jacques veyrat

About jacques veyrat

Jacques Veyrat is a French business leader and investor best known for founding and chairing Impala, the family investment holding company he created in 2011. Through Impala, he has built a diversified portfolio of assets, with a clear focus on growth businesses and companies linked to the energy transition. Neoen was one of Impala’s most visible holdings for many years, and Impala supported the company’s expansion from its early stages through to the control sale to Brookfield announced in 2024 and completed in 2025. A graduate of École Polytechnique and École des Ponts et Chaussées, Veyrat began his career in 1989 at the French Treasury, working at the interministerial industrial restructuring committee. He later joined the Louis-Dreyfus group, where he held increasingly senior positions before becoming chief executive and leading major strategic changes. He is especially associated with the growth of Neuf Cegetel, which he helped steer in the mid-2000s, and later with the management of the Louis-Dreyfus group in the following decade. After leaving the group, he launched Impala to pursue a long-term, entrepreneurial investment strategy centered on industrial development, consolidation and value creation. Over the course of his career, Jacques Veyrat has established himself as a leading figure in growth capital, operational transformation and portfolio management. His expertise spans corporate strategy, governance, acquisitions and the management of complex holdings. He is recognized for a long-term investment mindset, a preference for tangible assets and a disciplined, opportunistic approach to sectors with strong structural momentum. In energy, Neoen stands out as a flagship example of value creation under his influence, with fast international expansion and leading positions in solar, wind and battery storage. More broadly, Veyrat represents a discreet but highly influential model of French entrepreneur-investor.