ShareThe Luxembourg Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (LPEA) has appointed five new members to its executive committee. Yannick Arbaut (A&O Shearman), Nick Tabone (Deloitte), Jérôme Wittamer (Expon Capital), Hind El Gaidi (Intermediate Capital Group) and Claude de Raismes (Wendel Luxembourg) were elected to the committee, which comprises 12 members.In addition to their roles on the committee, Tabone was appointed as treasurer, while Arbaut has been elected to the position of secretary. EY’s Laurent Capolaghi was named new vice-president. To post appointments at your company or organisation here, email a short statement to info@luxtimes.lu. Make sure to include a high-resolution photo. The content of this column is the sole responsibility of the editorial team. People movesSimmons & Simmons appoints new Luxembourg country head Thierry Somma took office on 1 May, succeeding Louis-Maël Cogis People movesFrançoise Schlink named Post Group chairLuxembourg’s cabinet has formally approved Françoise Schlink’s nomination as chair of Post Group People movesLinklaters appoints new partner and associates Range of promotions announced effective 1 May Hëllef um TerrainFormer ombudsman Claudia Monti named chair of Caritas successor HUTOrganisation gets well-known permanent chair after turbulent start People movesOlivier Guillon named CEO of Luxembourg Institute of Science and TechnologyThe professor will take on his role 1 September 2025 People MovesClifford Chance appoints five counsel in LuxembourgThe appointments span law firm’s global financial markets and investment funds practices in the Grand Duchy People MovesPaul Heuschling named president of Luxembourg’s young scientist foundation Heuschling replaces Carlo Hansen as head of the Fondation Jeunes Scientifiques Luxembourg People Moves Moventum appoints new managing director and head of asset management Thorsten Fischer will take up his new role on 1 May Advertiser contentTreat yourself to a stress-free holidayDreaming of a worry-free trip What if the secret to a smooth getaway was simply good preparation and the right protection Advertiser contentReal estate: Why should you take advantage of the start of 2025 to begin your real estate project?The main things we remember about the housing sector over the past 12 months are the rise in interest rates and the fall in property prices Advertiser contentProperty: I've decided to invest!The various forms of government support for investment Advertiser contentThe Luxembourg Times BusinessRun is happening again on 18th September!On Thursday 18th September with the starting gun of the 11th Luxembourg Times BusinessRun fired at the Coque at 7 pm Share this with instagramSections ©2025 Mediahuis Group. All rights reserved Text description provided by the architects. The Gaïette installation is a work created and realized by Atelier Faber and Anna Saint-Pierre, commissioned by the city of Raismes and the association Art et Jardins Hauts-de-France The association’s mission is to reveal and question the heritage and memorial sites of the Hauts-de-France region Gaïette spectacularly captures the transformation of the Raismes landscape, a metamorphosis shaped by a century of mining activity and the subsequent evolution of the site into a park post-1980. The landscape is characterized by mountains of shale covered with birches, remnants of brick embedded in clay and soil, and the ghostly presence of a head frame, which was the starting point for a descent into the mines. AxonometricThe title “Gaiette” refers not only to the coveted coal fragments but also to the women who meticulously distinguished these gleaming, brilliant treasures from the surrounding shale. The artists chose to represent the former pits, now invisible, with solid cylindrical structures, replicating their ground coverage (Ø3-5m). The installation serves as a spatial reference to imagine the miners' journey during their descent to a depth of 700 meters. It encapsulates the essence of Raismes' mining heritage and economic upheavals induced by coal mining a defining element of the Anthropocene era This artistic endeavor also symbolizes the local community's determination to safeguard their history standing firm against industrial encroachment and preserving the essence of their collective identity You'll now receive updates based on what you follow Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors If you have done all of this and still can't find the email APG’s versatile Uniline series lent its power and precision to the 20th-anniversary edition of Raismes Fest which is held every year in the town of Raismes near Valenciennes The event has been organised by the Raismoise Association of Culture since 1998 and returned once again to the park of the Château de la Princesse d’Arenberg for another weekend of hard rock and metal This year saw a variety of international acts such as Rose Tattoo Guns and prog metal supergroup Sons Of Apollo bring a wall of noise to the festival’s dedicated fanbase Established French rental supplier ACS Sonorisation has provided the festival’s full AVL and trussing package for the last 10 years – and enjoys a relationship with APG that spans 20 Whilst the audio requirements for Raismes Fest tend to stay the year-on-year; with the number one priority being the main stage system that is capable of stacking up against the powerful array of bands on the line-up the site and music genre offers some challenges that keep ACS busy ACS provided 7x APG UL210’s and 3x UL115B subs per side with another 8x TB218S subs aligned against the downstage edge in order to achieve unidirectional cover explained: “We used to have a central sub layout in the past already but we changed it for an arc configuration this year to efficiently manage the subs directivity and avoid any noise pollution in the surrounding ‘village’ area where the merch shops are situated we quickly decided to rig the UL115B on top of the UL210 The Uniline system is modular enough to allow changes and evolution in line with stage requirements.” ACS also included 4x DS15S speakers as front fill to cover the pit area as well as 12x SMX15’s ground stacked on stage Sanna added: “As well as the excellent acoustic precision and pressure the SMX15 offer plenty of flexibility in the medium and low ends which is particularly useful and efficient for this kind of gig: Its metal and the APG on-stage speakers deliver great intelligibility allowing to get the voice above all of the instruments.” Combining power and intelligibility is a difficult balancing act for any system designer or FOH engineer – particularly when the genre of music in question is as idiosyncratic as hard rock or metal ACS company director Christophe Sireuil agreed: “It’s a challenge but there are a lot of foreign artists playing at this festival and it’s quite refreshing because they come with an open mind on the type of system used We know APG offers products that aren’t limited by the style of music This is a massive advantage for a company like ACS as we have a solution that is modular and flexible enough to be used for all types of events As well as bringing the desired sonic impact the APG system also had to behave in relation to on- and off-site noise restrictions who took charge of FOH during the festival commented: “This event comes with a number of acoustic challenges: Around the stage there is a village area with bars and the organisers don’t want the music to be too loud there The area we had to cover was approximately 40m long by 20m wide while the stage has a castle to its back and a few houses in the vicinity; but between the system and the experienced Our fleet is mostly APG – one of the largest in France – which is a testament to the close relationship we’ve had with them over the years They are very open-minded and listen to users’ feedback which is a massive difference when compared to the ‘big’ brands We believe that APG products are acoustically as good as any other leading brands in the market.” Sireuil’s final thoughts came back to the quality of the Uniline system which was a major factor in helping to facilitate another successful outing for the festival: “The APG sound is pure and comprehensive enabling sound professionals to really decide what they want from the system There is no limit to how much you can tailor the sound with APG which makes them stand out from the competition because they don’t have compressors that overdo everything most manufacturers push their products in the market with a heavily processed sound but not APG: they keep the sound clean and neutral It does require a bit of knowledge and expertise http://vendome.activeaudio.fr/en/home We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings we will not be able to save your preferences This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again More information about our Cookie Policy own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment Kedge Business School provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation FR View all partners On Sunday, April 23, French citizens went to the polls in the first round of the country’s 2017 presidential elections. Emmanuel Macron, the former finance minister, came out on top, obtaining approximately 24% of the vote Immediately behind him was Marine Le Pen of the extreme-right Front National (about 22%) At present it’s nearly impossible to predict the final outcome – there are simply too many factors that could tip things in one direction or another, including the abstention rate and the shift of votes from François Fillon (20% in the first round) and Jean-Luc Mélechon (19%) Among the biggest unknowns is the level of support for the extreme-right Front National (FN) among younger voters Older white voters have long made up the core of the party’s support has taken to repeating that the FN is the party of choice for twentysomethings The Front National was founded in 1972 by Jean-Marie Le Pen a former paratrooper who combined several elements of historical extreme-right politics in France his goal was more to challenge the establishment than to get a seat in the Élysee Palace His fondness for hate speech made the FN a pariah party in the 70s and the 80s But French twentysomethings don’t have any recollection of the party’s earlier incarnation They were between 12 and 18-years-old in 2011 the FN is a “normal” part of the French political scene Some of the FN’s leaders are also reasonably young relatively rare in the French political landscape Since Marine Le Pen took control of the party, she and other FN leaders have been working hard to erase its dark past, or at least try to. A key aspect has been the “rejection” of historical leaders, in particular her father, who was excluded from the party in 2015 for repeated instances of hate speech and revisionism A key part of understanding youth support for the FN are the challenges that the young generation in France face, in particular social and economic worries. In 2016, approximately 25% of French youth were jobless, a rate that was 15 points higher than the national rate that year, 9.9% it’s typically a short-term contract known as a CDD They’ve also grown up in a France dogged by limited growth and deindustrialisation where the local factory can shut down and move elsewhere in the European Union or around the world refugees and terrorism all reinforce their insecurity and fear She would restrict immigration and elevate French cultural identity over multiculturalism (Her ability to follow through with these policies were she elected and their actual consequences are separate questions.) So youth who feel insecure can see in Marine Le Pen an attractive political leader The FN also works to seduce millennials through their preferred means of communication: social media The party has an efficient presence online historically the FN wasn’t welcome on mainstream media so social media represents a double solution for them: the ability to control their own message and access to a younger public potentially more open to voting for them On social media all points of view are accepted and as the young people spend a lot of time there – it’s the perfect match For French baby boomers, the FN is synonymous with the hate speech of Jean-Marie Le Pen. Generation X, which came of age in the 1980s and 1990s, knew him as well, including his repeated references to the Nazis’ use of gas chambers during the Holocaust as a “detail of history” to which she was elected in 2014 and is now as part of the populist Overall, Le Pen’s progression among French youth is clear – but whether they’ll tip the election one way or another an open question. Indeed, March 2017 survey by IFOP indicated that up to 52% of 18- to 25-year-olds could stay home making abstention the true “first party” of France’s youth It’s also important to remember that, taken as a group, 70% millennials continue to reject the FN in many ways its “rebranding” with younger voters has been successful They don’t see the party in the same way as previous generations the “monster” is less threatening than before it could represent a real choice in the upcoming election By Nick Kingsley2021-04-20T14:17:00 Pandrol opened a railway welding centre of excellence in Raismes which is already proving its worth as training methods change during the pandemic. Nick Kingsley reports Already have an account? Subscribe now Site powered by Webvision Cloud l to r: Hind El Gaidi (Intermediate Capital Group) Archive photos: Marion Dessard; Romain Gamba; Matic Zorman; Nader Ghavami; EY The Luxembourg Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (LPEA) on 2 July elected five new executive committee members and voted on the positions of secretary the Luxembourg Private Equity & Venture Capital Association Five executive committee members were elected as part of the “annual renewal” of the association’s governing body Hind El Gaidi (Intermediate Capital Group) and Claude de Raismes (Wendel Luxembourg) who is already an executive committee member while Arbaut was also named secretary and Tabone named treasurer The executive committee is composed of 12 members and includes a president the CEO of the LPEA and other members elected from the board the LPEA’s executive committee also includes: president (Swancap Investment Management) The LPEA represents PE and VC professionals in the grand duchy and aims to promote the industry and financial “ecosystem” beyond Luxembourg