Bruno Bonnell
Bruno Bonnell (Algiers, October 6, 1958) is a French businessman[1] and politician from La République En Marche! (LREM), who was elected as a member of the French National Assembly on June 18, 2017. He is a co-founder of Atari SA.
Career in the private sector
Bonnell began his career with the Thomson TO7, one of the first home computers produced in France, before founding Infogrames in June 1983. He started this company at the age of 25 with Christophe Sapet and Thomas Schmider.
Bonnell was chairman and creative director of the company from 1983 until April 5, 2007. He was also CEO, a position he held from 1983 until a 2003 shareholder vote showed a lack of confidence in his management of the company's debt. He resigned as CEO of Atari (while keeping his other two positions in IESA) in 2004 and was replaced by James Caparro, although he briefly resumed the position when Caparro resigned in June 2005. On September 5, 2006, David Pierce was appointed as the new CEO of Atari.[2]
In 1995, Bonnell was elected president of the Syndicat des Editeurs de Logiciels de Loisirs (SELL), a French association of game developers. He worked with the French broadcaster Canal Plus to create the television channel Game One, aimed specifically at a gaming audience. Intended to be a European channel, Game One broadcasts in French.
Bonnell led the acquisition of many smaller (and some larger) development studios during the 1980s and 1990s, notably the British development house Ocean Software and Atari, as well as GT Interactive, Accolade, Gremlin Graphics, and Hasbro Interactive. These companies were integrated into Infogrames’ infrastructure. Their brands were dropped, except for Atari, which Bonnell believed had value. For this reason, Infogrames began using the Atari brand for games published around Christmas 2001 and rebranded itself as Atari, Inc. in the U.S. in 2003. Beyond his involvement in Infogrames & Atari, Bonnell is also a shareholder in the Lyon football team Olympique Lyonnais.
On April 5, 2007, Bonnell resigned from his positions at Atari and Infogrames.[3] On the day his departure was announced, IESA shares rose by 24%.[4] In June 2008, he joined zSlide, a company based near Paris. In 2013 he was working for Robopolis,[5] a robot distributor based in Lyon.
On May 31, 2012, Bonnell was elected chairman of the board of directors of EMLyon Business School.[6] EMLyon is a business school in Lyon, founded in 1872.
Political career
On May 11, 2017, Bonnell was nominated by En Marche! to contest the 6th constituency of Rhône against Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem in the legislative elections.[7]
In parliament, Bonnell is part of the Economic Affairs Committee. In addition to his committee assignments, he is a member of the French-Azerbaijani and French-Ukrainian Parliamentary Friendship Groups.[8]
When Richard Ferrand was elected President of the National Assembly in 2018, Bonnell initially considered running to succeed him as chairman of the LREM parliamentary group but ultimately endorsed Gilles Le Gendre instead.[9]
Later activities
In 2022, Bonnell was appointed by Emmanuel Macron to lead the government subsidy plan France 2030.[10][11]
Political positions
In July 2019, Bonnell voted in favor of France’s ratification of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union and Canada.[12]
References
- ↑ Victor Mallet (12 February 2020), Problems for Macron as defecting MPs believe the party is over Financial Times.
- ↑ «Games, reviews, previews, news, tips, videos and trailers - IGN Benelux»
- ↑ «Archived copy» . Archived from the original
- ↑ «Infogrames shares shine after chairman leaves | Reuters»
- ↑ «Bruno Bonnell: «The robots vont transformer notre quotidien, de la même manière que les telephones portable»
- ↑ http://www.em-lyon.com/fr/emlyon-enseignement-entrepreneuriat/business-school/actualites-grande-ecole-management/Manuel/Bruno-Bonnell-elu-President-du-Conseil-d-Administration-d-EMLYON-Business-School
- ↑ «Législatives: Bruno Bonnell on march against Najat Vallaud-Belkacem»
- ↑ Bruno Bonnell French National Assembly.
- ↑ Loris Boichot (September 14, 2018), Who are the seven Macronists who want to lead LREM MPs after Ferrand? Le Figaro.
- ↑ Elizabeth Pineau and Michel Rose (29 June 2020), France's Macron pledges 15-billion-euro green push after vote rout Reuters
- ↑ Manon Malhère (26 January 2022), MP Bruno Bonnell chosen by Macron to lead France 2030 Le Figaro
- ↑ Maxime Vaudano (24 July 2019), CETA: who voted what among the MPs Le Monde.