Jean-François Ott, born in 1965, founded Orco Property Group S.A. in 1991 and is today the Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Mr. Ott served 18 months in South Korea for the French group Framatome, before starting a successful career as a derivatives trader in Paris. Based in Paris, he is responsible for Orco Property Group’s strategy, business development and group finance issues as well as banking and investor relations.
Mr. Ott has 18 years of experience in real estate development and business in Central Europe. He was only 26 years old when he started Orco Property Group in 1991, purchasing its first office building in Prague. Due to his long experience, seven years living in Prague as well as extensive and continuous travel in the region, Mr. Ott is well acquainted with each country, market and the main players in Central Europe. He was responsible for launching new Orco Property Group subsidiaries in Budapest, Warsaw, Bratislava, and Moscow. He was also in charge of developing new activities such as residential buildings, extended stay hotels and luxury hotels.
In nearly twenty years of experience, he has acquired, developed and financed more than 100 projects. Mr. Ott is also the representative and managing director of Ott & Co. S.A., which is a member of the Board of Directors of Orco Property Group S.A. and Orco Germany S.A. Mr. Ott graduated in finance and economics from the Political Sciences Institute and the Owner-Directors’ Program at INSEAD.
He is married to Corinne, who is originally from Texas, and has two children. Mr. Ott speaks French, English and German fluently.
Nicolas Tommasini, CFO and Deputy CEO of Orco Property Group, was involved in business development in Eastern and Central Europe prior to joining Orco Property Group. Mr. Tommasini has been wtih Orco Property Group since 1997 and he has held several senior roles since then. He was, with others, responsible for the Group’s international development based in Prague and first country manager of Orco Hungary in 2000. He was appointed CEO of MaMaison Residences at the end of 2002 and led MaMaison and Orco international development, notably in Germany in 2004 and 2005. In 2003 he was also named Vice President in charge of the hospitality division for Orco Property Group, and Managing Director of the Endurance Hospitality Fund, based in Prague. At the end of 2007, Mr. Tommasini was placed in charge of strategy and special projects of the Group, based in Paris. Since 2009, Mr. Tommasini serves as Deputy CEO and CFO. Mr. Tommasini manages investment and partnership transactions, oversees Orco Germany where he is a member of the Board of Directors, supervises financial reporting and consolidation and Group cash management, manages local countries CFOs and heads Group legal and business planning and investor relations functions. Mr. Tommasini, a French native, holds a degree in political science from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and an MSc in international finance from Lancaster University. Mr. Tommasini, born in 1971, lives in Paris, is married and has three children.
Gabriel Lahyani, Managing Director of the development business line of ORCO Property Group, born in 1961, has enjoyed an extensive international career as an architect, proprietor, academic and entrepreneur.
Mr. Lahyani has worked in Europe, Japan and throughout the Middle East in architectural practice and in business ventures, published academic papers and received numerous international awards.
In 1997 he founded Lahyani Architects in Berlin and in 2003 he established FME S.A., specialists in foundation contracting and engineering.
He moved on to co-found and run Sharaf Foundations (1,400 employees and turnover of EUR 120 Million).
Ales Vobruba, Managing Director of Orco Czech Republic and Orco Slovakia, joined Orco Property Group in 1995.
Seated in Prague, he held several senior positions within Orco Property Group in the CEE region.
Currently, his main responsibilities are bank financing and development strategy within Orco Property Group as well as managing day to day operations of the Czech and Slovak offices.
He also is a member of the Board of Directors of Orco Germany S.A.
Before joining Orco Property Group, Mr. Vobruba worked at PZO Artia, Dopravni Stavby Olomouc and TAP / ARC (construction and advertising). Mr. Vobruba, a Czech native, studied foreign trade at VSE (economics university) in Prague. Mr. Vobruba, born in 1959, is married and has two children.
Brad Taylor has been a licensed attorney in the United States since 1998 and practiced law with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in Houston and Greenberg Traurig in Dallas.
He then worked with private equity firm Holland Park Capital in Austin before moving to Paris in 2007 to work with Orco Property Group.
Mr. Taylor obtained a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University, a Juris Doctor from Baylor University School of Law, an MBA from INSEAD and also studied law of the European Union and International Law at Cambridge University.
A Canadian citizen, Mr. Taylor is married and has three children.
Yves Désiront, Chief Financial Officer of Orco Property Group S.A., graduated as Ingénieur Commercial of I.C.H.E.C.
Brussels. Mr. Désiront joined Orco Property Group in 2005 after a seven-year position as head of consolidation in Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, a Belgian holding company listed on Euronext Brussels and a three-year middle management position at Générale de Banque (Fortis).
Mr. Désiront heads the consolidation, Group treasury management, controlling and business intelligence departments. With his teams, he is responsible for the establishment of all internal and external financial reporting. He also supports the Group CFO in his various responsibilities.
Jacques Bonnafont, General Secretary, is a graduate of the EDC business school in Paris and has an HEC Executive MBA.
He started his career as an auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers and an associate at Ernst & Young before becoming controller and then finance and administrative director for companies such as Chargeurs, Cap Gemini, DHL and Triangle Travail Temporaire.
In his latest appointment, Jacques Bonnafont was finance director at ANF Immobilier, a listed real estate investor and asset manager with more than 400,000 sqm of properties.
Cédric supports Nicolas Tommasini, Jean-François Ott and the top management of Orco Group in the overall asset management of the group, both supervise and assist asset managers and lease managers across the organization, and especially:
- help define the strategy per asset at property level with the asset managers (restructuring, lease up, refinancing),
- ensure the managerial coordination of internal ressources in asset management and leasing management,
- oversee the leasing and renegotiation of lease contracts with major tenants,
- approve all key decisions to maximize asset value, cash flows and achieve the highest possible returns,
- maintain cost transparency and efficiency on investments by generalizing quality reporting tools across the organization and the countries,
- oversee the assets sale process.
A French citizen, Cédric (35) offers twelve years of experience in the real estate industry in the acquisition and asset/portfolio management fields within large international investment companies, among them, Archon Group (Goldman Sachs), GE Real Estate and Merrill Lynch, in both Paris and London.
In his last assignment with Merrill Lynch Cédric was responsible for EUR 400 million equity under asset management across all real estate product types totalling more than 850,000 sqm.In addition to sound asset management experience Cédric offers a solid real estate transaction background with substantial market and investment exposure on France, Germany and Central Europe.
Ogi Jaksic, Development Director, graduated from the University of Economics in Banjaluka, Serbia, and followed a European Executive MBA in finance at the ESCEM Group School of Business and Management.
For his entire career he has been active in real estate development in the Czech Republic.
He joined ORCO from AFI Europe, a member of Africa Israel Group, the largest Israeli developer and one of the largest Central European real estate developers with activities in the Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Germany and Poland, where he worked for nearly ten years as commercial and development director for the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Julien Villeneuve, E.business Director, MBA of Merger & Acquisition of Paris University XI.
He started his career as a member of the Internet advisory department at Arthur Andersen and NTIC Director at Deloitte Corporate Finance.
In his latest position, he was E-Business Manager & Business Unit Manager at SFA - Le Nouvel Observateur Group.
Since December 2010, he is responsible for the E.business strategy in Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Croatia.
