Golden Falcon Acquisition Corp.

05/08/2023
02/23/2023
12/06/2022

About Us

Golden Falcon Acquisition Corp. (Golden Falcon) is a special purpose acquisition company that offers an attractive path for a company to access the public markets in the US, while benefiting from the financial, operational and industry expertise of Golden Falcon’s Management, Board of Directors and Strategic Advisory Group.

Our Management’s combined experience includes over 100 years of investment banking, private equity and executive management experience and over 230 transactions with an aggregate value of over $450 billion across key global markets. We have a strong track record of investing in and operating across different sectors. We bring a transatlantic network of strong relationships with entrepreneurs, family-owned businesses, large corporations, sovereign wealth funds, private equity, venture capital and asset management firms to help finance, support and grow our business combination partner.

In addition, our Board Members and Strategic Advisory Group bring extensive expertise in operating, financing and investing across different sectors. They have held leadership positions with world-class organizations, where they established a proven track record of creating shareholder value, organically as well as through transformational transactions. They will add value to our business combination partner by assisting with international expansion, capital raising and access to new markets or business lines.

Golden Falcon seeks to invest in a growth-oriented, public-ready company with strong business fundamentals, outstanding management, in a sector with robust secular tailwinds. We intend to primarily focus on companies headquartered in Europe, Israel and the Middle East with a US nexus and international reach.




Press Releases

SEC Filings

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Our Team

Makram Azar, Chief Executive Officer

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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. 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. From January 2019 to January 2021, he 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, Chairman and Presiding Director

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Scott J. Freidheim, Chairman of our board of directors and presiding director, is the Managing Partner at Freidheim Capital, an investment family office. Previously, Mr. Freidheim served as Co-Chairman of the board of ettain group, a talent solutions company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. 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, Chief Financial Officer

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Eli Muraidekh, our Chief Financial Officer and a member of our board of directors, has over 30 years of investment experience in multiple asset classes, including real estate, private equities, public equities and credit opportunities. While serving as the Investment Manager at Windmill Hill Asset Management, Mr. Muraidekh managed the assets of the philanthropic foundations of Lord Jacob Rothschild. He invested across multiple asset classes globally, and his five year track record (2009-2014) ranks in the top five percentile of over 400 endowments tracked by Cambridge Associates. Before that, 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.

Douglas Berkman, Vice President

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Douglas Berkman is a Vice President at Full Circle Capital Limited. Prior to joining Full Circle Capital, Mr. Berkman spent more than 4 years at Goldman Sachs in the Merchant Banking Division and the Special Situations Group in both the United States and Europe. While at Goldman Sachs he worked on over $1.5bn in debt and equity investments in companies operating in the United States, Latin America, and Europe across a variety of sectors, including technology, telecom, healthcare, and more. Mr. Berkman graduated from the University of Texas Business Honors Program, cum laude, where he majored in Finance and minored in Accounting.

Our Board

Xavier Rolet

Xavier Rolet, KBE has served on our Board as an independent director since the closing of our IPO. 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 and Chief Executive Officer of World Quantum Growth Acquisition Corp., a member of the Columbia Business School Board, a member of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul), an External Director – Portfolio Companies of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), an independent director and advisor to the CEO of KM Dastur Ltd., an Indian Insurance and Reinsurance Company, 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 in management science and finance 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

Dominique D’Hinnin has served on our Board as an independent director since the closing of our IPO. Since 2017, Mr. D’Hinnin has been chairman of the board of EUTELSAT Communications, a French satellite service company. 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., 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 is also a board member of EDENRED, a French corporate services company, Vantiva, a French technology company, and Louis Delhaize SA, a Belgium private retail group. Mr. D’Hinnin was formerly a board member of PRISA, the world’s Spanish and Portuguese media group, and 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. 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.

I. Martin Pompadur

I. Martin Pompadur has served on our Board as an independent director since the closing of our IPO. Mr. Pompadur is currently an investor and advisor to various companies, and a board member of Nexstar Media Group, Inc., Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, Inc., and Troika Media Group all of which are 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 June 1998 to November 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 April 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 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

Isabelle Amiel Azoulai has served on our Board as an independent director since the closing of our IPO. Ms. Azoulai is Founder and Managing Partner of Sienna Venture Capital. Previously, she was Co-Founder and Managing Partner at La Maison SA, a private equity and venture capital investment group formed in 2014, where she 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. We believe that Ms. Azoulai is well qualified to serve as a director due to her substantial investment experience in growth technology companies in multiple geographic locations.

Mikael Breuer-Weil

Mikael Breuer-Weil has served on our Board as an independent director since the closing of our IPO. 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. Since April 2022, Mr. Breuer-Weil has served as a non- executive director and member of the investment committee of Windmill Hill Asset Management, an investment management organization. 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. We believe that Mr. Breuer-Weil is well qualified to serve as a director due to his wealth of experience in investment management.