Daniel Borel (born 14 February 1950 [1] ) is a Swiss [2] businessman and co-founder of technology firm Logitech.
In 1973, Daniel Borel earned an engineering degree in Physics from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, and in 1977 received a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from Stanford University. [1] [3] He returned to Switzerland the same year. [4]
Borel co-founded Logitech at his father-in-law's farm in 1981 with Pierluigi Zappacosta and Giacomo Marini. [5] He served as Logitech's Chairman 1982 to 2008, and served as the company's CEO from 1982 to 1988, [2] [3] and again from 1992 to 1998. [2] In 1988, he took the Logitech Group public on the Swiss stock market, [5] [6] and on the Nasdaq in 1997. [3] He is currently serving as Chairman Emeritus on Logitech's board of directors. [2] [7] [8]
Borel was a member of the Nestlé Board of Directors from 2004 to 2016. [2] [9] He also serves on the board of Defitech, [2] founded by him and his wife in 2001, [7] a foundation that brings IT technology to disabled people. In addition, he founded [10] and is chairman of swissUP, [2] a foundation dedicated to promoting education in Switzerland.
In September 2010, Borel, a supporter of the collaboration of Logitech and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, opened the Daniel Borel Innovation Center on the campus of the university's "Quartier de l'Innovation". [11]
In 2019, Borel participated in a fundraising campaign for Unibuddy, [12] [13] a London-based peer-to-peer EdTech platform founded in 2016 by Kimeshan Naidoo [14] and Diego Fanara. Unibuddy raised a total of $5 million in its Series A investment round. [15] [16] Since then, Borel has continued to invest in further Unibuddy funding rounds and the company has raised $32 million to date including a $20 million Series B round in 2021. [17]
Borel is married, has three children and seven grandchildren. [18]