Nicolas De Santis

Nicolas De Santis is a European entrepreneur known for co-founding the first global internet currency ‘beenz’ and the internet travel giant opodo.com. Opodo reached €1.2 billion in gross sales and was sold for €500 million in 2011. Nicolas is currently CEO of Corporate Vision®, a vision strategy consulting firm and innovation incubator based in London. He is also President of Gold Mercury International, the global governance think-tank, NGO and Award organisation founded in 1961.

Nicolas is a business model innovation expert and he is the co-creator of Business Model Generation, a global best selling book that launched the business model canvas as the premier tool to innovate business models. His consulting career experience includes the development of strategic vision programmes, global brand strategy, business model innovation and culture change projects for corporations, holding companies, governments and international organisations including: Coca Cola, Santander Bank, General Electric, Canal+, British Airways, Iberdrola, Scottish Power, Ferruzzi, the European Union, European Parliament, Government of South Africa, Disney, CEPSA, WWF, Ferrovial and Prisa Media Group.

Nicolas is regularly featured in global news and media including CNBC, BBC NEWS, Russia TV, AL JAZEERA, SHARES MAGAZINE, TVE SPAIN, EL PAIS and CNN international, on issues related to business, technology, the European Union and global governance.

Nicolas served on the boards of several companies and organisations, such as the U.S. public company Lyris Technologies, an e-marketing solutions leader and the Global Virus Network a coalition of the world’s leading medical virology research centers working to prevent illness and death from viral disease.

Nicolas began his career at Landor (Young & Rubicam WPP group), a strategic design firm based in San Francisco, CA, and London.