Alexis has been a pioneer throughout his career. Looking into Artificial Intelligence and human-computer interaction in the 1980’s, he seized the opportunity of German reunification to be at the forefront of economic transformation in East Germany at the Treuhandanstalt in the 1990’s. Indeed, this administration privatised and restructured the 12,000 or so “Kombinate” of the former DDR. Alexis was then involved with privatisation further afield in Eastern Europe (Russia, Moldova, Croatia) before leading teams in the area of business restructuring at PriceWaterhouse.
Wanting to back good advice with money he joined at the turn of the century, Deutsche Telekom’s corporate venture capital entity, T-Venture, a €300 Million fund, becoming a member of the executive committee. He served on the boards of numerous young Information and Communication Technology businesses, helping them in their growth and successful venture capital exit.
Recognising the opportunity and necessity of a greener economy (he had invested in wind farms since 1996), he sought to establish, Axiom VC, one of the 1st cleantech Venture Capital funds in Germany in 2003. Alexis has been an early-stage investor and board member in a host of innovative green technology companies, also during his time as Partner at the €100 Million Entrepreneurs Fund in London: from wind energy to fuel cells, from low-carbon automotive to hydrothermal carbonisation … a number of which are now industrialised and mainstream!.
As from 2015, Alexis had a 5-year tenure as Head of Sustainable Business and Entrepreneurship at the UNEP Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production in Wuppertal, Germany, a sustainability think-tank advising governments and industry. For DAX-40 clients like Deutsche Telekom and Bayer, he has designed methodologies in Sustainable Product Assessment, while for the island of Mauritius, he has conceived and implemented projects in sustainable agriculture and sustainable tourism (Swich Africa Green). The Ministry of Tourism adopted his vision of Zero-emission lagoon. Finally, he has been instrumental in furthering knowledge on the business models of Circular Economy, as the instigator and coordinator of the R²π consortium. Alexis is recognised as an expert on C.E. and has published articles on the topic.
Yet combining Sustainability combined with Innovation and Finance is his passion and he and his colleagues have set up an investment pipeline for Time To Act Capital’s €150 Million Venture fund, to invest in those businesses which will have solutions for a decarbonised and circular economy: waste to value (nutrition, building materials), clean mobility and regenerative agriculture. Having been in cleantech/ClimateTech investing for nearly 20 years, he knows most of the co-investors in this space and has learned the lessons of Cleantech 1.0.
He is comfortable negotiating in English, French and German having concluded all his transactions in those countries.
His academic background covers degrees in Computer Science, Economics, Sustainability Management from institutions in the UK and Germany as well as Business Administration from ESCP ‘Grande Ecole’.
Alexis created the module “Sustainability Metrics and Green Finance” for the Master’s in Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Innovation (MSEI), which he teaches.