School of Entrepreneurship & Business
Enterprise Fellowship Scheme: Members Bio
Candace Johnson
[Senior Enterprise Fellow]
Candace Johnson is an international telecommunications expert and entrepreneur. She is co-initiator of the Astra satellite system and SES Global, one of the world’s largest satellite systems in the world. She is also founding President of Europe Online, the world’s first and largest independent Satellite Broadband Network, and founder of Loral Cyberstar-Teleport Europe, Europe’s first independent, private trans-border satellite communications network. Ms. Johnson is also founding President of the VATM, the Association of Private Telecom Operators in Germany and founding President of the Global Telecom Women’s Network (GTWN). She has continued to be a long-time member of the Board of Directors of all of these companies and organisations at various times throughout the years.
Ms Johnson is also President of Johnson Paradigm Ventures (JPV). JPV is a principal founding shareholder with AXA, Caisse des Depots, Bayerische Landesbank and the SPEF in Sophia Euro Lab, Europe’s first trans-border, early-stage investment company based in Sophia Antipolis. Ms Johnson is a founding member of the Board of Directors of Sophia Euro Lab. JPV is also a principal founding shareholder in Ariadne Capital, ‘Architecting Europe.net’ based in London, as well as a founding member and member of the Board of the Sophia Business Angels in Sophia Antipolis France.
In her personal capacity, Ms Johnson is a minority owner of FMN, a German telephone manufacturing company, and a member of their Supervisory Council. She is also a minority owner of Alpha Com, a wireless data manufacturing company. Ms Johnson is a member of the Advisory Board of numerous European and US ventures as well as being a member of the Board of Governors of Theseus MBA Institute at the University of Haifa, Sabanci University and a Senior Enterprise Fellow for the University of Essex.
Ms Johnson was Vice President Worldwide of Iridium and brought it into the GSM MoU, the ITU and ETSI. She was also Director of Marketing for the German manufacturing company Fuba.
Ms Johnson has been featured in articles in Time Magazine, the Financial Times, the Economist, Le Monde, WirtschaftsWoche, and Manager Magazin, to name a few. She has been decorated as an Officer of the Bundesverdienst Kreuz and the Couronne de la Chene respectively by the German and Luxembourg governments for her work in deregulating and privatising telecommunications and media across Europe. She is also the second recipient ever of the United Nations, sponsored World Teleport Associations’ ‘Founders Award’ and has been named by Time and Fortune Magazine as one of the 50 most powerful women in Europe. Ms Johnson has also received the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ along with Vinton Cerf and Tim Berners Lee from the World Communication Awards, the prestigious global telecoms organisation in 2002. Ms Johnson holds Masters Degrees with Honours from the Sorbonne and Stanford Universities and a Bachelors Degree from Vassar College.