Yvan Chardonnens

Yvan Chardonnens, CEO of Standing Ovation

 

Yvan Chardonnens, 55, is the Chief Executive Officer of Standing Ovation, a leading innovative French company in the precision fermentation field, since 2024. A seasoned executive, he specializes in transformation strategies for growing B2B companies. In an international career spanning almost three decades, Yvan has helped accelerate the performance and drive the growth of global companies in a variety of industries. 

 

Born in Switzerland, Yvan has held various management positions in Europe, Asia and the United States. Among his notable experiences, he worked for Firmenich, the Swiss fragrance and flavor giant (1995-1999). Between 1999 and 2011, he worked at International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), a world leader in innovative fragrances and flavors, where he managed various global categories for Unilever in Europe and Asia. He then pursued his career in the agri-food sector, joining Barry Callebault, world leader in Chocolate from 2011 to 2017, then became Asia CEO for Roquette, world reference in plant-based ingredients from 2017 to 2022. Before joining Standing Ovation, he was Chief Commercial Officer at Oterra, an EQT-owned company and the world's largest supplier of natural colorants for the food industry.

 

Recognized as a pioneer in the development of new products and consumer segmentation models, Yvan has successfully managed to enhance market responsiveness and respond to ever-changing consumer demands. He promotes open communication and collaboration between different business units to break down silos and align organizational goals.

 

In 2024, he moved to Paris to become CEO of Standing Ovation, co-founded four years earlier by Romain Chayot. A member of the first class of the FrenchTech 2030 Program, Standing Ovation has developed a patented process for producing casein, a flagship protein of the dairy industry, through precision fermentation. Its lactose-free, animal-free impactful casein massively reduces greenhouse gas emissions (by up to 94%), while retaining all the functional, nutritional and organoleptic qualities of the animal-derived protein. Standing Ovation provides a sustainable and innovative solution to the challenges faced by dairy manufacturers who need to transform their products and diversify their raw material supplies to reach sustainable development and food sovereignty objectives.

 

To date, the company has raised €16 million (€12 million in 2022 in a Series A and €4 million in 2024 in an extension of the Series A). Both rounds were led by the Astanor Ventures fund, with participation from Peakbridge, Seventure, Big Idea Ventures, Good Startup and the Bel industrial group, and Standing Ovation benefits from substantial support from the BPI, France's public investment bank. Standing Ovation plans to market its product on the U.S. market starting 2025.

 

Yvan Chardonnens joined Standing Ovation to scale-up the company by launching a Series B funding round, acquiring its first industrial production units and distributing its products worldwide.