Bruno BONNELL

President @ Robopolis

Bruno BONNELL is a multi-entrepreneur specialized in interactive technology.

He graduated from CPE with a degree in engineering and in 1982 obtained a Master of Economics degree from the Université Paris Dauphine. He was named “Entrepreneur of the year” in 1995. He was awarded the French Ordre National du Mérite in 1997.

In 1983, he founded INFOGRAMES, which purchased ATARI in 2000 and became one of the main international video game companies. In 25 years, the company went from being a garage-based start-up to a multi-national organization with a presence on every continent.
In 1996, he co-founded INFONIE, the first Internet service provider in France, and which participated in the expansion of the Internet in the country. In 1999, he co-founded GAMEONE TV, the first all-digital world television station, now part of the MTV group. Since 2007, with his associate Denis Guyennot, he has chaired ROBOPOLIS, the biggest service robotics company in Europe, operating in France, Germany, Austria, Spain, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
ROBOPOLIS provides consulting and is a multi-distributor in the service robotics sector. It represents leading brands such as IROBOT, ROBOTIS, and DASAROBOT in a variety of sales channels : major retailers, web, institutes, schools, and SMEs.
Bruno BONNELL also founded AWABOT, a company that creates robotic platforms. AWABOT vision is to capture the growth of service robotics market using its unique robotics and software development expertise. AWABOT create contents for any existing platform, answer to specification with user experience, design and innovation. He was also Chairman of SYROBO (2009 – 2015), the professional service robotics organization in France that organized the first European summit in the sector, INNOROBO Today, he is Chairman of Group SYROBO (SYMOP), since April 8-2015. In 2012, with PRIMNEXT and ORKOS Capital, he created the first European investment fund dedicated to service robotics: ROBOLUTION CAPITAL. The fund has established itself as one of the pillars of robotics in France and Europe, to meet the challenges and encourage initiative in this fast-growing sector.
Since 2012, he is Chairman of the Board of EMLYON Business School.

He has written two books : Pratique de l’Ordinateur familial (Using the family computer) in 1982, before the wave of personal information technology, and Viva la Robolution!, published in 2010 by JC Lattès.

< BACK TO JURYS LIST