Nominee for the Entrepreneur of the Year : Hervé BORGOLTZ (GE 1977)

An EDHEC graduate from the Class of 1977, Hervé Borgoltz began his career in a clove distillery in Zanzibar. After gaining solid management experience in engineering sectors with leading groups (Atos …), he bought DBT (Douaisienne de Basse Tension) around twenty years ago, a company then specialised in electric meters.

As DBT began innovating fifteen years ago, turnover rose from 3 to 11 million euros in 5 years and it is now a world leader in e-mobility solutions and charger points for electric vehicles.
What are its prospects for the future?
There’s little development in France outside the capital at present so 90% of DBT’s turnover is from abroad. It expects to double this figure by the end of the year to reach 20 million euros, and the company has ambitious plans to produce, market and install electric charger stations across Europe. Schneider, its biggest competitor, is 10,000 times bigger, but Hervé and his team are confident they can conquer the American and Asian markets, thanks in particular to their fourth generation of rapid EV charging stations that can charge 80% of the battery in thirty minutes.
The next challenge is to work on production capacity: Nissan and Renault will produce 1.5 million electric cars this year (2% of global production) and 5 million in the next 2 years. “They’ll all have to be recharged!”

“Stay mobile, leap into planes,” he advises us. Hervé is an extremely outgoing globe-trotter with his finger on the pulse, invited to speak at many of the largest international ‘green’ conferences. A pioneer in electric mobility, Hervé is proud to be Edhec and spoke enthusiastically about the importance of innovative SMEs in the success and construction of our future development model.
EDHEC gave him the taste for international adventure, the belief that “it’s all happening out there,” an open-minded attitude to diversity and pride in being a precursor.
This former president of the Course Croisière sailing race has also kept intact his love of boats and his taste for competition. He’s been competing at top level for over 10 years and will represent France on his boat Eleuthera (freedom in Greek) during this year’s world championships (Commodores Cup).

www.dbt.fr

The Entrepreneur of the Year prize is awarded to an Edhec entrepreneur who has decided to take a leap into the unknown and has contributed to EDHEC’s image as a creator of talent by their taste for risk and adventure. Their daring and sense of innovation will have impacted on the winner’s sector or region, or on the vision others have of the sector.