LuxUnplugged Podcast

Adrien welcomes Bob Kneip, chairman at Kneip Management SA, to the show. An entrepreneur at heart, Bob is widely known in Luxembourg for founding the investment fund data distribution business that bears his name. At the time of the recording, Bob was no longer involved in the company as he had sold out his stakes a week earlier to Deutsche Boerse Group, a major financial services player.
Launched in 1993, Kneip started out as a paper-based ads publisher for the Luxembourg financial services industry, when the local industry wasn't as advanced as it is today. Facing the threat of technology advancements in the late 90's and quickly grasping the complex needs of investment funds, Bob made key decisions whilst running the firm that allowed his business to pivot sustainably in spite of major headwinds.
Adrien also enquires about the main lessons that he had learned throughout his career, especially in a fast-paced environment like today's.

In this second episode of our new special series on the space industry, Dark Matter Uncovered, Thierry welcomes Jaroslaw Jarowski (also known as JJ), General Manager at Redwire Space Europe. 

JJ talks about the different business units at Redwire and what the formerly Made In Space Europe company, now the Redwire Europe Space designs and develops in it's brand new Luxembourg facility. 

In this conversation they briefly discuss the legal and talent challenges space companies face and why it is an exciting time to join the space sector. 

This series is kindly supported by Hogan Lovells.

In this week's episode Thierry welcomes Tom Michels, Co-Founder and CEO at Salonkee, to LuxUnplugged. They discuss how 5 ambitious tech entrepreneurs set out to help beauty services providers in Luxembourg and in other European countries to transform their independent Beauty salons from a pen and paper management solution to an all-rounder sophisticated digital beauty hub. They also discuss his business' recent Series A funding round with lead investors from overseas and how he expects his company to expand in European markets thanks to attributes unique to Luxembourg. Finally, Tom highlights the challenges of finding the right talent with experience in scaling up start-ups across Europe. 

Adrien welcomes Olaf Kordes, co-managing director at Luxempart, to the show. A Luxembourger who spent three decades abroad before coming back to Luxembourg, Olaf walks Adrien through the key lessons he’s learned throughout his career in Private Equity. They then discuss the mission of Luxempart, a Luxembourg based investment firm with direct exposure to Luxembourgish businesses and how approaching the intricacies of the local market compares to tackling opportunities further afield. Adrien also enquires about the dual leadership structure in a family business with less than 30 employees and already subject to strict governance rules inherent in its listed nature. Finally, Olaf shares his views on the Luxembourg ecosystem and what key components he would change to make it even more attractive for younger talent.

Adrien and Thierry welcome Marc Serres, CEO of the Luxembourg Space Agency, to this new Dark Matter Uncovered series. A regular speaker on the LuxUnplugged Podcast, Marc reviews all the main events that happened in 2021 and took the local space sector another step forward. Alongside the very strategy that his agency has been devising to materialise the government's objectives, Marc also emphasises on the importance of the education and research ecosystems, such as Uni.lu or the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, that underpin the whole industry. Importantly, he also touches upon a new Luxembourg-based fund, Orbital Ventures, that attracted €120 million to invest in space start-ups.
As this series is about enlightening the wider public on the importance of the space industry in Luxembourg and further afield, Adrien wonders what applications from this sector are underappreciated by the public and yet so ubiquitous in everyone's daily lives. Finally, they ask Marc what he expects of this special series and what he looks forward to in 2022 and beyond.

This series is kindly supported by Hogan Lovells.

Adrien welcomes back Charles-Louis Machuron, Founder and CEO at Silicon Luxembourg, to the show. Having appeared on the programme more than two years ago, Charles-Louis walks Adrien through the challenges that he experienced during the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic and how this led him to reboot his business thanks to valuable input from a mentor with decades of experience in entrepreneurship. After discussing his own success story, Charles-Louis then highlights the recent changes in the local start-up ecosystem and how tech businesses with a lot of potential are more and more founded by Luxembourgers, with experienced mentors and coaches supporting the momentum. They also speak to the overall obstacles that Luxembourg needs to address to properly compete with broader and more diversified tech hubs in Europe. Finally, Adrien enquires about Charles-Louis' plans for Silicon Luxembourg and how he sees his company becoming the main media outlet for the young connected people.

Adrien and Thierry welcome Pascal Bouvry and Roger Lampach, co-CEOs at LuxProvide, to the show. Both from complementary backgrounds, Pascal and Roger walk them through the very genesis of LuxProvide which operates one of Luxembourg's major supercomputers or high performance computers (HPC), MeluXina.
The two co-CEOs then discuss how Luxembourg and other European countries convinced the European Commission to raise the HPC topic as an Important Project of Common European Interest in order to compete with other major geographies like the US and China which already possess such an essential piece of infrastructure powering their data economy. The fruit of those efforts led to the creation of EuroHPC, the very body promoting the development of HPC infrastructure in several European countries, where Luxembourg is one of the chosen locations in Bissen.
Decrypting the HPC jargon, Pascal and Roger provide further details on the use of petaflops as computing power in the context of business applications, and how that compares with traditional high street machines.
An established Computer Science professor at the University of Luxembourg (Uni.lu), Pascal enthusiastically discusses the new pan-European master's degree in HPC that is launching in September 2022. Spearheaded by Uni.lu, this project is meant to lay the foundations for the next generation that will support the data and knowledge ecosystems in the value chain and, later down the line, pave the way for quantum computing. Naturally, he details what type of candidate should apply for this exciting programme.
Finally, they keenly review a number of sectors that are most likely to benefit in the future from the implementation of the HPC infrastructure in Luxembourg and across Europe. Roger and Pascal also float the idea that Europe should bring closer to home the manufacturing of computing hardware, such as semi-conductors, in light of the supply chain crunches that occurred during the pandemic.

Adrien welcomes François Pauly, Group CEO at Edmond de Rothschild (EdR), to the show. A veteran Luxembourgish business leader, François was recently entrusted with the task of heading up EdR after having spent a number of years within the group as a non-executive board member. Adrien enquires about the roots of the Geneva-based Rothschild organisation and how this well-known financial dynasty has established itself over many generations as a global powerhouse, not only in wealth management or corporate finance, but also in the wine industry and agriculture business. Then, in his capacity as a non-executive director within many Luxembourg-based companies across many sectors, François is uniquely positioned to outline the various trends that have taken place over the last few years, especially with changing demographics and a greater housing need. Whilst the grand duchy has recorded economic growth rates dwarfing the European average, François also points out the weaknesses that should be monitored and acted upon such as the automatic wage indexation mechanism that weighs on the overall competitiveness compared to its neighbours. Finally, they discuss a number of solutions that would allow Luxembourg to retain its edge and still attract young talent to the country.

Adrien welcomes back Enrique Sacau, CEO at Kneip. On this occasion, Enrique and Adrien discuss Kneip's recent onboarding of the Nasdaq Fund Network capabilities. A huge player in the financial services industry, the Nasdaq firm entering the Kneip ecosystem and, hence, acknowledging the quality of the fund data accuracy that Kneip has delivered over nearly three decades is a remarkable move for a Luxembourg based company. In the same vein, Enrique also highlights the importance of technology for his company's future and walks Adrien through a number of key items that will impact Kneip throughout 2022.

Thierry and Adrien conclude 2021 with a lot of satisfaction and look back at all the key milestones that were reached throughout the year. After briefly highlight what listeners should be looking forward to, they take the opportunity to introduce Elena who recently joined the team to run the marketing side of the project. We wish all our listeners Happy Holidays, and all the best for 2022!