Nicolas De Santis (born 1966) is an Italian businessman. He launched the first digital currency of the web, beenz.com and co-founded travel portal opodo. He is the founder and chief disruption officer of Megavisionary Labs, an advisory firm and ventures incubator. In 2004 he became the president and secretary general of Gold Mercury International Award, a

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

and global governance award organisation founded in 1961 by his father.

Early life and education

Nicolas De Santis was born in Madrid, Spain in 1966. He is the son of Spanish actress Maria Cuadra and film producer Eduardo De Santis. As a child actor, he appeared in the Spanish movie Elisita.

Career

De Santis started his career at Landor Associates (now

WPP Group WPP plc is a British multinational communications, advertising, public relations, technology, and commerce holding company headquartered in London, England. It is the world's largest advertising company, as of 2023. WPP plc owns many companie ...

) where his father was a partner. As a strategy advisor, Nicolas has created strategies and visions for governments, academic institutions, global brands, and technology start-ups, such as: British Airways, Opodo, Morgan Stanley, Iberdrola, Garanti Bank, Coca-Cola, PRISA and the European Union (see Captain Euro), among others.

Internet entrepreneur

De Santis' first previous internet venture was beenz.com (the first virtual internet currency) where he was chief marketing officer. De Santis invested in and joined Beenz in 1999 as one of the founding team members. De Santis helped to raise $100 million from investors including Carlo de Benedetti and

François Pinault François Pinault (born 21 August 1936) is a French billionaire businessman, founder of the luxury group Kering and the investment holding company Artémis. Pinault started his business in the timber industry in the early 1960s. Taken public i ...

. Beenz was sold in 2001 to the US Carlson Marketing Group.Dean Tomasula, Direct Marketing News, 5 October 2011. "Carlson Marketing Group to Buy Beenz.com". http://www.dmnews.com/carlson-marketing-group-to-buy-beenzcom/article/74874/. Retrieved 3 September 2014. De Santis was recruited by Spencer Stuart from beenz.com in 2001 to become the chief marketing officer of Opodo, the European travel portal originally co-owned with 9 European airlines including

British Airways British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...

Air France Air France (; legally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France, and is headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. The airline is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and is one of the founding members ...

Alitalia Alitalia - Società Aerea Italiana S.p.A., operating as Alitalia (), was an Italian airline which was once the flag carrier and largest airline of Italy. The company had its head office in Fiumicino, in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital. ...

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, compri ...

, KLM,

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...

Aer Lingus Aer Lingus ( ; an anglicisation of the Irish language, Irish , meaning "air fleet") is an Irish airline company which is the flag carrier of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Founded by the Irish Government, it was privatised between 2006 and 201 ...

Austrian Airlines Austrian Airlines AG, often shortened to Austrian or AUA, is the flag carrier of Austria and a subsidiary of Lufthansa, the flag carrier of Germany. The airline is headquartered on the grounds of Vienna International Airport in Schwechat where i ...

and

Finnair Finnair Plc (, ) is the flag carrier and largest full-service legacy airline of Finland, with headquarters in Vantaa on the grounds of Helsinki Airport, its airline hub, hub. Finnair and its subsidiaries dominate both domestic and international ...

. Opodo was the European version of

Orbitz Orbitz.com is a travel fare aggregator website and travel metasearch engine. The website is owned by Orbitz Worldwide, Inc., a subsidiary of Expedia Group. It is headquartered in the Citigroup Center, Chicago, Illinois. Background Origi ...

, the American travel website owned by various American airlines. In 2008, Opodo's turnover reached €1.3 billion in gross sales. De Santis was the marketing director and co-founder of European online travel portal Opodo, a position which he left in 2003.

Pro European Union work

In the 1990s, De Santis worked for the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

under President Enrique Baron Crespo where he advised on issues relating to European identity and the launch of the

Euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

currency. As part of the launch of the Euro currency he developed and launched Captain Euro, Europe's superhero, designed to analyse the perceptions and emotions of Europeans regarding

federalism Federalism is a mode of government that combines a general level of government (a central or federal government) with a regional level of sub-unit governments (e.g., provinces, State (sub-national), states, Canton (administrative division), ca ...

and European identity, and appeal to the people. It aimed to appeal to the European youth, and espouse the virtues of integration. In 2013, De Santis launched the Brand EU Centre, an independent, pro-EU initiative to improve the management of the

brand. One of the main activities of the centre was to support the REMAIN campaign in the

2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum The 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, was a referendum that took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar under the provisions o ...

. The BRAND EU Centre was launched with the support of former

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

President Enrique Baron Crespo and American Investor Todd Ruppert.

Board memberships

De Santis was a board member of

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

-listed Lyris Technologies – a

digital marketing Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online-based Information technology, digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones, and other digital media and platforms to promote products and service ...

& CRM analytic solutions company. Based in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

, California, Lyris was acquired by Texas-based AUREA Software in 2015. In January 2013, he joined the board of the Global Virus Network (GVN) where he is a senior advisor. De Santis believes that: "As our planet's population grows exponentially, GVN's role in tackling old and new viruses will become central in preventing, protecting and curing present and future generations." In 2019, he joined the board of trustees of the World Law Foundation, an international organisation promoting peace and respect for the rule of law, associated with the World Jurist Association. In 2021, he joined the board of directors of Nasdaq-listed Ferroglobe, a producer of silicon metal, silicon-based alloys and manganese-based specialty alloys.News Release, 14 May 2021. https://investor.ferroglobe.com/news-releases/news-release-details/ferroglobe-announces-new-appointments-and-changes-board Retrieved 16 May 2021.

Personal life

He is married to the American swimsuit designer Melissa Odabash, and they have two teenage daughters.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santis, Nicolas De Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Madrid Internet company founders Spanish businesspeople 1966 births