Golden Falcon Acquisition

General

We are a newly organized Delaware corporation structured as a blank check company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses or entities. To date, our efforts have been limited to organizational activities and activities related to this offering. We have not selected any potential business combination target, and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, initiated any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any potential target regarding entering into a business combination with us.

We will seek to leverage our management team’s proprietary global network of strong relationships with private equity sponsors, entrepreneurs, venture and growth capital funds, family offices, large corporations, sovereign wealth funds and their owners and most senior officers to identify, structure, finance, acquire and support the operation of a business combination target. In pursuing our strategy we will take advantage of our management team’s extensive experience in investing in and operating businesses across a wide range of sectors and geographies.

While we may pursue an initial business combination with any target business and in any sector or geographical location, we intend to focus our search on companies operating in the technology, media, telecommunications (“TMT”) and fintech sectors that are headquartered in Europe, Israel, the Middle East or North America.

We believe that this combination of relationships, experience and expertise puts us in a strong position to source an attractive target and complete an initial business combination and makes us a preferred partner for potential business combination targets.

MANAGEMENT TEAM

Makram Azar, our Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors, has over 30 years of investment banking and private equity experience. Mr. Azar is Chief Executive Officer and director of Full Circle Capital Limited, a private investment and advisory group, which he founded in 2019. Since 2019, Mr. Azar has also served as Chief Executive Officer and director of Full Circle Capital Services Limited (“Full Circle Capital”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Full Circle Capital Limited. Previously, from 2010 to 2019, he was at Barclays Bank PLC, where among other roles, he served as Chairman of Banking EMEA and Chairman of Barclays Bank PLC, MENA. Since 2019, he has continued his relationship with Barclays Bank PLC, serving as Senior Advisor. Before this, Mr. Azar served as Managing Director and Head of MENA for Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (“KKR”) from 2008 to 2010. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Azar had spent 18 years at Lehman Brothers, latterly as Global Head of Sovereign Wealth Funds and Chairman of Media Investment Banking EMEA. Previously he led the Media, Consumer & Retail Investment Banking businesses of Lehman Brothers in EMEA. Mr. Azar has completed over 200 M&A, equity capital markets, debt capital markets and private equity deals with an aggregate value in excess of $350 billion, across a broad spectrum of geographies and industries, including TMT, consumer, sustainable energy, retail, hospitality, financial services, industrials and real estate. His clients have included some of the largest institutional investors, multinational corporations, sovereign wealth funds and governments. Mr. Azar holds a BA in Applied Economics from the University Paris-IX Dauphine and a Master’s degree in Management and Finance from École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC) in Paris.

Scott J. Freidheim, our Chairman and a member of our board of directors, is the Managing Partner at Freidheim Capital and Co-Chairman of ettain group. Mr. Freidheim has experience as a NYSE traded company Chief Executive Officer and as a board member for profit and not-for-profit institutions. He has served on senior leadership teams across multiple industries including financial services, mass merchandising, brand management, private equity, engineering and staffing, including serving on the global executive committees of Lehman Brothers (Chief Administrative Officer), Investcorp (CEO, Europe), Sears Holdings Corporation (Executive Vice President, Operating & Support Businesses, and President Kenmore, Craftsman & Diehard) and CDI Corporation (Chief Executive Officer) and serving on the boards of ettain group (Charlotte, NC, USA), N+W Global Vending (Milan, Italy), Icopal (Herlev, Denmark), GL Education (London, England) and Lands’ End (Dodgeville, WI, USA). He has also served on the boards of directors of several not-for-profit institutions including: Institute of International Education (NYC, NY, USA), which administers the Fulbright Scholarship program and Spelman College (Atlanta, GA, USA). Mr. Freidheim is a member of The Economic Club of New York and The Council on Foreign Relations. In 2005, he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (“WEF”) and was a member of the WEF’s inaugural Global Agenda Council. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee Foundation (Colorado Springs, CO, USA). Mr. Freidheim holds a BA from Northwestern University and a Master’s degree in Management with concentration in Finance from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

Eli Muraidekh, our Chief Financial Officer and a member of our board of directors, is Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Telamon Capital, a credit opportunity fund founded in 2014. Prior to this, from 2009 to 2014, Mr. Muraidekh was the Investment Manager at Windmill Hill Asset Management. While there, Mr. Muraidekh managed the assets of the philanthropic foundations of Lord Jacob Rothschild totaling over $2.0 billion. He invested across multiple asset classes globally, ranking the endowment in the top five percentile of over 400 endowments tracked by Cambridge Associates. Previously, Mr. Muraidekh was Executive Director of the Value Recovery Fund at Blue Bay Asset Management, leading financial and operational restructurings on behalf of this distressed debt fund. Prior to that, Mr. Muraidekh was Co-Founder of Elwin Capital Partners a growth capital private equity fund, and Executive Director of the Principal Investment Area of Goldman Sachs, evaluating and executing investment opportunities for GS Capital Partners, GS Mezzanine Partners and Whitehall Real Estate Partners, which were, at the time, all of the firm’s major long-term investment vehicles. Mr. Muraidekh holds a BA in Economics summa cum laude from Yale University, where he graduated first in his class, and an MBA with distinction from the Harvard Business School.

John M. Basnage de Beauval, our General Counsel and Secretary, is Managing Director of Full Circle Capital Limited. From February 2018 to March 2020, Mr. Basnage de Beauval served as Founder and Managing Partner of Anthem Legal Services LLC, an advisory firm that provided legal and commercial advice to financial institutions and other companies. Prior to joining Full Circle Capital, Mr. Basnage de Beauval co-founded and was a partner at Epena Law from October 2019 to March 2020, where he provided legal advice in connection with structuring private equity investments in Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to this, Mr. Basnage de Beauval spent more than 25 years advising on capital markets, M&A and private equity transactions in New York, London and Paris, most recently, from November 2003 to February 2018, as a partner at Hogan Lovells, where he headed the US corporate securities practice in London, and was co-head of equity capital markets in Europe. Mr. Basnage de Beauval has advised acquirors and targets on numerous large and complex cross-border M&A transactions and has written extensively on the subject. Before joining Hogan Lovells, he practiced at Freshfields from 1996 to 2001 and Rogers & Wells from 1992 to 1996. Mr. Basnage de Beauval received a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, magna cum laude, where he was a Benjamin Franklin Scholar and Phi Beta Kappa, and has law degrees from Oxford University and Columbia University. He completed an executive leadership course at Stanford University School of Business.

Xavier Rolet, KBE will serve as one of our directors as of the effective date of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part. From January 2019 to January 2020, Mr. Rolet served as Chief Executive Officer of CQS, a global hedge fund. Previously, from 2009 to 2018, Mr. Rolet was the Chief Executive Officer of the London Stock Exchange (“LSE”). Mr. Rolet was named as one of the 100 Best CEOs in the World in the 2017 Harvard Business Review. In his decade at the helm of the LSE, the LSE’s market valuation rose from £800 million to more than £15 billion. He is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Phosagro PJSC, Chairman of the Board of Shore Capital Markets, a member of the Board of Overseers of Columbia Business School, a member of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul), an External Director—Portfolio Companies of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), a Non Executive Member of the Board of Seplat Petroleum Development Cy Plc, an Expert Adviser to the Shanghai Institute of Finance for the Real Economy (SIFRE), a Member of the Senior Advisory Board at Towerbrook Capital Partners LP, and a Founder and Director of a number of other privately held companies. He has held various senior positions in the financial services industry throughout his career, including Chief Executive Officer of Banque Lehman Brothers in Paris; co-head of Global Equity & Derivatives Trading at Lehman Brothers New York; Global Head of Risk and Trading at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein; Vice-President, International Equity Risk Arbitrage at Goldman Sachs New York; and co-Head of European Equities Sales and Trading at Goldman Sachs International Ltd. in London. Mr. Rolet holds an MSc from the KEDGE Business School, an MBA from Columbia Business School and a post-graduate degree from Paris-based IHEDN (Institute of Advanced Studies in National Defense).

Dominique D’Hinnin will serve as one of our directors as of the effective date of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part. Mr. D’Hinnin is chairman of the board of EUTELSAT Communications, a French satellite service company. He is also a board member of PRISA, the world’s leading Spanish and Portuguese-language media group, EDENRED, a French Corporate Services Company, Technicolor, a French technology Company, and Louis Delhaize SA, a Belgium private retail group. Mr. D’Hinnin was formerly a board member of EADS-Airbus, the Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Canal+ France, Vice Chairman at Atari, and he sat on the Strategic Council at PricewaterhouseCoopers France. From 2009 to 2016, Mr. D’Hinnin served as Co-Managing Partner of Lagardère Group. Previously, he was Chief Financial Officer of Lagardère Group, Executive Vice President of Grolier Inc., where he undertook the overhaul and development of Grolier in the U.S., UK and Asia, and the launch of Grolier Interactive Europe, and Chief Financial Officer of the publisher Hachette Livre, following his active role in the financial and legal restructuring of the Lagardère Group where he oversaw the merger of Matra with Hachette. Mr. D’Hinnin has also held board positions at Marie Claire Album, Holding Evelyne Prouvost, Editions Amaury, and Le Monde. Mr. D’Hinnin received his undergraduate degree from École Normale Supérieure (in classical culture) and a graduate degree from Ecole Nationale d’Administration, the premier graduate school in the country which the majority of government and private sector leaders attend.

I. Martin Pompadur will serve as one of our directors as of the effective date of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part. Mr. Pompadur is currently an investor and advisor to various companies, and a board member of Nexstar Media Group, Inc. and Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, Inc., both publicly traded companies. Previously, from 2009 to 2016, he served as Global Vice Chairman, Media and Entertainment at Macquarie Capital, an investment bank and financial services company. From 1998 to 2008, Mr. Pompadur held several positions at News Corporation, a multinational mass media corporation, including Executive Vice President of News Corporation, President of News Corporation Eastern and Central Europe and a member of News Corporation’s Executive Management Committee. In January 2000, Mr. Pompadur was appointed Chairman of News Corporation Europe. In 1985, as advisor to News Corporation, Mr. Pompadur helped acquire for News Corporation the Metromedia television station group and wrote the business plan for the start-up of the Fox Television Network. From 1982 to 2007, Mr. Pompadur was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of RP Media Management which operated 12 television stations, 25 radio stations and numerous cable television systems totaling 500,000 subscribers. From 1977 to 1982, Mr. Pompadur served as President of Ziff Corporation, then a holding company for Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. Prior to that, from 1960 to 1977, Mr. Pompadur worked at American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. (“ABC, Inc.”) where he held several positions, including General Manager of the Television Network, Vice President of the Broadcast Division, President of the Leisure Activities Group and Vice President of ABC, Inc. Mr. Pompadur was also previously a Managing General Partner at Northeastern Television Investors LP and was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GP Station Partners and of Multivision Cable TV. Mr. Pompadur previously served as a director of IMAX Corporation and Truli Media Group, Inc., both publicly traded companies, and as a director of ABC. Inc, BSkyB, Sky Italia, Premier World, Fox Kids Europe, Metromedia International and Elong. Mr. Pompadur holds a BA from Williams College and a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.

Isabelle Amiel Azoulai will serve as one of our directors as of the effective date of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part. Ms. Azoulai is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at La Maison SA, a private equity and venture capital investment group formed in 2014, where she has led more than 50 direct technology-focused investments in Israel, the United States, Europe and China. Ms. Azoulai also serves as the personal advisor to several ultra-high net worth European entrepreneurs. From 2014 to 2019, Ms. Azoulai was also a Senior Banker and Partner at Banque Leonardo, SA, a banking company. Ms. Azoulai was formerly an investment partner at Credit Suisse, where she managed the Ultra High Net Worth Individuals department. Prior to that, she managed the investment consulting department of Credit Suisse Private Banking in Paris. Ms. Azoulai is a founding member of the benefit committee of Institut Imagine, the French institute for genetic diseases. Ms. Azoulai holds a Master’s degree in Business from Lincoln International Business School.

Mikael Breuer-Weil will serve as one of our directors as of the effective date of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part. Mr. Breuer-Weil co-founded Marylebone Partners LLP, an investment management boutique, in September 2013 and served as founding partner and Chief Investment Officer until March 2020, when he stepped down from his executive roles. Previously, from 1994 to 2012, he was the Principal Investment Adviser to philanthropic and family foundations connected to Lord Jacob Rothschild, and in 2007 became Investment Director for RIT Capital Partners plc, an investment trust with a current market value of approximately £2.8 billion. Additionally, he has held various non-executive and investment advisory roles and he remains an adviser to a number of charitable and family organizations. Mr. Breuer-Weil started his career at Mercury Asset Management in 1986 and worked as a fund manager including a period of secondment with Odyssey Partners LLP in New York. Mr. Breuer-Weil graduated from the London School of Economics with a degree in law.

The past performance of our management team and strategic advisory group is not a guarantee either (i) that we will be able to identify a suitable candidate for our initial business combination or (ii) of success with respect to any business combination we may consummate. You should not rely on the historical record of our management team’s or their respective affiliates’ performance as indicative of our future performance.

Source : www.SEC.gov S-1 filing link.

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