Our governance

Executive Management Committee

The Believe Executive Committee, which is focused on operations, is composed of members in charge of Group functions and members in charge of Business Operations with heads of key regions. The Committee is focused primarily on driving and implementing the Group’s strategy, monitoring performance and coordinating projects in the different countries and regions of the Group.

Denis Ladegaillerie

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Graduate of Sciences-Po Paris, ESCP Europe and Duke University (Durham, North Carolina, USA), 52 years old, Denis Ladegaillerie began his career in 1998 in New York, practising business law in an international firm. In 2000, he joined Vivendi in Paris as a business analyst and continued his career within the group in New York as Chief Financial and Strategy Officer for digital activities at Vivendi Universal, until 2004. On the strength of his past success in online music, in 2005 Denis Ladegaillerie founded the Company, of which he is currently the Chief Executive Officer.

Xavier Dumont
Chief Financial & Strategy
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Xavier Dumont is Believe’s CFSO, having joined the Group in 2016. He started his career working in a large international audit firm in France and Ireland before holding several roles as Director of Financial Control, CFO and COO mainly in retail (Fnac Group, Oxybul) and E-commerce (Pixmania). Xavier Dumont is a graduate of HEC (1992).

Béatrice Dumurgier
Chief Operating Officer
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Starting her career at McKinsey & Cie, Béatrice Dumurgier joined the French Ministry of Finance in 2000 at Paris Club Secretary and Agence des Participations de l’Etat. In 2004, she joined BNP Paribas where she held various positions,such as VP M&A & Strategy at Cetelem, COO of French Retail Banking division and CEO of Personal Investors, BNP Paribas’ online brokerage Business Unit. In 2019, she joined BlaBlaCar as COO, a position that she held up to 2021 when she joined BlackFin Capital Partners as Senior Advisor.
A graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and the Corps des Ponts & Chaussées, Béatrice holds a Master of Science from MIT. She is also an independent director of Groupe Casino and Peugeot Invest.

Romain Vivien 2023 — Romain Vivien
Global Head of Music & President Europe
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After serving as CEO of Believe France since 2008, Romain Vivien is Believe’s Global Head of Music and President for Europe. With almost 30 years of experience in the music business, Romain is an active player of the French and international music industry. Romain began his career at Virgin in 1996, then held different positions at EMI, including Managing Director of Capitol France. He acts as VP of indies’ trade body UPFI and board member of labels’ association SPPF. He also served as President of the Victoires de la Musique in 2020 and 2021, of which he remains a board member.

Zoe Schnebelen
Chief Human Resources Officer
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Zoe Schnebelen Believe’s Chief HR Officer leads a global team of HR professionals and in her role helps to develop the group’s organization while also evolving the HR function to meet the continually developing needs of the business. Zoe has a strong business focus and brings a wealth of experience from a range of international groups including Expleo, where she worked as Executive VP, Group Chief HR Officer, Kering and GE.

Andreea Gleeson
Chief Executive Officer TuneCore
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Andreea Gleeson joined Believe in 2015 to head TuneCore’s marketing before being promoted to Chief Revenue Officer in 2020. She is responsible at TuneCore for overseeing the marketing, artist support, artist & partner relations, and international development teams. Under Andreea’s leadership, TuneCore’s international reach has grown from 5 countries to 14 countries on 4 continents. Prior to joining TuneCore, she spent over a decade in the retail industry, where she held several leadership positions in e-commerce and marketing and worked at the heart of the industry’s digital transformation. Andreea holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Pace University.

Gideon Mountford 2022 — Gideon Mountford
Global Head of Digital Business
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Gideon Mountford joined Believe in 2012 to lead the UK’s Digital Marketing and Video team, before being promoted to Global Head Of Digital Business in 2018. He is responsible for all licensing with our Digital Service Providers, the overall global partnership with the DSP’s and our retail market projections. Gideon is ultimately responsible for Believe’s licensing and partnership with over 150 DSPs and has been at the heart of striking innovative and forward-thinking partnerships with our retail partners. Before joining Believe, Gideon spent the previous decade working in Artist Management and Artist Services, where he provided guidance and support for several top charting artists in the UK, focussed on digital initiatives. Gideon holds a bachelor’s degree in music marketing from Buckinghamshire University.

Virginie Sautter

Chief Marketing and Communication Officer

Virginie Sautter is Believe’s Chief Marketing and Communication Officer since July 2022. She worked for 10 years for major advertising companies such as Euro RSCG and BBDO, focusing on the development of brand awareness for Pepsi and L’Oréal. In 2007, Virginie joined RX France Group, where she led Midem’s marketing and communication strategy, contributed to expand the brand in Africa and Latin America and managed its digital transition.

Anne Adamo
Chief Financial Control Officer
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Anne Adamo has been Believe’s Chief Financial Control Officer since April 2019. Her background is in corporate finance. Her career spans more than 20 years, first in an international audit firm and then in various mid-size and CAC40 companies, in the context of international environments in transformation. Anne holds a master’s degree in management from the Sorbonne and the DECF.

Cédric Florentin, Chief Legal Officer — Cédric Florentin
Chief Legal Officer
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Cédric Florentin is Believe's Chief Legal Officer, leading a global legal team dedicated to supporting and empowering our teams around the world. Cedric oversees legal and compliance matters for the group as well as regulatory affairs, working to implement strategies to help streamline operations and drive business growth. Cedric previously led the legal team at Amazon (France, Germany & Belgium), with previous experience at Lyxor Asset Management and Société Générale.

Antoine Jacoutot
Chief Technology Officer
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Antoine Jacoutot is Believe’s Chief Technology Officer, overseeing a global team of 200 professionals. Antoine spearheads initiatives to foster a robust engineering culture, including a comprehensive shift to cloud infrastructure and the implementation of modern engineering practices. With a background in UNIX engineering and extensive contributions to open-source communities, Antoine previously held leadership positions at Manomano and Veepee, where he led large-scale technology transformations.

Romain Becker 2022 — Romain Becker
President, Label & Artist Solutions
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Romain Becker has served as President, Label & Artist Solutions at Believe since 2020. After building an initial artist development experience at various start-ups at the intersection of music and technology, Romain continued his career at Google to structure YouTube’s music partnerships. In 2015, he joined Believe to accelerate the development of video monetization strategies, the structuring of Believe’s international deployments, and the growth of commercial operations.

Elsa Bahamonde 2022 — Elsa Bahamonde Bourgain
President, Artist Services
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Elsa Bahamonde Bourgain has been the President of Artist Services at Believe since January 2021. Previously, Elsa worked for 16 years in high-growth companies in the tech ecosystem such as Criteo, Pixmania and Veepee, where she gained expertise in the fields of technology, advertising, e-commerce and the internet, both by leading sales teams at the European level and by defining the business strategy at the global level. Elsa graduated from the Sorbonne with a double master’s degree in French-Spanish European Law (2003), as well as a master’s degree in Marketing and Communication from ISCOM (2004).

Board of Directors

The Board of Directors is composed of 8 members, comprising 6 directors and 2 non-voting members, all of whom have complementary professional backgrounds and skills

Denis Ladegaillerie

Appointed member, chairman and CEO

John Doran
Appointed member
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John received his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and graduated with a B.A. in Economics (with honors) from Harvard College. John began his career in investment banking at Morgan Stanley, where he worked in both London and New York. He then served as Vice President of Summit Partners from 2009 to 2012, where he focused on investments across software, internet, and financial technology. In 2012 he joined TCV and is currently a General Partner in London and a founding member of TCV’s European investment efforts.

Andrew Fisher
Appointed member (EQT)
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Andrew Fisher has been working with EQT since 2021 as Senior Advisor. Since 2020, he has also been Chair of Rightmove plc. In 1995, he joined Thomson Directories as General Manager of Business Ventures.
From 2001, he was European Managing Director of Nasdaq-listed InfoSpace Inc. He was appointed CEO of Shazam in 2005 and became Executive Chair in 2013.

Anne- France Laclide Drouin — Anne France Laclide-Drouin
Independent member
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54 years old, today Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Compliance Director of RATP Developpement. Prior to that, Anne France Laclide-Drouin was CFO and member of the Executive Committee of the Consolis group, CFO of the Idemia group (formerly Oberthur Technologies) and of various companies such as Elis, GrandVision, AS Watson (Marionnaud) and Guilbert. She started her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She sits as an independent director on the Board of CGG (a global geosciences group working for the energy industry). She is Chair of the Audit Committee of the same company. She has also been independent director on the Board of Directors and Chair of the Audit Committee, at SFR.

Orla Noonan
Independent member
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Graduated of HEC Paris (1994) and with a BA (Economics) from Trinity College Dublin (1992), Orla Noonan, 51 years old, started her career in 1994 in investment banking in London at Salomon Brothers as a financial analyst, particularly in the media/telecom sector. She joined the AB Group in 1996 as Director in charge of business development, M&A and financial communication. She led IPOs in New York and Paris as well as external growth operations, including the acquisitions of the TV channels RTL9 and TMC. She was Chairman of the television channel NT1 between 2005 and 2010. Orla Noonan became Executive Vice President of the group in 1999 and a member of its Board of Directors in 2003. As CEO of AB Group between 2014 and 2018, she undertook the acquisition of a number of independent production companies, thereby strengthening the group’s position as the French leader in the production and distribution of audiovisual content. In 2018, she was nominated Chairman of the Board of Adevinta, the world’s leading online classifieds company.
Orla Noonan is also an Independent Director of SMCP (since 2017) and of Agence France Presse (AFP) since 2019, as well as a member of the Investir&+ investment committee. She has been an Independent Director of Iliad SA for 12 years (from 2009 to 2021) and of Schibsted Media Group between 2017 and 2019.

Cécile Frot-Croutaz — Cécile Frot-Coutaz
Independent member
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Graduated with an M.B.A from INSEAD, Cecile Frot-Coutaz, 55 years old, began her media career at Pearson. She helped transform Pearson Television to the leading international producer, later to be known as FremantleMedia. After a short stint in San Francisco creating online and interactive strategies, Cecile joined in 2002 the North American headquarters of FremantleMedia. She had a number of senior roles leading to her promotion to Chief Executive Officer, North America in 2005. She was then promoted to Global Chief Executive Officer of FremantleMedia, a role she occupied until 2018.
After that, Cecile spent close to 3 years at YouTube leading its business in Europe, the Middle East & Africa, in charge of YouTube’s business, strategy and content partnerships across the complex and ever-changing region.
In September 2021, Cecile joined the Sky Group as Chief Executive Officer of Sky Studios, the division of the company that is charged with developing, commissioning and producing its scripted and documentary output.

Nicolas Brugère
Observer (EQT)
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Nicolas Brugère, Partner and Head of France & Benelux at EQT joined the Private Equity business line of EQT Partners in January 2020.
Prior to joining EQT Partners, he worked at BCG in Paris, followed by 13 years at PAI Partners, most recently as a Partner in their Food & Consumer team. He graduated from Sciences Po Paris in 2001 and HEC in 2004.

Michael Kalfayan
Observer (TCV)
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Michael Kalfayan joined TCV in 2014 as a General Partner.
Mike has over a decade of experience investing in European technology companies. He rejoined TCV from SiteMinder, where he was Head of Business Operations, and Summit Partners, where he was an investor. He graduated cum laude from Harvard University, and he also holds an L.L.B. from the University of Law.

Board Committees

The Board has established three committees: the Audit Committee, the Nomination and Compensation Committee and the CSR Committee.

Audit Committee
Chairwoman (independent): Anne France Laclide-Drouin
Member (non indepedent): Andrew Fisher
Member (independent): Orla Noonan
Member (independent): Cécile Frot-Coutaz
Composition: The Audit Committee is composed of at least three (3) members of the Board of Directors, of whom at least two thirds are appointed from among the independent members of the Board of Directors. They are appointed by the Board of Directors, on the proposal of the Nomination and Compensation Committee. The composition of the Audit Committee may be changed by the Board of Directors, and in any case must be changed if the general composition of the Board of Directors changes.
Assignments: The mission of the Audit Committee is to monitor issues relating to the preparation and control of accounting and financial information and to ensure the effectiveness of the risk monitoring and operational internal control system, in order to facilitate the exercise by the Board of Directors of its control and verification duties in this area. In this context, the Audit Committee has the following main tasks:
- (i) Monitoring the financial reporting process.
- (ii) Monitoring the effectiveness of internal control, internal audit and risk management systems relating to financial and non-financial accounting information.
- (iii) Monitoring of the statutory audit of the company and consolidated financial statements by the Company’s auditors.
- (iv) Monitoring the independence of the Statutory Auditors.
- (v) Compliance
Nomination and Compensation Committee
Chairwoman (independent): Orla Noonan
Member (independent): Cécile Frot Coutaz
Member (non independent): John Doran
Composition: The Nomination and Compensation Committee is composed of three (3) members of the Board of Directors, of whom two (2) are appointed from among the independent members of the Board of Directors. They are appointed by the Board of Directors on the basis of their independence and their expertise in the selection or remuneration of executive directors of listed companies. The Nomination and Compensation Committee may not include any executive directors.
Assignments: The Nomination and Compensation Committee is a specialized committee of the Board of Directors whose main tasks are to assist the Board in:
- (i) the composition of the management bodies of the Company and the Group
- (ii) the determination and regular assessment of all remuneration and benefits of the Company’s executive directors, including all deferred benefits and/or voluntary or forced departure indemnities.
CSR Committee
Chairwoman (independent): Anne France Laclide-Drouin
Member (non independent): Denis Ladegaillerie
Member (non independent): Andrew Fisher
Composition: The CSR Committee is composed of three (3) members of the Board of Directors, including the Chair of the Board of Directors and one (1) member appointed from the independent members of the Board of Directors. They are appointed by the Board of Directors, on the proposal of the Nomination and Compensation Committee. The composition of the CSR Committee may be modified by the Board of Directors, and is, in any case, obligatorily modified in the event of a change in the general composition of the Board of Directors.
Assignments: The CSR Committee ensures the governance and monitoring of the Group’s social and environmental projects and the preparation of the Board of Directors’ decisions on environmental and social matters. The CSR Committee ensures that the Group addresses the societal and environmental issues related to its objective of developing artists and labels in the most appropriate way possible, at every stage of their career and their development, in all the local markets of the world, with respect, expertise, equity and transparency.

Articles of Association & Internal regulations

Believe SA - Articles of Association 20 June 2024
Aug 07, 2024 — 281.99 KB
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Believe SA - Rules of procedure of the Believe Board of Directors (08.01.24)
Sep 04, 2024 — 461.89 KB
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