Business and Personal Life

Personal Life

In 1996, Yed met his future wife, Elize Versie, during a brief stop-over at Ciaro on a business trip to the Phillipines.

Although neither of them spoke the other’s language, the attraction was instant. Yed later confessed to using his “powers of pursuasion” to woo and court  Elize who at the time was a South African model on an overseas modelling assignment. Yed soon married Elize and had three sons.

Business Career

In 1996 Yed launched YEDCOR International, and a year later visited South Africa for the first time with Elize. Until 1999, YEDCOR had been doing a brisk trade, and to all appurtenances was already a success story. However, the crisis in Cote d’Ivoire made South Africa a natural choice to relocate the Head Office of YEDCOR in June 2000.  Between 2000 and 2007, Yed ran YEDCOR with his wife from Johannesburg, having gained invaluable insight into the mining and agricultural sectors and exploited the myriad untapped opportunities within Africa.

Today YEDCOR International is a dynamic multi-million dollar conglomerate based in Abidjan. The company employs 1500 worldwide, and is reputedly the largest commercial landowner in Cote d’Ivoire and by some estimates is one of the fastest growing companies in West Africa.

According to the YEDCOR website, the company “serves as a catalyst for effective performance of each of its business entities”. As chairman and CEO, Yed has been valuable steward and charismatic influence on his staff who readily attest to his passion for excellence. The company has grown in dramatic spurts since its inception, having started out as a holding operation and diversified into a robust value-added offering to companies, governments, investors, institutions and individuals.

In less than a decade, the company grew into a multi-million dollar holding operation, doing business across a diverse range of sectors. YEDCOR International presently has six companies operating under its holding mantle: viz. YEDCOR Consulting, Yecor Aviation, Geb& Nut, YEDCOR Construction, E-Gazaar, and AfriGalleries.

YEDCOR Consulting

YEDCOR Consulting create linkages and provides investors with the keys to global business success in all facets of pre-investment activities and market entry, business intelligence and due diligence reports. A report recently compiled by PwC on trends within the consulting industry placed YEDCOR on top.

YEDCOR Aviation

As an integrated 3PL company for freight forwarders and private clients, YEDCOR Aviation provides an innovative and multidisciplinary application of aviation knowledge and logistics support to discerning clients.

Geb& Nut

Geb& Nut offers commercial mining and carrier services in West Africa and continues to produce unprecedented results.

YEDCOR Construction

YEDCOR Construction is renowned for creating innovative residential and mixed use commercial and industrial developments in all major African markets. The company claims to have introducing a new realm of luxury living in West Africa.

E-Gazaar

E-Gazaar offers a bouquet of products and services including interior design consulting, home décor and furniture, events coordination and complementing cleaning services as well as an exclusive wine boutique.

Afrigalleries

Afrigalleries collects Africa’s mythological and ritual art, and distributes these masterpieces to museums and galleries throughout the world.

Philanthropy

Yed is a Protestant Methodist known for his generous acts of philanthropy to both church and communities. Both his parents are devout Christians involved in the daily life of their church and community. Yed’s father was a team leader in translating the Bible into Abidji (a local dialect).

Yed has through his many philanthropic endeavours built a church in his home village as well as other churches in Cote d’Ivoire and given special donations to woman’s groups and orphans. He has also built an access bridge in Guinea for a local village.

Politics

Because of his circle of political influence, one of the enduring myths that have courted Yed is his association with the elusive sect known as the Illuminate. Yed has dismissed as “totally fallacious” the allegation, claiming that he is “a Christian and will remain one”.

Yed’s political influence extends beyond the borders of South Africa and Cote d’Ivoire to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Dubai and Oman among others, which is why a deluge of companies globally have sought his personal expertise, privately and through his company, YEDCOR Consulting.

His most notable aphorism is that, “Politics is the art of promising and business is the art of delivering.”According to Yed, “Politicians get paid but business people live off what they create.”

In Recent Years

Now in his mid-forties, Yed divides his time between South Africa and Cote d‘Ivoire.  His companies are on firm ground, having entrenched their positions in the African and global market. According to Yed, Yecor International is perfectly poised for continuous growth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Desnos Toussaint Yed – Synopsis

African businessman and philanthropist Desnos Toussaint Yed was born on 1 November 1968 in Becede in the province of Sikensi in the Ivory Coast.

Demonstrating a knack for entrepreneurship as a student in the mid-1980s, Yed was supplementing his income running a lucrative games arcade to ease the financial burden on his parents. 

Yed later started the firm Yecor International in 1997, with huge success. In the aftermath of the Ivorian political crisis, in June 2000, Yed announced the relocation of his head office to Johannesburg, South Africa.

Best Known For

Known as one of the wealthiest and most respected Ivorian businessmen, an art collector and philanthropist, Desnos T. Yed is Chairman and President of YEDCOR International, Chairman of the company’s mining, carrier and agricultural division Geb & Nut, and a board member of Desnos T. Yed Organisation.

Early Life

Born Desnos Toussaint Yed on November 1, 1968, in Becede, a village in the southern Ivorian province of Sikensi, Yed’s father, Atenou Yed Andre, worked as a teacher and later a professor.

His mother,  Adele Assa Yed (nee Edjeme Assa Adele), grew up in a relatively privileged household where her father was famously once received as a guest in the home of Cote d’Ivoire’s president Houphouet Boigny during the country’s post-independence campaign in 1960. Adele also started out as a teacher before becoming a social education worker. Yed was the third of five children.

Yed demonstrated an entrepreneurial nous for financial and business matters early on in his adult life when as a student he started a lucrative games arcade to supplement his meagre income.

Friends and family have said the young student displayed a natural entrepreneurial instinct and tenacity, and was able to spot opportunities – a talent he eventually turned into a thriving African business venture with global ambitions.

Yed began his education in Abidjan and Daloa in west central Cote d’Ivoire, where his father had been transferred for five years.

At age 14, Yed returned to Abidjan after a difficult stint in primary school, where he candidly admits he “was not a very bright student”.

Even as a child, Yed displayed an unusual interest in the social value of money – an exemplary quality he attributes to his grandfather, Atenou Yed Pierre, who at the time was one of the biggest cocoa producers in the Sikensi region. Yed’s interest in business dated to his childhood, to the days he spent listening to his grandfather’s philanthropic wisdom and business counsel during school holidays.

Higher Education

After moving to Daloa, Yed finished high school and set his sights on university where planned to study Political Science.

Yed entered college in France in 1985. He studied there for three years before graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.

His student life in France, particularly in the social and cultural realm, exposed Yed to conversations and ideas which he successfully assimilated into his goals and ambitions and earned him the sobriquet, “philanthropist” – a character trait he describes as “the best of both civilisations”.

First Entrepreneurial Venture

As a student in his late teens and early twenties, Yed was running a thriving games arcade and working as a waiter on the Cote d’Azur during the holidays. The success of the business, combined with his aversion of academia, convinced him that a career in business was the best route to financial self-sufficiency and personal success.

After completing of his undergraduate studies, Yed moved back to Cote d’Ivoire in 1995 to be closer to his roots. His return to Cote d’Ivoire after a ten-year stint in France was an uneasy process of acclimatisation and adaption to onerous conditions. Bristling with youthful exuberance, ambition and vision at age 25, the young Yed began the next stage of his entrepreneurial journey.

Using what he had learnt from his grandfather and his stint in France, Yed felt confident enough to launch his first business venture, Imtradex & Partners, in 1996. The trading company was stragically positioned to exploit a lucrative opportunity in the Ivorian market, exporting tropical fruits to Europe. However, the modest success of the business was a side investment for Yed, who felt he needed a bolder game plan. He later cited his first investment as a learning curve in a business career that evolved into Morgan Brothers which specialised in mergers and acquisitions.