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Nicole Junkermann
Nicole Junkermann is a German entrepreneur, investor and former model. She founded the investment companies United in Sports and NJF Capital. She was also involved in developing the companies Winamax and Infront Sports & Media. Junkermann is the current director of AI start-up Owkin and an advisor to Trilantic Capital Europe. BiographyNicole Junkermann is the daughter of Heinz and Ingrid Junkermann. Her father Heinz Junkermann, born in 1928 in Frankfurt am Main, owned several companies. He founded a jewelry store (Schmuck-Kassette GmbH), a real estate company (IFG Gesellschaft für Immobilienbesitz) and a private bank for wealthy clients. He took his daughter with him to business meetings when she was 12 in order to prepare her for her future career.[1] Junkermann grew up in Marbella, Spain[2][3] and studied business administration and management at the International University of Monaco (1998) and Harvard Business School. Junkermann was involved in founding the online gaming company Winamax in 1999 and later worked as an assistant to the managing director of the French telecommunications company Neuf Cegetel. From 2002, she worked with Robert Louis-Dreyfus to establish the sports marketing company Infront Sports & Media, which, among other things, acquired the television rights to the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.[4][5] Philippe Blatter, a nephew of former FIFA President Sepp Blatter, was president and CEO. Infront was sold to private equity firm Bridgepoint Capital in 2011 for a sum of 650 million euros.[3] In 2005, she founded the private equity firm United in Sports, which makes investments in the media and sports sectors and has a volume of around 250 million euros.[6] United in Sports and Junkermann's name appeared in the Panama Papers published in 2016 as clients of the law firm Mossack Fonseca.[7] In 2012, Junkermann founded the investment company NJF Holdings, whose subsidiary NJF Capital has invested in over 30 different start-up companies as a venture capital provider.[8] Its investments include SpaceX, Revolut and various companies in the biotechnology and AI space.[9] In making her investments, Junkermann has worked with personalities such as Peter Thiel and Eric Schmidt.[3] Junkermann was appointed to the Healthtech Advisory Board by the British secretary of state for health, Matt Hancock, in 2018. The board advises the British Department of Health and the NHS on the introduction of modern technologies such as AI and big data in healthcare.[5][10] In 2024, Junkermann was also the director of Owkin, a start-up that uses AI for drug development and diagnostics, and an advisor to Trilantic Capital Europe, in addition to her work as an investor.[6] Personal lifeJunkermann married the Italian entrepreneur Ferdinando Brachetti Peretti in 2017. He was previously married to the fashion designer Princess Mafalda of Hesse and his family controls the oil company Gruppo API.[3] She is the mother of a daughter.[5] Junkermann speaks six languages.[11] As of 2018, she lived in South Kensington, London and often travels.[5] She is a fan of the football club Real Madrid.[3] She is a member of the Tate Americas Foundation Latin American Acquisitions Committee, which supports artists in Latin America. In 2023, she became a trustee of the Royal Society of Arts[12] and in 2024 a trustee of the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.[6] Relationship with Jeffrey EpsteinIn the 1990s, Junkermann was a model and was represented by the modeling agency Elite Model Management. She was also an acquaintance of investor and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and flew with him several times on his private jet. Allegedly, she accompanied older, wealthy men to social events and is also said to have met with two US senators in 2002.[13] Junkermann later invested in the Israeli start-up Carbyne911,[14] in which Epstein also invested, and sat on the company's board of directors with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak.[15] References
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