Javier Pérez-Tenessa is a Mexican entrepreneur, businessman, investor, composer and producer based in Barcelona, Spain, who has founded several companies, including publicly traded

eDreams eDreams is an online travel agency based in Barcelona, Spain, that offers deals on regular and charter flights, low-cost airlines, hotels, car rentals, dynamic packages, holiday packages and travel insurance. The company accesses its airline se ...

and Venture Capital firm 4Founders Capital.

Early life and education

Pérez-Tenessa was born in Mexico, and moved to Spain aged 10. He graduated from the French Lycée in Madrid in 1984. He then became a student in the

Polytechnic University of Madrid The Technical University of Madrid or sometimes called Polytechnic University of Madrid (, UPM) is a public university, located in Madrid, Spain. It was founded in 1971 as the result of merging different Technical Schools of Engineering and Arc ...

, and graduated after six years with an MS in aerospace engineering ("ingeniero superior aeronáutico"), from the , where he was the top graduating student in his class. For this he received the "Francisco Arranz" price of the "colegio español de ingenieros aeronáuticos". In 1995 he attended the

Stanford Graduate School of Business The Stanford Graduate School of Business is the Postgraduate education, graduate business school of Stanford University, a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective ...

, where he earned his MBA in 1997.

Career

Pérez-Tenessa started his career designing satellites in France with

Aérospatiale Aérospatiale () was a major French state-owned aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and arms industry, defence corporation. It was founded in 1970 as () through the merger of three established state-owned companies: Sud Aviation, Nord Aviation ...

and working on Jet Engine Turbines at

Pratt and Whitney Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon Technologies). Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially a ...

in the United States. He joined

McKinsey and Company McKinsey & Company (informally McKinsey or McK) is an American multinational strategy and management consulting firm that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. Founded in 1926 by James O. McKinse ...

in 1993. After two years with the firm, he moved to Silicon Valley to pursue his MBA and in 1996 he joined

Netscape Netscape Communications Corporation (originally Mosaic Communications Corporation) was an American independent computer services company with headquarters in Mountain View, California, and then Dulles, Virginia. Its Netscape web browser was o ...

, the company which created the first massively popular web browser. He founded

in 1999 in the Valley but quickly moved operations and focus to Europe. He acted as CEO of eDreams and of its successor eDreams ODIGEO from 1999 to 2015. During his tenure as CEO, he led the company through five private equity transactions, several private and public debt issuances, three acquisitions and an IPO, which he completed in April 2014, and valued the company at €1.5 billion at the time. eDreams is the only internet startup in Spain to have been listed publicly in the main market. It was also the first Internet Unicorn in the country. In 2015, Perez-Tenessa resigned from his role as CEO and Chairman of eDreams, and remained as its Honorary Chairman. In 2017 he co-founded SeedRocket 4Founders, a venture capital firm investing in early stage technology companies. He is an investor both personally and through 4Founders in a large number of technology companies around the world. In 2019 the Universidad Poliltécnica de Madrid awards him the ActúaUPM 2019 Honorary Award for his "career, ability to excel (...), which serve as an example for all those entrepreneurs who present themselves each year to the actuaupm Competition" In 2022, Mr. Perez-Tenessa joined the Board of NGO Barcelona GLobal He has been in the board of several companies including those in the eDreams Group, Vueling airlines and Lastminute.com Group.

Music

Perez-Tenessa has produced a number of musical theater plays, notably the Spanish productions of ''

Rent Rent may refer to: Economics *Renting, an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property *Economic rent, any payment in excess of the cost of production *Rent-seeking, attempting to increase one's share of e ...

'' in 2016, and ''

Fun Home ''Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic'' is a 2006 graphic memoir by the American cartoonist Alison Bechdel, author of the comic strip '' Dykes to Watch Out For''. It chronicles the author's childhood and youth in rural Pennsylvania, United States, ...

'' in 2018. He has composed several pieces which are available to the public in

SoundCloud SoundCloud is a German audio streaming service owned and operated by SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG. The service enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is ...

. He has performed both the bass and tenor voices in the Choir for

Handel's Messiah ''Messiah'' ( HWV 56) is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel. The text was compiled from the King James Bible and the Coverdale Psalter by Charles Jennens. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742 ...

at the Palau de La Musica in Barcelona.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perez-Tenessa, Javier Living people Aerospace engineers Mexican chief executives Polytechnic University of Madrid alumni Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni Mexican venture capitalists Mexican musicians Year of birth missing (living people)