Jean-Francois Baril

Jean-Francois Baril is Founder and Director of HMD Global since 2016 when the company was established to create a new generation of Nokia-branded devices. Between 2012 and 2016 he founded and led consultancy Connecting Partners SA, venture capital firm Ginko Ventures and Smart Connect, a venture capital fund that targeted the Telecoms sector.

After studying mechanical engineering at École Nationale Supérieure d'arts et Métiers in Paris and Stanford University in California, Jean-Francois began his career as a Research Engineer in 1981 in his native France. He then spent two years as Operations Manager for oilfield services giant Schlumberger moving on to lead the Supply Chain for the PC Division at Hewlett-Packard from 1984 until 1994.

Jean-Francois became Procurement Director at Compaq in 1994 where he worked under the direct leadership of Apple CEO Tim Cook, before being hired into Nokia Corporation in 1999 as Senior Vice President and CPO.

Under his leadership, Nokia’s supply chain was recognized in 2007 by AMR Research as the best in the world. Jean-Francois also won a 2010 EIPM-Peter Kraljic Award for Excellence for Organisation of the Year.