The brilliant trajectory of the Converteam comet

In 2004‚ a team was created in Alstom Power Conversion‚ an Alstom subsidiary. In 2005‚ Patrick Kron (former Alstom CEO) agreed to ‘spin-off’ this subsidiary which had been the original aim of the members of this team when they first joined Alstom. Several dozens of attempts to sell the subsidiary had not worked in the past, but the first financial road show produced some serious offers‚ and in the end it was Barclays Private Equity which bought Alstom Power Conversion and named it Converteam. From 2005 to 2009, rapid changes took place in the company based on strong, shared values. So much progress was made that it was sold for a second time in 2009. This second LBO (leveraged buy-out) was financed by Barclays Private Equity‚ LBO France and the managers. The team then concentrated on two issues: internationalisation and R&D (research and development); and how to emerge in a stronger position after the economic crisis.  The company was bought by General Electric in 2011 for approximately three billion dollars. The team’s aim now is to enable smaller projects to learn from their extraordinary human experience.