Franco-Gabonese self-made entrepreneur Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard is the
Founder, chairman and 100% owner of APO Group, the leading pan-African
communications consultancy and press release distribution service.
Nicolas is:
- An Advisory Board member of the African Energy Chamber (AEC).
- A Senior Advisory Board member of The Canada-Africa Chamber of Business.
- A member of the Task Force for the FIFA – CAF Infrastructure Development Project.
- An Advisory Board member of the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF), the premier hotel investment conference in Africa.
- A founding member of the Bloomberg New Economy Gateway Africa Advisory Board.
- A member of the Advisory Board of the World Football Summit.
- A Special Advisor to the President of Rugby Africa, the governing body of rugby in Africa.
- An International Committee member of the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) – the biggest music awards event in Africa.
APO Group is:
- The Pan-African public relations agency of FIFA, the governing body of football/soccer.
- The Pan-African public relations agency of the NBA.
- The Pan-African public relations agency of the Basketball Africa League (BAL).
- The Pan-African public relations agency of the World Football Summit, the world’s largest convention on the football industry.
- The Official Public Relations Partner and Sport Marketing Agency of World Rugby’s African association, Rugby Africa, the governing body of rugby in Africa.
- The Official Partner of iconic French Football Club Olympique de Marseille’s African program “OM Africa”.
- The Strategic Partner of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA), the governing body of the Olympic Movement in Africa.
- The Pan-African public relations agency of Afro Nation, the world’s biggest Afrobeats Music festival.
- The Principal Partner to the Africa Women Entrepreneurship and Innovation Forum (AWIEF).
- The Official Sponsor of SEED Project (Sports for Education and Economic Development).
- The Partner of the International Sports Press Association (AIPS).
APO Group’s year over year revenue growth was 40% in 2021 and 60% in 2022.
In 2023, APO Group and its clients have won a total of 5 African SABRE Awards, more than any other firm in this year’s competition. The SABRE Awards are the world’s biggest PR awards programme.
APO Group works with more than 300 clients, ranging from governments to international institutions, prominent personalities, and companies active in Africa. Some of APO Group’s prestigious clients include Facebook, Dangote Group, Nestlé, GE, NBA, FIFA, Canon, DHL, Marriott Group, Ecobank, Siemens, Standard Chartered, Orange, Jack Ma Foundation, African Development Bank, World Health Organization, Islamic Development Bank, Liquid Intelligent Technology, Rotary International, Kaspersky, Greenpeace…
APO Group is the strategic partner of Getty Images in Africa and has established partnerships with the African Union of Broadcasting, Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, CNBC Africa and SABC (South Africa).
APO Group is a also member of the UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition, of the UNESCO-led Global Alliance for Partnerships on Media and Information Literacy, and has established partnerships with the World Health Organization (WHO), the African Union Commission, Invest Africa, Venture Capitalism for Africa (VC4A), and The Canada-Africa Chamber of Business.
APO Group is a Partner of the Roman Catholic Church in Africa (Holy See); and was the Official Strategic Public Relations Partner of the African Union at the Expo 2020 Dubai.
In December 2018, Nicolas stepped down as CEO of APO Group and was succeeded by a former CEO for Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe of Orange Business Services, the B2B division of French Telecom giant Orange. His successor also served as Chairman of the Board of Orange Business Saudi Arabia, and Middle East Director in the Gulf region for Accenture.
During his time as CEO at APO Group, Nicolas has been growing the company as well as serving and advising hundreds of multinational companies to invest and conduct business in Africa. As Chairman, he is focusing on delivering high-level counsel for the company’s clients and developing his investment fund dedicated to Africa.
Since 2020, Jack Ma has invited Nicolas to be one of the seven semifinal judges of the annual Africa’s Business Heroes (ABH) prize competition, helping to identify the ten finalist who go forward to compete in a ‘pitch finale’ in front of Jack Ma himself.
As the Award Director of Rugby Africa Media & Photography Awards, Nicolas has assembled a fantastic judging panel headed by the Chairman of World Rugby, Sir Bill Beaumont, and has brought together luminaries from the worlds of business and sport. The Jury panel of 85 consists of prominent companies such as DHL, Google, Uber, Jaguar Land Rover, Kenya Airways, John Deere, Lufthansa Group, Pfizer, Qatar Airways, MTN, Radisson Hotel Group, Visa, Universal Music Africa, Canon, only to name a few.
In 2021, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), part of the United Nations, had asked Nicolas to be the Jury Chairman of the 2021 West and Central Africa Migration Journalism Awards. Some of the jury members included the Secretary General of FIFA, Fatma Samoura, and the Senior Vice President of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), Bajabulile “Swazi” Tshabalala, to name a few.
In 2023, Nicolas was appointed a founding member of the Bloomberg New Economy Gateway Africa Advisory Board. Other members of the advisory board include H.E. Wamkele Mene, Secretary-General of the African Continental Free Trade Area; Dr. Benedict Okey Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the African Export–Import Bank (Afreximbank); Alain Ebobissé, CEO of Africa50; Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation of the Arab Republic of Egypt; Sérgio Pimenta, IFC’s Vice President for Africa.
Nicolas has spoken at several high-profile events, including the Bloomberg Africa Business Media Innovators Forum 2019 and the Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF) 2019. He has also moderated panels at the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) in 2019 and 2022, as well as at AHIF’s Africa Tomorrow Conference in 2020.
Nicolas created APO Group in 2007 while he was a journalist for online Gabonese media Gabonews and Deputy President of the Pan African Press Organization in France (APPA – Association de la Presse Panafricaine). He founded the company with a savings of €10,000, as start-up capital. The objective was to provide international and African media access to reliable news about the continent’s economy, businesses, and investment. Since then, APO Group has helped communicators relay compelling, uniquely African stories to audiences, enabling a change in the African narrative to a more positive tone.
Nicolas’ success story has been featured on CNN, in Forbes, in Forbes Africa, and on CNBC Africa.
Nicolas enjoys motorcycling and has a Triumph Rocket 3 R and a KTM 890 Adventure R that takes pride of place in his home garage. He is also a proud owner of a “cruzado portugues” show horse.
Prior to founding APO Group in 2007, Nicolas served successively as Deputy-Director of the French regional daily newspaper Le Petit Journal, Director of FNSEA farmer’s Union in Tarn-et-Garonne (France), parliamentary assistant at the French parliament (Assemblée France), correspondent in Europe of the Gabonese press agency, Gabonews, and Deputy-President of the Panafrican Press Association in France (APPA). Pompigne-Mognard studied law at the Université de Lille (France), and speaks English and French. He is married with three children and lives in Lisbon, Portugal.
NICOLAS AT A GLANCE
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