Corinne Vigreux

Corinne Vigreux
Vigreux at Whatnext event in 2015
Born	Corinne Danièle Vigreux 9 December 1964 Lyon, France
Residence	Netherlands NL
Alma mater	ESSEC Business School (attended)
Occupation	Co-Founder and Board Member
Years active	1986–present
Known for	Co-Founder of TomTom
Title	Co-Founder of TomTom and Managing Director of its consumer business
Spouse(s)	Marriage Harold Goddijn
Children	2

Corinne Danièle Goddijn-Vigreux,^[1] commonly known as Corinne Vigreux, (born 9 December 1964) is a French business executive and entrepreneur. She is a co-founder of the Dutch consumer electronics company TomTom where she has been Managing Director of the Consumer Business Unit since 2008.^[2][3]

Early life and education

Born in Lyon, France in 1964, Vigreux was brought up in the working-class suburb of Vaulx-en-Velin where her father was a commercial buyer for a chemical company and her mother, a pharmacy dispenser.^[4] After specializing in physics and maths at school (Lycée du Parc), she studied at the ESSEC Business School in Paris where she graduated in international business in 1987.^[2]

Career

In 1987, Vigreux started working in London for the Psion consumer electronics company where she managed exports, travelling to North Africa, Israel and around Europe.^[3] While working at Psion, she met Harold Goddijn who was interested in distributing the company's products in the Netherlands. They married in 1991 and moved to the Netherlands where for a few months she worked for a dairy cooperative while her husband worked for Psion. Attracted back to technology, Vigreux teamed up with two of Goddijn's friends, Peter-Frans Pauwels and Pieter Geelen, and founded Palmtop Software which later became TomTom.^[5]

Initially Palmtop produced products for popular handheld devices but by the early 2000s, Vigreux and her colleagues realized there were opportunities for producing dedicated mapping devices after Bill Clinton opened up the military GPS system for generalized access. The TomTom, the first stand-alone navigating device, with its own touchscreen facility, was released in March 2004. The market exploded over the next four years with revenues increasing from €42 million to €1.8 billion. In 2008, Vigreux was appointed managing director, sales director and chief commercial officer for TomTom, positions she still holds.^[3]

In recent years, the satnav sector has suffered from Google's development of mapping systems for smartphones. Vigreux subsequently led TomTom's entry into the sport watches for everyday athletes and in April 2015 launched TomTom Bandit a highly innovative action camera. Nevertheless, Vigreux sees new opportunities for mapping systems in applications for self-driving vehicles.^[3]

Boards and honors

Corinne Vigreux was elected on May 4th 2016 as an independent member of the Board of Directors for a term of four years at ILIAD, a parent company of Free.^{[6] [7]}

Vigreux is on the Board of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Netherlands (CFCI) and a member of the Conseil de Coopération Franco-Néerlandais (CCFN).^[8][9]

She is also on the advisory board of the Dutch National Opera & Ballet.^[10]

In 2012, she was decorated as a Knight of the Legion of Honour for her business success and social commitment.^[11][12]

In October 2016 Corinne Vigreux was elected member of the advisory board at Takeaway.com.^[13]

Personal life

Vigreux, who now lives in Amsterdam, is married to Harold Goddijn who is chairman and managing director of TomTom. The couple have two children studying at universities.^[4]

References