BORG ADVISORS
Valery Magidson
Partner (Tel-Aviv)
Valery is a finance, investor relationship and sales specialist with background in both traditional consulting (Ernst & Young), niche investment firms and business development roles (number of FinTech an media start-ups). He specializes in building lasting relationships and collaborative strategies with both ventures and investment companies.
Valery started his career as a consultant in Ernst and Young, specializing on the banking industry. He then moved to a boutique investment firm, Mi-Inter, where he overlooked a number of large investment projects and leveraged buyouts. He was also involved in management consulting, helping to develop CIS business for a number of media companies and financial ventures. His most recent experience includes CFO/Business development role in a global crypto related FinTech company.
Valery studied Politics and Economics in Warwick University in UK where he also took a number of Business and Finance courses. He lives and works in Israel.
Sophie de la Motte
Partner (Paris)
Sophie de La Motte is a powerhouse strategist with an illustrious career spanning over two decades in health industry leadership, market intelligence, and economic policy. With a commanding presence in high-stakes environments, she has shaped transformative outcomes across public and private sectors. At the French Parliament, Sophie served as a key advisor on economic issues, crafting compelling notes, speeches, and legislation on industry, agriculture, trade, and lodging for a prominent political party. Her earlier roles as a parliamentary assistant and senator’s aide honed her expertise in policy development and press relations, establishing her as a trusted voice in economic affairs.
As a leader in strategic intelligence, Sophie directed the Association of French Health Industries and advised the Ministry of Economy’s Health Industry Advisory Board, spearheading innovative industrial projects alongside governmental bodies. Her consultancy work delivered a remarkable 90% success rate in securing critical market insights for industries ranging from health to defense and security. A champion for innovation, she has guided Medtech startups to success, leveraging her deep market expertise and multilingual fluency in English and German to drive global impact.
Educated at Sciences-Po Paris and holding a master’s degree in literature and history from Paris IV Sorbonne, Sophie combines intellectual rigor with practical brilliance to deliver unparalleled solutions.
Gulshat Fréchou
Partner (Paris)
Gulshat is an experienced consultant with a professional background in investment banking, structured finance, corporate finance, emerging & frontier markets and impact investing. She specialises in fundamental analysis of investment opportunities across asset classes and consults on strategic, financing and investment transactions.
Gulshat started her career in structured finance analytics at Thomson Reuters in New York, Later she joined Renaissance Capital's structuring team and most recently she worked at responsAbility, a Swiss impact fund, where she was responsible for the development and management of a portfolio of private debt impact investments in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe.
Her recent missions include consulting on a solar project financing in Eastern Europe, a buy-side M&A in renewable energy in the Nordics, fundraising for a fintech company in Spain, fundraising for a medtech start-up in France and fundraising for an industrial company in Italy pursuing a circular economy business model.
Gulshat studied Macroeconomics at Bashkir State University in Ufa, Russia and earned a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration at Baruch College in New York. She is a CFA charterholder as well. She lives and works in Paris.
Olivier Métrot
Partner (Paris)
Olivier is a seasoned M&A and corporate finance professional with over 25 years of experience executing strategic transactions across financial services, banking and insurance, asset management, fintech, infrastructure, and real estate. Having operated at the most senior levels of France's leading banking groups, he brings to BORG Associates a rare depth of institutional knowledge combined with a hands-on transactional track record spanning acquisitions, disposals, partnerships, and capital restructurings across Europe and beyond.
Olivier began his career as Associate at Paribas Affaires Industrielles (now PAI Partners) in Private Equity in Hong Kong before joining Natixis Investment Managers in Paris where he led the landmark acquisition of Nvest — a publicly listed US holding company managing $133 billion in assets. He subsequently held M&A Director roles at Crédit Agricole, Banque Populaire, and BPCE Group, where he executed some of the defining transactions in French banking consolidation, including the acquisition of Crédit Lyonnais, the creation of Natixis, and the sale of Foncia, Eurosic, and Meilleurtaux.com. Since 2018, he has been a Partner at Priscus Finance, a multi-country M&A boutique, advising clients on transactions in financial services, fintech, and insurance brokerage across France, Southern Europe and Africa.
Olivier is a graduate of EM Lyon and holds a Diplom-Kaufmann from the Technische Universität Berlin. He is trilingual in French, English, and German, with additional proficiency in Italian. He is based in Paris.
Sukanta Dey
Partner - Country Head (India)
Sukanta is a leading industry icon in the growth of new FMCGS (fast moving consumer goods & services) in India and a regular speaker at global industry forums. He has over forty years of experience in brand development, marketing, sales and profit centre management at Fortune 50 companies such as Unilever, PepsiCo and AT&T Wireless.
Sukanta’s over four decades of rich experience in marketing and telecommunications is laced with impressive industry accreditations. At PepsiCo, he was awarded the global leadership award by Margaret Thatcher at its centenary celebration in Hawaii in 1998. He was named one of India’s top-50 marketing professionals by an industry panel of Pitch Magazine in November 2004, upon the successful national launch of Idea Cellular. He was invited to chair the GSM World Series, India Conference for a continuous period of four years and has been the moderator & keynote speaker at many international telecoms conferences. He is a past president of the Delhi Management Association.
Sukanta holds an MBA degree in Marketing and Finance from Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, and an engineering graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, both being the crème de la crème of global academia. He was an Institute Scholar throughout his 7 years at IIM and IIT. He is based in New Delhi.
Baptiste Festor de Suremain
Associate (Paris)
Baptiste is an internationally-minded professional with a background spanning business development, commercial advisory, and diplomatic relations. Combining strong commercial instincts with a genuine interest in cross-border affairs, he brings to BORG Associates a blend of entrepreneurial drive and institutional exposure well-suited to complex, multi-stakeholder mandates.
Baptiste gained his first exposure to public policy through an internship at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Quai d'Orsay), before broadening his experience through a consulting assignment in Cambodia, business development in M&A advisory (M&A Solutions), and an experience at ARRI (Association Réalités et Relations Internationales), where he contributed to geopolitical analysis and international conferences across Taiwan, Portugal, and Poland. He subsequently founded Suremain Consulting, facilitating economic diplomacy and institutional outreach between Moroccan state actors and French and European organisations.
Baptiste holds a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from ILERI (Paris) and is fluent in French and English. He is based in Paris.