Dominique Senequier

As a child, Dominique Senequier aspired to a music career. By the time she was a teenager, her ambitions had changed: In 1972, she was one of the first seven women admitted to France’s École Polytechnique, the famed science and engineering institute. In 1996, she created AXA’s private equity arm and later led its management buyout in 2013, to form Ardian. Today, Senequier remains as the sole surviving member of Ardian’s founding team and steers one of Europe’s largest private investment houses. Under her leadership, Ardian has raised record-breaking funds and become an employee-controlled company where almost 70% of employees are shareholders. Ardian now manages or advises $177 billion in assets and serves over 1,850 investors worldwide. Unlike her contemporaries at KKR and Blackstone, Senequier has not publicly identified a long-term successor. Senequier splits her time between Paris and New York.