the specific projects named above. Further, Ms.
Johnson is the second recipient ever of the UN-sponsored World
Teleport Associations’ “Founders Award”.  Ms. Johnson has
also received the “Lifetime Achievement Award” along with Vinton
Cerf and Tim Berners Lee from the World Communication Awards, the
prestigious global telecoms organization in 2002.  Ms.
Johnson has also received the Lifetime Achievement Award from The
International Alliance of Women in 2012 and the Lifetime
Achievement Award from Women in Aerospace Europe in 2016. 
Ms. Johnson holds Masters Degrees with Honors from the Sorbonne
and Stanford Universities, a Bachelors Degree from Vassar College
and her high-school degree from Punahou, Honolulu, Hawaii. 
On November 12th 2016 she was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa from
the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.


 


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