Corinne Vigreux

Corinne Danièle Goddijn-Vigreux,[1] commonly known as Corinne Vigreux, (born 9 December 1964) is a French business executive and entrepreneur. She is a co-founder of the Dutch consumer electronics company TomTom where she has been Managing Director of the Consumer Business Unit since 2008.[2][3]

Corinne Vigreux
Vigreux in 2015
Born9 December 1964 (1964-12-09) (age 56)
Lyon, France
Alma materESSEC Business School (attended)
OccupationCo-Founder and Board Member
Years active1986–present
Known forCo-Founder of TomTom
TitleCo-Founder of TomTom and Managing Director of its consumer business
Spouse(s)Harold Goddijn
Children2

Early life and education

Born in Lyon, France in 1964, Vigreux was brought up in the working-class suburb of Vaulx-en-Velin where her father was a commercial buyer for a chemical company and her mother, a pharmacy dispenser.[4] After specializing in physics and maths at school (Lycée du Parc), she studied at the ESSEC Business School in Paris where she graduated in international business in 1987.[2]

Career

In 1987, Vigreux started working in London for the Psion consumer electronics company where she managed exports, travelling to North Africa, Israel and around Europe.[3] While working at Psion, she met Harold Goddijn who was interested in distributing the company's products in the Netherlands. They married in 1991 and moved to the Netherlands where for a few months she worked for a dairy cooperative while her husband worked for Psion. Attracted back to technology, Vigreux teamed up with two of Goddijn's friends, Peter-Frans Pauwels and Pieter Geelen, and founded Palmtop Software which later became TomTom.[5]

Initially, Palmtop produced products for popular handheld devices but by the early 2000s, Vigreux and her colleagues realized there were opportunities for producing dedicated mapping devices after Bill Clinton opened up the military GPS system for generalized access. The TomTom, the first stand-alone navigating device, with its own touchscreen facility, was released in March 2004. The market exploded over the next four years with revenues increasing from €42 million to €1.8 billion. In 2008, Vigreux was appointed managing director, sales director and chief commercial officer for TomTom, positions she still holds.[3]

In recent years, the satnav sector has suffered from Google's development of mapping systems for smartphones. Vigreux subsequently led TomTom's entry into the sport watches for everyday athletes and in April 2015 launched TomTom Bandit a highly innovative action camera. Nevertheless, Vigreux sees new opportunities for mapping systems in applications for self-driving vehicles.[3]

Corinne Vigreux founded CODAM, a new coding college in the heart of Amsterdam. CODAM is a private, nonprofit and tuition-free computer programming school. Codam builds on the pioneering work of 42 School in Paris.[6][7][8]

Boards and Honors
  • Corinne Vigreux is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Sofronie Foundation since January 2006. The Sofronie Foundation works with charities and not for profit organisations that focus on improving the lives of disadvantaged young people through educational or vocational programmes.[9]
  • Corinne Vigreux was elected on May 4, 2016 as an independent member of the Board of Directors for a term of four years at ILIAD, a parent company of Free.[10][11]
  • Vigreux is on the Board of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Netherlands (CFCI) and a member of the Conseil de Coopération Franco-Néerlandais (CCFN).[12][13]
  • She is also on the advisory board of the Dutch National Opera & Ballet.[14]
  • In 2012, she was decorated as a Knight of the Legion of Honour for her business success and social commitment.[15][16]
  • In October 2016 Corinne Vigreux was elected member of the advisory board at Takeaway.com.[17]
  • November 2016, Corinne Vigreux was decorated "Officier in de Orde van Oranje-Nassau".[18]

Personal life

Vigreux, who now lives in Amsterdam, is married to Harold Goddijn who is chairman and managing director of TomTom. The couple have two children studying at universities.[4]

References
  1. "Annual Report of the Trustees and Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 December 2013" (PDF). Sofronie Foundation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  2. "Corinne Vigreux". Global Female Leaders. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  3. Arthur, Charles (21 July 2015). "Navigating decline: what happened to TomTom?". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  4. Aeberhardt, Chloé (14 August 2009). "La nana du Tomtom". Liberation. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  5. Armitstead, Louise (12 May 2014). "TomTom, still trailblazing after a decade". The Telegraph. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  6. "Codam - exciting New Launch in Amsterdam for 2018!". www.sofronie.org. Archived from the original on 2011-05-19. Retrieved 2019-07-10.
  7. "Leer programmeren zonder leraar in Amsterdam". www.www.computable.nl. Archived from the original on 2011-05-19. Retrieved 2019-07-10.
  8. "A new kind of coding college trains much-needed tech professionals". www.ft.com.
  9. "Sofronie Foundation General Information". www.bizdb.co.uk.
  10. http://www.iliad.fr/presse/2016/CP_190516_Eng.pdf
  11. "1601764". www.journal-officiel.gouv.fr.
  12. "Notre Conseil d'Administration - CCI FRANCE PAYS-BAS". www.cfci.nl.
  13. "Les membres français du Conseil de coopération franco-néerlandais - Ambassade du Royaume des Pays-Bas à Paris". ambpayba.p5alias.domicile.fr. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-09-21.
  14. "Dutch National Opera & Ballet board members". Archived from the original on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2015-09-21.
  15. "Corinne Vigreux". Inspiring fifty. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  16. "Décret du 6 avril 2012 portant promotion et nomination" (in French). République Française. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  17. "About Takeaway.com - Supervisory board". Takeaway.
  18. "Oprichters TomTom benoemd tot Officier in de Orde van Oranje-Nassau". www.teamventure.nl. Archived from the original on 2017-08-08. Retrieved 2017-01-17.

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