Xavier Niel is the Iliad Group's majority shareholder and founder. He has been involved in the data communications, Internet and telecommunications industry since the late 1980s.nIn 1993, before dedicating himself full-time to developing the Group, he founded Worldnet, the first Internet service provider in France, which was sold to Kaptech (LDCom Group) in December 2000. He has been responsible for the Group's major strategic developments, from the launch of the ANNU service and the development of Internet access services based on France Télécom’s repayment scheme as a financial model to the launch of the Freebox project.