Edouard Burrus is an entrepreneur and operator who has spent more than twenty years buying companies that most people had given up on, and putting them back on their feet. His path runs through corporate finance, private equity, and the kind of hands-on operating work that only happens when your own capital is in the deal.
He bought into Borsalino, the Italian hat house founded in 1857, when it was losing money and drifting without direction. He served as Vice Chairman and helped redesign the company from the inside — the balance sheet, the organisation, the brand, the U.S. business. The company returned to profit and more than doubled its revenue.
He then acquired the assets of Fogal of Switzerland, the century-old Swiss hosiery maison, out of bankruptcy. As Executive Chairman, he rebuilt the company from the ground up — product, retail network, brand, and a deliberate push back into the United States — through what turned out to be the most difficult few years modern retail has lived through. Revenue eventually reached roughly three times the pre-bankruptcy baseline.
Those investments were originated and held through OctoFox Participations (formerly La Praly SA), the Paris-based vehicle he has chaired since 2013. OctoFox — founded in Miami in February 2026 — is the next chapter: the same operator-led approach, brought to the United States, focused on heritage brands and founder-led businesses where a hands-on owner at the helm can recover the value the market has stopped pricing in.
He holds a Master's degree in Strategy and International Business Engineering from ESSEC Business School (Paris & Singapore) and a Bachelor's degree from Northeastern University in Boston. He is a native French speaker, fluent in English, with working knowledge of Italian and Spanish.
