Believing in your dreams and, at least for some, making them become true. I dreamt windows open on the world, letting us listen to the voices of experience. Voices that in their humbleness could be listened to by those who were able to hear their utility. I stopped dreaming and made a book out of it.
PrimiDieci – UK, 2016 by Riccardo Lo Faro © PrimiDieci Society, 2016
Photographs kindly supplied by the PrimiDieci 2016 Awardees, if not otherwise specified on the photo. Translation from Italian to English by: Patricia Ann Wells Graphic layout and editing: Marco Puci, Cantieri Servizi Editoriali Italy Publisher for the Italian Edition: Europa Edizioni
All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author and PrimiDieci Society. Printed in Italy – April 2016
PrimiDieci SOCIETY: WHAT WE DO AND WHY PrimiDieci Society is the elite club of the most successful Italians currently in the USA and the UK. From 2016 onward also other European countries, Asia, Latin America, Oceania. Every year the International Selection Committee of the Society selects the ten most successful individuals in each country. The life stories of the official nominees are celebrated in the annual PrimiDieci Book with which nominees are awarded during the Annual Awards Gala. The aim of PrimiDieci Society is to share with the world the outstanding accomplishments of Italians who have been successful abroad. The Society’s vision is to create a legacy that will educate and inspire the next generation of young leaders today to benefit the global community of tomorrow. Through the Under40 Section, the Society’s Awardees and Advisory Board members are encouraged to share their valuable insights and professional expertise to benefit the young, talented individuals, members of PrimiDieci-Under40. Regular professional gatherings with U40 members, including targeted face-to-face consultations, social and business functions, seminars, think-tanks and an annual international forum are much valued highlights of PrimiDieci Society’s activities. PrimiDieci Society and its annual books are cultural and editorial initiatives under the official patronage of the Embassy of Italy in Washington, D.C., USA, and the Embassy of Italy in London, U.K.
PrimiDieci Society: an international collective of exceptional individuals
by Riccardo Lo Faro
This initiative was established in the United States in 2011 as a result of several years during which I had the opportunity to come across a great variety of Italians and Italian-Americans with extraordinary human and professional qualities. People who have and keep on engaging me to write their biography, their memories, in the form of a ghost-writing. That is because my ‘real’ work is precisely that of a ghostwriter, the person who listens to you, collects your memories, your dreams, your gratifications, your missed opportunities, the love for your family, your professional experiences, the goals you are still working on, and of all these makes books. Books where by contract my name never appears, something that gives me a certain kind of satisfaction. Evidently my ego does not dominate over the strength of my pleasure to see those stories published, however, read by an audience that might be inwardly enriched. Because this is what it’s all about, the meaning that is the foundation of PrimiDieci Society: Offering an editorial tool that can somehow be useful both to young people looking for inspiration and to adults who are humble enough to always look for a confrontation in order to keep improving themselves. But not only. PrimiDieci Society is committed to heightening the global awareness of the contribution made by leading Italians in foreign countries. Underlying the initiative is the strong desire to raise awareness about the people who offer an essential contribution in an amazing variety of areas to the country where they currently live and work. Sectors such as science, economics, culture in all its forms, design, medicine, industry, justice, and many others. My original intention was to simply have an annual book where I collected the life stories and professional achievements of the most successful Italians and Italian-Americans currently living and working in the US, but this soon became so praised that it has also become an annual Awards Gala in Manhattan, New York. Thanks to Claudio Bozzo’s insight skill, at the time CEO for the US of Mediterranean Shipping Company and President of the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce for two terms, the initiative took a far more prestigious format. Not only he fully supported our mission by providing us with their historical annual Gala to present the Awardees, but he also got the IACC financially involved supporting the costs of an equivalent edition of the annual PrimiDieci USA, this one dedicated to young Italian professionals in the USA under 40 years of age: “PrimiDieci USA - under40”. Nowadays PrimiDieci USA is a commitment that we have been carrying out for 5 years, with the publishing of the annual books and the presentation of 10 Awardees each year at the Gala Dinner of the IACC in New
York. In 2014 it was lucky enough also to meet the interest in the UK, thanks to the involvement of Benito Fiore, Chairman Eni and Montedison from the ‘70s to the ‘90s for Canada, USA, UK and Director of A.T. Kearney in London until 2016. Thanks to his passionate involvement PrimiDieci - UK was founded and today, with this first edition we are celebrating the ten most remarkable Italians who in the UK (and not only) have been and still are being greatly successful, both as professionals and as human beings. Outstanding individuals, all demonstratively grateful to life for the success they’ve achieved and then all in their own way devoted to various forms of giving-back. Men and women with incredible courage in current times and long gone-by, either natives or those who abandoned the customs and systems in their homeland and completely adapted and dedicated themselves to the efficiency, meritocracy, personal and professional honesty, respect and giving back: all the features of a system that works and rewards, as it has rewarded each of them. It rewards with a life that is of a better moral, economic and quality level. PrimiDieci Society was founded as a non-profit cultural institution (“CIIE - The Cultural Institution of Italian Excellence) and the work of these years has been supported financially only thanks to the economic contribution of the founders, myself and Alessia Pertosa, as well as the annual contribution of the Benefactors, and of the occasional participation of sponsoring companies in the events that we organize. The financial commitment that has enabled us to achieve to date the US annual editions and the launch of the UK edition with any related initiative, books, and Awards Gala in London, has been immense. The contribution of the Sponsors and benefactors, although vital, covered not more than 50 to 60% of the costs. Is it foolish to keep it going? Probably just a little bit. But it is a foolishness that makes us feel good in the soul even if our pockets are empty, and we will definitely not stop. We won’t until with all the hard work required we will keep on finding, as we have done so far, people who believe in this foolishness, also by helping us financially. Now, while you are reading this book, what is my deepest desire? It is simply hope. I hope it somehow may come of any use to you. Just be open to understand the touching thoughts each 2016 awardee has shared with you in his chapter and, above all, in his/her Letter to the Young. And if you feel, let me know, share with me your opinion. It does count to me, it would certainly contribute to making this initiative grow and better. Grazie!
Riccardo
‘Exporting’ this valuable initiative to London by Benito Fiore
I met Riccardo Lo Faro in 2001 in New York during a convivial event of the Accademia Italiana della Cucina (the Italian Academy of Cuisine), an Italian cultural institution we are both members of. We immediately sympathized and became very good friends. Five years ago Riccardo told me about his ambitious project: to found a non-profit organization in order to enhance the success of the most talented Italians in the USA. This is how “PrimiDieci” was ‘born’ and since then every year a Committee selects the ten finalists. Their life stories, the human value, their professional merits are recounted in the book “PrimiDieci USA” presented to the public during the annual gala evening, organized to celebrate and award the PrimiDieci honorees. Riccardo got me involved in the publication of the first book which took place in 2013 in New York, subsequently followed by the 2014 and 2015 editions. We soon began sharing the same idea: ‘exporting’ this valuable initiative to London, the other great city where many Italians have been able to enhance their talent with outstanding success in all professional sectors. In order to develop the initiative in the United Kingdom Riccardo required my involvement and offered me the role of Chairman UK, honorary assignment I gladly accepted being convinced of the relevance of the project. And here we are at the launch of the first edition in the UK. The Selection Committee of the UK, under the chairmanship of Ambassador Pasquale Terracciano, in 2016 proceeded to the selection of PrimiDieci UK and the book will be presented on May 3rd at the Awards Gala Dinner that will be held in the elegant BAFTA Piccadilly 195. Many Italians stand out for their great genius and talent in the UK, which assures us a long sequel of this project. An aspect that makes me personally very happy, having chosen London as my adopted city (I have lived here for 28 years)! I therefore wish a long life to PrimiDieci UK! Benito Fiore, PrimiDieci Society Chairman UK
A book that is nothing but a chance by Alessia Pertosa
PrimiDieci is a dream that gives us the strength, will and courage to believe in what is truly important to us: our identity. PrimiDieci gives a voice and a face to the amazing personalities who represent Italy in the United States and throughout the world. One of our main objectives is to make Italy’s rich human resources known, resources that are not often recognized “at home,� but which become extraordinarily evident in the foreign countries these people choose to live and work in. Amazing Italians who are not looking for fame, but only to do what they are good at. Personalities that the PrimiDieci Society will join together as though part of a club which is at the same time exclusive, yet open amongst them for spreading new joint initiatives, ideas, proposals, conventions and, most importantly, open to young people. PrimiDieci is therefore a reference point, a window into the current excellence of our Italians here in the United States and throughout the world, but it is also a chance. It is an opportunity for young, talented Italians to have exceptional and courageous examples to follow; role models who open up their eyes and allow them to see the light at the end of the tunnel of mediocrity and impotence that the Italian system often traps them in. For next year and the years to come, it will be the young Italians to whom our initiative will offer an essential tool: creating a link between the people chosen as PrimiDieci each year and the talented youths in Italy. The PrimiDieci honoree will become a concrete and direct role model that the young Italian will be able get close to and intern with. Telling the stories of people being honored abroad is the passionate work of Riccardo Lo Faro, my husband! With an entirely sincere respect, I recognize him as an extremely joyous and positive person, always reaching out to others and having a strong sensibility that allows him to find the most hidden sides of whomever he encounters. He has a long experience working as a biographer-ghostwriter, which has always been characterized by an innate aptitude to describe people and places with acumen and expressiveness, as well as rare and amusing analytical abilities. I find his greatest gifts to be the way he writes and describes feeling, events, people, and he does it by creating images. When you read his writing you have the sensation of being able to see what it is you are reading, as though right before your eyes the words are transforming into frames that create a scene from a movie.
PrimiDieci Society and the cultural-editorial initiatives that are part of it are the result of a long work that all of us are very passionate about; a work with which Riccardo’s pen gave a face to a truth that deserves every honor. Not so much for self-glorification as Italians, but certainly to make known to our current and future generations the people who, with their courage more than any other quality, represent us and bring us honor throughout the world. Alessia Pertosa Co-founder, PrimiDieci Society Editor-in-Chief, PrimiDieci Books
Saclà Italia & PrimiDieci Society We wish to thank Saclà Italia for supporting PrimiDieci Society’s cultural and editorial initiative “PrimiDieci 2016”, in the USA and in the UK.
Saclà Italia’s support is greatly appreciated as it benefits PrimiDieci Society’s mission in celebrating Italian excellence in the United States of America and in the United Kingdom.
Index PrimiDieci Society: an international collective of exceptional individuals Foreword by Riccardo Lo Faro PrimiDieci Society, Founder and Author 4 ‘Exporting’ this valuable initiative to London Foreword by Benito Fiore Chairman UK 6 A book that is nothing but a chance Foreword by Alessia Pertosa PrimiDieci Society, Editor-in-Chief 7 Chapter 1: Simonetta Agnello Hornby Novelist, Lawyer 15 Chapter 2: Vittorio Colao CEO, Vodafone Group 29 Chapter 3: Andrea Ferrari Director, Cambridge Graphene Centre 43 Chapter 4: Toni Mascolo Chairman/Chief executive & Co-founder, Toni&Guy
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Chapter 5: Antonio Pappano Music Director, The Royal Opera House
73
Chapter 6: Stefano Pessina & Ornella Barra Executive Vice Chairman and CEO / Executive Vice President, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. 87 Chapter 7: Greta Scacchi Actress 109 Chapter 8: Massimo Tosato Executive Vice Chairman, Schroders 123 Chapter 9: Francesco Vanni d’Archirafi CEO, CITI Holdings 139 Chapter 10: Riccardo Zacconi Co-founder & CEO, King Digital Entertainment
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PrimiDieci 2016, the Author 163 Acknowledgements 164
Under the Official Patronage of the Embassy of Italy in the UK and in the USA
PrimiDieci Society proudly present “PrimiDieci UK 2016” THE TEN MOST SUCCESSFUL ITALIANS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM TODAY
Simonetta Agnello Hornby
Novelist, Lawyer
Vittorio Colao
CEO
Vodafone Group
Andrea Ferrari
Director
Cambridge Graphene Centre
Toni Mascolo
Chairman/Chief executive & Co-founder
Toni&Guy
Antonio Pappano
Music Director
The Royal Opera House
Stefano Pessina & Ornella Barra Executive Vice Chairman/Ex. Vice President Alliance Walgreens Boots Greta Scacchi
Actress
Massimo Tosato
Executive Vice Chairman
Schroders
Francesco Vanni d’Archirafi
CEO
CITI Holdings
Riccardo Zacconi
Co-founder & CEO
King Digital Entertainment
please note: PrimiDieci is not a contest: there is no 1st and there is no 10th. Awardees are simply listed in alphabetical order.
Simonetta Agnello Hornby Lawyer, Author •
Born in Palermo she moved to England in 1970
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Graduated in law in Italy.
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She specializes in juvenile law and becomes judge of the juvenile tribunal.
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In 1979 she founded the law firm Hornby and Levy specialized in family and juvenile right.
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In 1997 Hornby and Levy publishes the book “The Caribbean Children’s Law Project”, about juvenile rights and structures, so far the only work of this kind in the world.
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She was professor of juvenile right at the University of Leicester.
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Part time chairwoman of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal.
•
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In 2000 she starts writing novels, to date all bestsellers translated in many languages: “La Mennulara”, “The marquise aunt”, “Boccamurata”, “Split wind”, “The nun”, “The cuisine of good taste”, “The poison of the oleander”. She has also published “Darkroom”, “A little bit of olive oil”, “The Easter sheep” (with Chiara Agnello), “Slow Food”, “The cuisine of good taste”, “The evil that you have to tell”, “In order to cancel domestic violence”, “Via XX Settembre”, “My London”, “Moses’ lunch”. Since 2012 she has been collaborating with the Global Foundation for the Elimination of Domestic Violence, which operates in Italy through its subsidiary EDV Italy.
SIMONETTA AGNELLO HORNBY Author by chance, lawyer of the needy for belief.
It was drizzling, that light and thick drizzle typical of London. That autumn morning, as I walked up and down the residential street with many three floor beautiful houses, all in a row and all with their own gate, cars neatly parked in front, and no barking dog as if they did not want to disturb the silence, I simply was not able to find Agnello Hornby’s house. Yet it was there, the first one on the corner, the neatest one and in order to realize I had to ask a passer-by. And who does not know the juvenile law attorney who defends the most disadvantaged families, the most desperate women, the most impossible family situations, the most unfortunate. I knew even before seeing her face that I would have met a genuine person, I had studied her, I had read a lot about her and, and once I got in the welcoming turned out to be even warmer than all expectations. In the sense that if I imagined a strong, forthright woman, the Simonetta Agnello Hornby I saw in front of me was amazingly natural. As if she had known me since birth, she drags me into the kitchen and there she keeps on doing her business and hands me an exquisitely Italian cup of coffee. However she complains, because she explains to me - as though talking to herself – she wants to finish the book she is working but something is missing. She is somehow stuck because when she writes it must be straight off and in those days that straight off was unbarring. We spent our time talking about topics ranging from food, to children, from writing to the weather, and this has been a great opportunity for me to learn more about her personality. As an author of books I find her detached, free, alive of her inner world of true stories and fantasy that she cures in herself and that occasionally she unleashes in particular international bestsellers. Free because she is not contaminated by the market, by the editorial requirements, by the swirl of having to present herself in order to sell her books. No, Simonetta is rebellious also in this, she does not bend to the power of hard cash and even less to the clamor of her own success. Simonetta indeed refuses all that, she keeps away as much as possible from public appearances and that is until the day she falls in love with a man able to present her even better than she would be able to do by herself. It is a professional love, a love between authors and between Sicilians: from the day of that very first sparkle on Simonetta Agnello Hornby only allows Andrea Camilleri to present her books publicly.
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“I listened to him one day during the presentation of a book about himself, a biography written by the author Saverio Lodato. We were at Moses, in Sicily, and I had never gone to a book presentation before, I did not like to and I still do not! They sit on those big stages, all in a row and they use complicated words, they explain aspects of the books so elaborately, so forced at times. That day it was also my mother’s birthday, so together with her and a friend we go to see this presentation and even there great big words. Then Andrea spoke. He spoke like a god, simple, pleasant, I realized that I also had to learn from him if I really had to present my books. I returned home and I said I want Camilleri to present me! From that moment on I only wanted him to present my books. I had never been formally introduced to him before so I decided to write a letter and explain to him how much I wished he could present my books. That’s when all my family immediately started looking for a way to get in touch with him: my sister’s partner, other friends, everyone was saying that somehow they knew him, they could get hold of his address, and make a presentation, but I am like my father, I do not like recommendations. So I called him at home to know if he was there, then I wrote the letter and handed it directly to his house. Two days later he calls me and tells me “I’m always available to support emerging actors.” And he really is, I have seen it on many other occasions. He feels it like a duty, he is of extraordinary generosity. A few days ago I even heard that for a long time he had also been working to support the studies of the children of the region who were poor and that would not have had the chance to. I heard it from others, certainly not from him as he would never tell anybody, he is not that type of person. So, that is how we met and since then he presents all my books and we have also become very good friends. Andrea Camilleri is the greatest Sicilian writer after the war, people do not realize it because they just read “Montalbano”, but from “Brewer of Preston” to his latest book, “On the gray suit” he is a great writer. The tragedy, because that is how I call it, is that the public in general leaves him to “Montalbano”. It is true that, although in recent years we have spoken a lot about him, up to the’ 90s Camilleri was snobbed and this was a real insult to the readers. Then, more or less since 2000 he has been revalued but never in the world of literature: Andrea has a number of honorary degrees from the world, he has also recently received some from Italy, and I was present at the celebration when he received it in Cagliari. He is an amazing writer and I am convinced that he should receive the Nobel Prize because he deserves it, especially for what he did in cultural terms for Sicily. Today he is 90 years old, the great old man, and his thought has a very important value for his literary works. When I say that Andrea Camilleri is the largest Sicilian writer after the war people look at me and say “how can you say that is he greater than Lampedusa, greater than Sciascia, greater than Bufalino?” If you read Camelleri it is not necessary to read all the one hundred and ten books he wrote, ten are enough you will realize he is really the greatest. He writes like a god, with such depth, elegance of language, in short, beautiful! “
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How I Am What I Am
“ I started writing by chance, and not many years ago, it was on September 2nd, 2000,
as you can see I can still remember the date! Before I had never been keen on writing, I wanted to paint, I like painting, something I have never done because I had no time. Until then, I wrote constantly but as a lawyer, I documented the story of my clients, being a juvenile lawyer and having to assist families. I do not limit myself to the technical aspects of law only but I developed real stories in order to describe the context and the events that had brought my clients to find themselves in such situations that they needed to be legally assisted. For example, a few days ago a client contacted me. She is only 16 years old and she is already the mother of three children, including two twin babies. Not knowing what to do, probably she was having a nervous breakdown, she grabs one of the twins and shakes his head and the poor baby becomes mentally incapable. They immediately and rightly take away all the children, but I have to defend her and I have to explain how she got to this point. I have to retrace her life and make people understand the difficulties experienced within her own family, the first pregnancy and the mother who immediately kicks her out of the house, then the second pregnancy with another boy but they had no money, they could not feed the baby who just kept on crying. The partner who was shouting even louder because the child did not let him sleep and threatened her to leave and the baby still would not stop crying. She grabs him and shakes him ... You must not do that, she shouldn’t have done that, and now she is paying for what she has done. And I have to explain the context, I have to explain why she did it, and why she may not do it again. Evidently I was good at writing these stories because I wanted to do it in a simple and clear way, understandable to everybody. According to me the client must be able to understand what is written in his/her deposition, it is a basic duty of justice, it should be understood by ordinary people, not only by lawyers or legal experts.
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I can say that over here, in England, somehow I have educated my court colleagues. As it is usually done, also they used large big words in their depositions and I explained the importance of using such simple language that the client will be able to understand it. If the counterpart asked a complex question to my client I would intervened saying: “Ask my client if he/she has understood.” In short, I made sure they understood how essential this is and today they do it, they are clearer and more understandable in turning to their clients and in writing. My experience as a lawyer in the English courts began after falling in love with an Englishman, when at 17 I came to England to learn the language. I actually wanted to go to Paris but Dad made me come here saying “in England they are all gays therefore my daughter will have no problems.” My boyfriend had a Harkness Fellowship which is among the most prestigious international scholarships and it grants students a sum of money much higher than average, allowing a study stay in the United States with the obligation to remain there for two years, giving you the chance to freely choose the university you want to attend, supporting also the costs of a car to get around in the US, and other benefits, but however promising a two-year commitment to studies. For example in those years Giorgio La Malfa won it, and he studied at Cambridge, the university also my boyfriend was attending. He also obtained this scholarship therefore for the following two years we wouldn’t have been able to see each other because he had to stay there in the United States! So in order to see him while I was in England I enrolled for the Fulbright scholarship. My mother helped me a lot to get it as she declared I loved farming, and that I also wanted to look after the home lands and wanted to go to university in an agricultural area. So eventually I ended up enrolling at the University of Kansas and when I got there they asked me: “Are you interested in the rural law?” and I answered, “no way!” But I always managed to study what was useful to me and at least I was more or less closer to my boyfriend and I experienced what perhaps America really is. I must also say that I was able to understand how much ignorance there was in that area of the country, for example, they thought I was Syrian. They would say, “don’t you cover your head?” “no I am Sicilian! And at home only old women cover their head!”
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Since my teenage and youth I have always had a wonderful relationship with my mother. Her name was Elena and she was a beautiful woman, a saint and she did not realize. Less good with dad but she had a normal behavior, his name was Francesco and he was a man of the past who did not want children, and who did not want to get married. He always brought us up with the idea of not getting married and of not having children and of devoting ourselves as much as possible to work because he could not cope with the idea of not having the chance to work because he was a baron. He was a very bad husband for my mother, constantly unfaithful from the beginning to the end and he also left her many times. But he was also a very interesting man, a good person who believed in particular principles and values. He so much instilled this idea of having to work that all of my family I am the only one who really works. Dad had eleven uncles and a sister and I was the second person in the family who worked and the only woman among all of them. How absurd and useless this story of the aristocracy, parasitic to the extreme. I carried out all my academic studies at home. Until the age of 10, I did not go to school but I stayed at home and I had a teacher who came in the morning for an hour every day. My nanny made me wear a black apron, a white plastic collar and a bow, then they pulled out a desk in the living room, and I was put there at 7:30 in the morning when Miss Gramaglia, that was the teacher’s name, used to walk in. She would leave at 8.30 sharp because she was working at the Provveditorato degli Studi, the School Board of Studies. At the time I did not know what it meant but it was a beautiful name, the ‘Provveditorato degli Studi’ sounded like a wonderful place to me perhaps for what she told me. On 27th of each month she got paid and I remember when that day came she would say “Today is San Paganino!” My education as a child was concentrated in that single hour, from Monday to Saturday, and an hour is enough, it’s quite intense when it is one to one. Since I was not attending any school I had no friends and my nanny, my mother and the domestics used to take care of me; my days were empty because I stayed at home and I got bored, at the most I drew, painted and read so I often secretly slipped into the kitchen to listen to what housekeepers were talking about or to whoever was busy doing something there. It was fun!
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Those were the years of Agrigento, where I spent my first 12 years because my father had a mistress in that town so we could not move. Every afternoon the other children and I used to go to the Temples, we called it The Afternoon at the temples; and we did so with our nanny who was crippled and Hungarian. Both important aspects because she could speak German and make friends among the many Germans that at the time where everywhere, we were unable to play around because she could not run after us so she did her best to keep us still. The German tourists were all around and I deeply hated them because, although I had learned to speak German, in those years we had started to hear those stories about what they had done to the Jews, about the concentration camps, therefore I decided I didn’t want to speak it any longer nor have anything to do with German. No German, no more! But they loved taking pictures of Italian children in the temple using their “Leica” cameras, so they kind of forced me to pose for them and I just could not stand it. When I started working, Dad was very proud of me. But he was not really aware of how I carried out my work and in particular in England. It was already during the first months of my first job when one day he said: “This summer why don’t you come to Moses for a couple of months so we can spend some time together” and I had to answer “dad, I cannot stay so long, Dr Milton allows me to have only two weeks of holiday “ and he said,” but we have always spent our holidays in the country all together, you have to come! “ and I said, “dad I work” and my father “and can’t you explain it to him?” I said, “and how can I do that?” and he said “do not worry, I’ll talk to him.” “Oh no!” I said as I was terrified that the lawyer would allow me to go just because my father had called him from Sicily! However I am very proud of being Sicilian. I was born in the western part of Sicily, because my father’s family was originally from Cefalù and from Palermo. In 1783 a young cadet of the Agnello family, not rich, he married the daughter of a tax collector from western Sicily who was based in Siculiana. Once married he had to go and live in Siculiana, where his wife was, so these are the origins. Also his family had a house in Palermo therefore we know that the Agnello family comes both from Siculiana and from Palermo. My mum’s family instead comes from Favara but then settled in Agrigento. However, my
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definition is that I come from western Sicily, as I was born in Palermo, where I attended high school and college, so I feel palermitana, but I also feel fine everywhere I go in that wonderful land, from Canicattì where my aunts come from, to Agrigento where my mother comes from, to Siculiana, my father’s hometown! As to my nationality, more than Italian I have always said to be Sicilian. Because I am Sicilian and that’s it.
”
Career Milestones Simonetta Agnello Hornby was born and brought up in Palermo. In 1967, soon after graduating in law, she moved to England, married an Englishman, specialized as a juvenile lawyer and became a judge. After that she lived in several foreign countries, first in the US then in Zambia but since 1970 she has lived in London. In 1979 she founded Hornby and Levy, a law firm in the district of the immigrants of Brixton specialized in family and juvenile law. Hornby and Levy was the first law firm in England to create a reserved area to cases of violence within the family. Most of its customers are Caribbeans or black people, and in 1997 Hornby and Levy published a book, The Caribbean Children’s Law Project, which reported the results of a research on children’s rights and on structures for minors carried out by four members of the legal firm in Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados and Guyana. It is still the only work of its kind in the world. She was a professor of Juvenile law at the University of Leicester for eight years and part-time chairwoman of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal. In 2000 she began writing novels and Feltrinelli published “Mennulara”, bestselling debut novel translated into 19 languages which was awarded the “Literary Prize Forte Village” on June
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7th, 2003. Following “The aunt marquise “; “Boccamurata”, “Split Wind”, “The Nun”, “The cuisine of good taste,” “The poison of the oleander”. She also published “Darkroom”, “A little bit of olive oil”, “The Easter sheep” (with Chiara Agnello), “Slow Food”, “The cuisine of good taste”, “The evil that you have to tell,” “In order to cancel domestic violence”, “Via XX Settembre”, “My London”, “Moses’ lunch.” All her books have been bestsellers and have been translated into many languages. She has been devoting herself mainly to writing since 2008 and she has been collaborating with the Global Foundation for the Elimination of Domestic Violence, which operates in Italy through its subsidiary EDV Italy since 2012. In 2014 she conducted the Tv show “Moses’ lunch” on Real Time. In 2015 she starred together with her son George in the docu-reality “George & I”, broadcast on Raitre: a tour from London to Sicily in order to gather information and awareness on the problems related to the disabled. Simonetta has two children, both born in England and George at the age of 30 started suffering from primary progressive multiple sclerosis. Today a man, active, with a deep culture, and a strong relationship with her mother. Intense as perhaps only the Sicilians, native or of origin, are able to have among themselves, “the tour was George’s own idea” the mother explained, “I am proud of my son, he is a very brave man towards life. As we should all be.“ .
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The Letter to the Young by Simonetta Agnello Hornby
F
irst of all a simple concept which is both essential and true: if you want something you can achieve it. If a young man or woman is smart they must be able to adapt to the situations if they believe part of their path.
Developed countries such as Italy and England always talk about unemployment and I honestly speaking find it rather absurd: we can now observe the phenomenon of migrants who are willing to do jobs that the Italians or English do not want to do, yet we are not able to adapt ourselves. The poorer classes both in England and in Italy are not willing to do certain jobs that are still available and useful to the community. It takes acceptance of the opportunities and adaptability. The ideal job does not come from heaven, you must train and then work in every way and direction in order to create your own personal and professional experience so that you can achieve your goal. Then respect. I have always respected other people, or at least I have always tried to. It is the most important thing and we constantly keep on forgetting about it. For example somehow I have always respected my clients and obviously, there are some people I just can’t stand, it would be nice to say they do not exist, but we still have to respect them. I believe “respect” is the most important word in the world, but it is often misused, often very badly. In Sicily, the Mafia says “persona di rispetto” (a person of respect), but this is a bad form of respect! It has nothing to do with the true, sincere respect for the value of another human being that we are asked to feel and show.
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Especially young people, respect is important, as much as the respect that has to be given to nature, we must not pollute it, the respect for food, we must be able to cook it well never abusing it in quantity and in waste, the respect for the others, in the relationships we must have with people, doing whatever is possible to be able to understand their point of view without judging, considering each human being as an entity that deserves the utmost attention. They deserve absolute respect because they have been created - I do not know how ... because I am not religious, but I certainly know that thanks to respect we distinguish ourselves for intelligence, even more than with love. I believe that respect is far more important than love, because love exists thanks to respect, and not vice versa. Love wears us out, and to be honest, although love is passion, beautiful no doubt, wonderful but it ends. Respect, however, will go on.
Simonetta
Vittorio Colao
C.E.O. - Vodafone Group •
CEO of Vodafone, the second largest company in the world in the field of telephony and the first by revenue.
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Present in more than 60 Countries, operates 27 networks.
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More than 110.000 employees
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Partnership agreements in additional 55 Countries.
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446 million customers in three continents, of which 25 million are Italian.
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A turnover of 47 billion pounds.
awards/ honours 21st May 2014: Cavaliere del lavoro – Italy President’s Order for distinguished business and social achievements.
VITTORIO COLAO True celebrities are innovators.
An outstanding negotiator, a manager whose profile is resolutely international, he likes winning and he often does. No doubt Vittorio Colao is a practitioner, able to realize the most daring ambitions, always loyal to the corporate spirit of the group he leads. Just do not call him ambitious. I tried to. Over our long talk I very much insisted on highlighting the greatness of his achievements as CEO of Vodafone, believing they were deep-rooted in that typical desire to stand out for its own sake, in that desire to achieve the highest levels of the career ladder by pure spirit of conquest. A belief that Dr Colao cancelled with a simple smile confiding to me that passion motivates him much more than mere ambition. Passion as the pivotal engine for the pursuit of his goals. Passion that should be instilled to colleagues and employees. And, according to him, without such passion nothing good and lasting can be achieved in the end. This is the Italian man in charge of the Vodafone Group, the second largest company in the world in the field of telephony and the first by revenue, present in 27 countries with 90,000 employees and 446 million customers, of which 25 million are Italian. Appointed in May 2014 Cavaliere del Lavoro by the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano, Colao is internationally known as a manager with very human characteristics: a disconcerting sobriety that during the great negotiations he expresses through skillful patience. Last but not least, his sense of timing, his capacity to enter into great operations at the right moment, as well as his capacity to withdraw, without lacking a little bit of ruthlessness founded in another of his best characteristics, pragmatism. Peace, sense of timing, pragmatism, courage and extraordinary decision-making skill make this distinguished CEO the man who only last year was able to make Vodafone reach revenues of 47 billion pounds.
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Often engaged in charity and in the social, as a spokesperson for Vodafone News (11.11.15) in November 2015 Vittorio Colao publicly stood in favour of the equality of gender, in the front line to support “HeForShe” the campaign promoted by UN Women, the UN organization for gender equality. The purpose of the campaign supported by the Vodafone Group, is the involvement and awareness of men, starting from the employees, the partners and the suppliers, against gender discrimination and violence against women. The Vodafone Group is engaged in achieving the ambitious goal of 100,000 signatures in support of the project of which the first initiative of this campaign, IMPACT 10x10x10, involves 10 CEOs, 10 Heads of State and 10 university rectors with the commitment to promote change in order to be an example for the community of reference. Among these, the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Ir. H. Joko Widodo, the CEOs of Barclays, Unilever and McKinsey & Company (Antony Jenkins, Paul Polman, Dominic Barton), the President of Koç Holding, Mustafa V. Koç, the heads of the universities of Georgetown, John J. DeGioia, Oxford Andrew Hamilton, São Paulo, Marco Antonio Zago and Sciences Po, Frédéric Mion. With such engagement Vodafone aims to achieve by 2020 at least 30% of women among the 7,500 managerial roles, to increase women’s access to the Internet as a business tool and economic independence and promote through technology women’s education in refugee camps in Countries where Vodafone operates. Commitment to humanitarian and social causes of global importance, international financial and business operations, management of thousands of employees, turnovers of billions of pounds, a lot is known and can be known about the professional commitments and about the “numbers” of the company headed by Vittorio Colao, but trying to know him as a person, this is the most difficult task. A person with a sacred discretion, Dr. Colao does not like at all speaking about himself and about his family, a wife and two children with whom he shares valuable time. He does not even like attending London’s most prestigious social environments to which he prefers the precious moments with his family, in his own home in the elegant district of South Kensington. Believing that it makes more sense telling the lives of celebrities, and not those of managers, Dr. Colao has accepted the appointment as “PrimiDieci UK 2016” with some initial resistance. Resistance that later gave way to a very pleasant conversation that offered me the chance to know something more about Vittorio as a man, which is the basis of this publishing initiative. Talking about himself as a person and as a manager is doubtlessly contributing to the value of “PrimiDieci” message addressed to the younger generations.
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How I Am What I Am
“ I’m basically a sportsman, I’ve always liked sports. For me competitiveness, the desire
to win and above all passion, are essential. Sometimes I am asked if I am more driven by ambition or by passion in my profession, and the answer is always the same: passion! I do not recognize the concept of ambition but as for passion a lot, whether it is sports or business. I often tell the young people I talk to, “you must deeply love whatever you do. If you deeply love it you will do it well, and if it is not so sooner or later you will realize that you are not doing it well. Career and success are the consequences of having carried out your job well and with passion. And it is in my profession that I achieved far more excellent results than in sports! As a sportsman in fact I have never achieved particular results, far from, however I have always practiced a lot of them, from football to basketball, from windsurfing to judo and French boxing where I have been beaten but where I have also beaten a lot! Today I mainly devote myself to cycling and skiing, and though often not with great results, always with great passion and consistent with my personality. The discipline learned by practicing sports is very much applied to my job, it is a feature that I believe enriches my ability to work with others and set the basis for success in my job. This is as true as the awareness that in order to achieve something very concrete and useful to others at least three values are essential. First of all the great competence, the strong commitment in mastering, understanding, never stopping at the surface of the facts, the true facts and not what everyone says. The second, even if it has been a little abused is ethics; ethics in terms of clear business relationship principles, because in the long term they shape the reputation and above all they also shape the beauty of proudly leading a business itself. The third is the opening to group development or in teams, the pleasure to realize, to achieve alongside with other colleagues, and the desire to work with young people. A company where these three aspects are maximized is a winning
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company, a company doing well, and the professional who runs it is a successful professional. Limiting yourself to business values, reducing them maybe to one or two, is no longer enough. Successfully managing a business is still a duty and I do not find anything particularly celebratory in doing so successfully. I do not believe in the image of a CEO as a celebrity and that is why I dislike being referred to as a manager who does something exceptional, by simply achieving the company goals. Paradoxically I believe it is far more deserving to start up a company that from nothing hits 100 employees than managing an already existing one. This is a concept I would like to move on to young people but that I realize it is not to be easy to do. For example, we have created what Vodafone Italia is now and that at the time was called Omnitel; in those days, it was quite a challenge because it meant creating where there was nothing. It meant putting together people who previously had no connection, directing investments in commercial proposals and therefore giving birth to something new. But in general, CEOs should not be celebrities, they are simply skillful people, with good competences, real professionals but definitely they should not be considered celebrities. While no doubt celebrities are those who show to be true innovators, those who create discontinuities, the world of research, people who discover new things, those who create new companies; the new authors of great talent, brave publishers with their new books. These are the figures that deserve to be highlighted with appropriate celebrations to draw them to the attention of young people. Encouraging young people and giving them the best example as possible is still one of our duties as managers. As far as I am concerned I often try to be available and inspire courage both to senior colleagues and more junior managers. I push these people, I tell them “go, come on you are almost there, do it, do it...� And sometimes you have to push either one or the other to take steps that maybe they do not want to take or that in that moment they would not like to take due to some kind of reluctance. The role of the leader is also to encourage the team members to step out of their comfort zone and try and test themselves in new areas. In my experience I can say that several people I pushed in these directions are now
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grateful to me and say “thank you, you did the right thing to encourage me.” The same trust and encouragement that was given to me, is right and it is a good thing to offer it to others by doing the same for those in need today. There are people who believe in you by giving you all their trust when you are not completely ready. Those people are those who will allow you to grow, to strengthen your confidence and to express your true skills. Surely I was also lucky to meet such people and I must say they have marked my life forever. First among them was Klaus Esser of Mannesmann when he appointed me CEO of Omnitel. I was not ready or at least that is how I felt but there was a moment of conversation, a two-hour meeting after which he gave me his full trust, assigning me the task. Two other key figures were, in two different moments of my life, Chris Gent, Arun Sarin and John Bond. The former was CEO of Vodafone when I was assigned the whole international business; I clearly told him that I had hardly ever worked abroad and that at the time my experience was mainly in Italy and he said “no, no, you have the right features. You will do very well. “ It clearly was not entirely true, however, he trusted me. The Latter Arun Sarin and John Bond, when they chose me as the successor in charge of global Vodafone, and once again I found myself in the position to say “look I am European, this is a worldwide company but I have mainly worked in Europe” . Same answer, they were convinced I had the suitable characteristics. All people who at the decisive moment think about the famous 70 percent. The concept is that people should be promoted when they are at 70 per cent not 100 per cent, that is, when they do not feel the need to wait. They give you trust ahead of time, so that your dedication is absolutely higher and passion is renewed; therefore you do all your best because you are grateful to them for the trust that you have been given. These were the three key moments of my career in Vodafone where these people have all had an important role in my career path. Encouragement and full trust that were not even lacking during my experience at McKinsey in Milan, well before my career in Vodafone, when the head office himself always largely supported me. All people to whom I constantly feel grateful and that I will not forget.
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A gratitude that first of all is based in the family I come from. Two very serious parents who have instilled a deep sense of duty, the sense of never staying with our arms folded and that every hour of the day is good to do something. A traditional family, very united and very extended, from Calabria on my father’s side, and from Brescia on my mother’s, both strong of a deep sense of family solidarity and sense of duty. A great sense of having to work and having to use the time we have effectively. My father was a Carabinieri officer and then an executive, he died when I was 15, but until then we were always very close. My mother was a very unconventional woman for her years, she spoke 5, 6 languages and she had traveled all around the world, she had friends from all countries because she had been a tour guide and also worked for catholic associations focused on international cooperation. Our house was a seaport with people of all languages and from all places. From an early age my mother always encouraged a lot both me and my brother to think globally, allowing us to quickly learn French and English; it is not by chance that we now both live abroad, he lives in France and I live in England. A very open minded woman, no doubt a pioneer of her time but who was proud of being Italian as much as we were. Although living abroad I consider myself very Italian and I am proud of it, working with a typical Italian pace, still deeply emotional like Italians generally speaking are, joking like Italians do! I am absolutely happy when Italy does well and shows to have valuable people, I am convinced that there is a great deal of valuable people and for this reason I like to be considered Italian in every way. But definitely an Italian man of Europe, who does not like to be called an international manager or a citizen of the world. I am culturally deeply European, and proud of it. I believe the desire to engage myself in a profession where I would have played a managerial role of leadership dates back to my youth. I was little more than a child and when I was asked what I wanted to do when I grew up I at once answered that I would have liked to be “a boss”! At the time I believe I thought to be the boss of a group of kids, then the boss of the football team of which I was actually the captain. Then I thought of becoming a Carabinieri officer and later while approaching the business world I saw myself becoming the boss of this or of that company, at first Italian and, and then international.
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From an early age I liked managing, making decisions, being responsible. Recently a girlfriend of mine from my youth brought me a photograph of me as a kid with above written ‘I will be the leader of the world’ ... So I definitely had important ideas and ambitions that apparently I had also confided to her! Childhood ambitions I somehow pursued and today I feel that my present has to be completely devoted to Vodafone. The idea is therefore to remain committed at a high level and work at least up to my late 60s or whatever it will be, in activities that may be in the social, nonprofit, or even in the public sector but, importantly, keeping meeting interesting people for many more years yet to come.
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Career Milestones CEO of Vodafone since 2008, Vittorio Colao was born in Brescia and graduated at Bocconi University improving his university studies with a Master in Business Administration at the Harvard Business School.. He has always had very clear ideas on his career path, starting from his first foreign experience in the London office of the investment bank Morgan Stanley. He then relocated to Italy to work in the Milan office of McKinsey & Company taking care of the media, technology and communications sectors. In 1996 he was appointed COO of Omnitel Pronto Italia (later Vodafone Italia) and in 1999 managing director of the company. In 2001 he took the position of Vodafone’s regional CEO for Southern Europe. He became member of the group’s board of directors in 2002 and the following year he was appointed Regional CEO for Southern Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Between 2004 and 2006, he was CEO of RCS Media Group and by the end of 2006 he accepted the new position of deputy chief executive of Vodafone, in charge of the European Division. On 29th July 2008 he became Chief Executive of Vodafone Group. In the following years he completed a series of international transactions, selling minorities and resizing Vodafone overseas investments acquired by his predecessors. These include selling a minority stake in China Mobile and the minorities in the French SFR and Polish Polkomtel. Among his most recent deals is the negotiation with Verizon Communications for Verizon Wireless, the largest US mobile operator. In September 2013 Colao manages to close an agreement that no predecessor had ever been able to do before: the sale of Vodafone’s stake in Verizon Wireless (equal to 45%) for 130 billion dollars. Subsequently he invested some of the proceeds in broadband operations in the UK (Cable&Wireless), Germany (Kabel Deutschland), Spain (Ono), invested in fiber in Spain, Italy, Ireland and Portugal, and merged the Dutch company with Ziggo in the Netherlands.
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The Letter to the Young by Vittorio Colao
W
hen I am asked if a young person should be able to choose whether to make experiences “abroad” or not, I promptly answer that today this is a distinction that no longer makes sense. The ItaliaForeign team is a bit something belonging to the past, as now young people are accustomed to to
living and working in so many places. There is the place where you are born, which for us happens to be called Italy, and then there could be a different place to live, and that will be called as it will be called. In short, I believe that concepts such as going abroad, the too often repeated ‘brain drain’, thinking about ‘repatriation’, are all ways to over-dramatize reality. The new generations will have to be able to move around the world struggling less and in a more natural way than what at times we want to describe, and will have to do so regardless of their level of education and of their level of economic opportunities. The best thing that our country can do is on the one hand to create conditions so that young people from all economic and social backgrounds can experience studying and working abroad, and on the other to attract young foreign talents to study and train in Italy. As for improving skills, Italy should simply be more based on the mere criteria of merit, as it happens in every respected country. The biggest problem of Italy is indeed the quality of people and the professional selection criteria, a in all sectors and at all levels. Therefore the drive towards meritocracy should be welcomed in all aspects of life; one can be a cook, a manager, or the director of a museum, and the best thing the system can do is to give all positions to the best ones, the ones who really are the best in that specific job and therefore they deserve it. The more we count on this simple concept the more Italy will rediscover the true return to quality. Dear young people, try to follow the best examples, try to be surrounded by the best ones, aim to be better, try to defeat the world of relationships, of favoritism and fight for a world based on quality and on merit. In Italy as everywhere else. Vittorio
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Andrea Ferrari
Director, Cambridge Graphene Centre •
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Professor of Nanotechnology and Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award Holder. Head of the Nanomaterials and Spectroscopy Group at the University of Cambridge Engineering Department and Nanoscience Centre.
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Professorial Fellow of Pembroke College.
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Chairman of the Executive Board of the Graphene Flagship.
awards/ honours Awarded with the “Royal Society Wolfson Research Holder Merit Award”.
ANDREA FERRARI The one billion euros researcher-manager.
The train station is small, the guys get on and off the wagons pushing their bikes and the taxi taking me to the Graphene Centre has no separating glass between the driver and the passenger. A beautiful harmony that you perceive as soon as you cross the narrow streets of the charming Cambridge and it is hard to see an old face. Boys of every race and color with their books under their arms sitting on stone walls, along the banks of the canal, beneath the Gothic arches or lying on the green lawns of the countless cathedrals express a tranquility and a staggering vitality. Just an hour and a half from London by train and you are in another world, that is what I thought during the ten minutes that took me to the meeting with Professor Ferrari. Just over an hour from London and you are surrounded by the future we already go through is what I thought a little later, while the taxi was driving me to the little station to get back to the British capital. Two strong feelings that in the end bind very well in that community that forms the minds of the future while shaping materials that will upset our present. The meeting with Andrea Ferrari was a revelation because getting to know the man was even more valuable than what it already is to understand the absolute professional relevance, as head of the highly advanced center in Europe on Graphene. He had just landed from a return flight from China, despite struggling with the management of European funds for one billion euros, despite busy following, coordinating and supervising the completion of some laboratory-buildings and completing the already vast research center he manages, Andrea Ferrari was available. A passionate conversation, detailed, and enriched by a long tour of the various departments including all the new university area which he is realizing, the buildings and enormous latest generation laboratories for the research on graphene and other two-dimensional materials. He is pleasant and calm, he succinctly talks about himself yet he knows how to be extremely exhaustive. Wisdom is his most obvious merit, such as to make the learning process of his nanotech world quite alluring even to those who fear him as being enigmatic and incomprehensible. It is a virtually unknown universe to most people
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the one in which Andrea Ferrari has always ranged over and that in recent years he is bringing to the attention of the general public with results that are so exciting as well as shocking. “Guru of Graphene ‘is just one of the many nicknames with which the media often identify this scientist-manager, the man who is working to make life easier for all of us through one of the most interesting new materials in the world. As he describes it “ ‘graphene is the thinnest and strongest material existing, a hundred times stronger than steel, six times more elastic, transparent as glass, a material that can conduct electricity better than copper and an excellent heat conductor. “ Like any other scientist and sectorial researcher worldwide, also Ferrari lives the recent achievements as a new scientific revolution, an innovation which does not fail to recognize the paternity to the professors of the University of Manchester, Nobel Prize winners in 2010 Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov. Among the many practical applications for us mere mortals is its ability to add strength and conductivity to the objects that we use all the time. For example, according to the fact that it has the highest thermal conductivity factor of any other existing material, Graphene has been experimented in the production of working prototypes of mobile phones with flexible touch-screens. Electronic products that will soon not only be lighter and pocket-size, but also “colder”, ie without the need for cooling fans because this “wonder material” as we can often hear it being called disperses heat even better than others. Other definitely innovative applications are those for the safety and power industry, through a new type of sensors that exploit graphene in order to detect terahertz waves. Terahertz are waves able to penetrate luggage, clothes, containers, bags, but also canned goods, packaging and containers of all kinds without any health risk, because based on an electromagnetic radiation of a frequency just above microwaves. New technologies, therefore, essential for example in security checks on passengers replacing body X-ray scanners and in quality controls during industrial processes.
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How I Am What I Am
“ The Flagship was launched on 1st October 2013 as a result of nearly three years of
work and preparation, being a particularly competitive process. One billion euros in 10 years, 100 million euros per year and if it is true that half, i.e. 500 million come directly from the European Commission, the others are from member states and these are more stingy! As you know in these cases raising is much more difficult ... for now therefore we have distributed the first 54 million, we finished allocating the other 89 million on June 18th and last week in Manchester we discussed the first tranche of 12 million euros coming from the member states and then of other tranches that will be arriving in the future. However we are still at the beginning of this process and we are following a clearly defined program for the Graphene Flagship of which I am in charge of the Executive Board and also responsible for the scientific and technological roadmap. We have a research program to be developed over the next 10 years and the funds are distributed according to the competences and to the objectives of each institution that are part of the program. Currently 156 institutions across Europe are participating, in short, a kind of monster, something huge and quite complex to manage. The basis of everything is the research on practical applications and the common use of graphene which is nothing but a simple graphite sheet. Graphite as we all know is used for example in pencils, a material made up of many sheets and each sheet is called graphene. The reason why pencils write is given by the flaking of these sheets that while writing come off. Pencils could not be made using silicon or diamond because the sheet would be pierced by the tip while the particularity of the flaking of graphite makes it a very special material. It is also true that there are more than 500 materials that have the same properties but for some reason science has not studied them in a very rational way for their applications. We know that the particular applications of graphene could have already been developed 50, 30, or 20 years ago but at the time they simply did not carry
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out any research in this area. Today we know that graphene is the first in a new class of materials known as two-dimensional. The main properties of the materials are described in physics in two dimensions and not in three dimensions like we are used to having in the normal world, and it is for these studies in two-dimensional physics that in 2010 the Nobel Prize was awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov. The media keeps on referring to them as those who discovered graphene, but it is not so, they have not discovered graphene! Thanks to practical experiments these brilliant researchers have simply shown that two-dimensional physics lies in graphene. Today, the biggest challenge is trying to take such magnificent properties of this amazing material from the laboratories to the applications for products that operate in the global market. It is relatively easy to make devices in a lab but it becomes much more difficult to make sure they enter the global market, and this is due to the strong financial impact. The development of the product for the market, said development, requires an investment that is 10, 100 times higher than what is necessary for research and, although the first two-dimensional chemical experiments on graphene were carried out in 2004, only in 2008/2010 the industry in the engineering sector was interested in this material and only in 2013 the Flagship started funding reaching 4% of the total to date. In this sense it is important to understand that there is a big difference between software development, like other influential Italians in London have done, and technology development. However, it is almost always the case that determines the discovery. This is true for the results of my research as for those of an infinite number of researchers and scientists before me. If I look at all the research I have done from the beginning, the most important results I achieved were never planned, they have always been achieved randomly, or more or less randomly. I have never started with a written project in order to achieve a certain result, but it has always been the other way, after obtaining something I did the project. The same thing happened with graphene, it was an absolutely random result in the sense that when I got my first university job as a research fellow here in Cambridge, which is the lowest temporary position that one can get at university, I was working on nano-tubes and on nano-wires, and I had no clear idea of the area of research. At that
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time I met an Italian student who had applied to the Department of Material Science and had been a student in Italy together with Alessandro De Vita, a professor who is here in London. In 2002, I decided to bring this student to the department and together we began the research on graphene, quickly achieving very important results, in fact our first publication on graphene dates October 2004. In the same period there was also the first publication on graphene by Geim and Novoselov. So, having published these initial studies on graphene at the same time, one in Cambridge and one in Manchester, we met again in 2005 at a small conference here in England almost no one attended and basically we got to know each other on that occasion. At that point I suggested a couple of experiments that I could carry out here in Cambridge and that were based on spectroscopic aspects I was already studying. So we started with some very simple initial experiments on graphene which I dealt with myself but honestly in those early months of laboratory studies I did not realize how important graphene really was. I kept on going on with my experiments without even publishing them then I attended a conference in the United States with Andre Geim, he made a presentation in a room crowded of people and I was interviewed on graphene and on the results of my research. I noticed the interest of the people in that material so far unknown to most people, therefore that afternoon in the hotel I decided to write an article, a piece that later was found to be one of the most important articles on graphene still today. In short, a series of coincidences, of unexpected and unpredictable events have brought our research to spread the knowledge of graphene on a global scale. Today I am managing a fund of one billion euros and the sense of responsibility is huge. I have always had a strong sense of responsibility in my life, in anything I devoted myself. Maybe other people would live this situation differently, but if I take the responsibility to pursue a certain goal, I want to bring it to the end. I deal with research and at the same time I am also an administrator of a huge fund. Now I find myself with such a great amount of work, mainly administrative, to carry out but it is fine with me, I’m not the kind of man to be a university professor for its own sake, I like to build things, to realize significant projects for the scientific community. For example, I have just finished to build
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an entire building connected to this main University, with dozens of large laboratories all fitted out with high-tech equipment. As a child I always wanted to be a researcher, a scientist. The point is that today, knowing what I know, maybe I am not sure if I would make this type of career because my idea of university life and of doing research was very idealistic. A very wrong idea, actually far from being romantic, because in fact I now spend most of my time dealing with bureaucracy or administration, to raise funds and to invest this money in accordance with the Flagship program. I spend a lot of my time in politics at all levels, from the lowest political level to decide where to place a table, to more committing issues talking about funding, I have to manage people, only in the new building I have got 120 researchers! Therefore my job is not so different from being a manager or somebody similar, unfortunately, the time devoted to research and to the ideal concept of research is very little and this is the truth. An important commitment, perhaps different from my ideal of researcher, but I cannot deny it is greatly gratifying due to the opportunities of research development at least on a European level but also internationally, that I pursue always proud of my being Italian and of my training path at first carried out in Italy. I always studied in Milan, always in the same school, the Collegio San Carlo in Milan, from first grade to the end of high school, and like most people in Milan when you finish high school you go to Bocconi, to the Politecnico or to the Statale. Since I did not want to study medicine the choice was between Bocconi and the Politecnico, actually I wanted to study physics, but I thought if I study physics it will be hard to find a job, therefore I decided to study engineering. I chose nuclear engineering the one closest to physics with a major in mathematics and physics at the Politecnico and when I finished university I simply decided I wanted to keep on doing research. The next step was a doctorate, I could easily do it in Italy without any problem and I would have definitely won the public tender, I was sure about it, but I decided I wanted to go abroad, especially to England. It seemed like being a good option because not so far away as America and Australia and other places, so I simply sent a few emails, I wrote to Cambridge, and within two or three
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weeks I was offered a scholarship to come here. In the meantime I had also enrolled in the PhD program in Italy but having obtained this position I did not even take the exam. I came to the UK in October 1997 and I have lived here ever since. I am Italian and proud of it, and my studies in Italy were certainly important at the beginning because the preparation given by the Italian universities at the time and hopefully still today is definitely better than what you can get in England. The problem in Italy is related to the PhD, and to research because this is when you have to encounter different issues, even if nowadays it is not the same everywhere, as in the case of international realities such as the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia of Genova. The main problem is probably the matter related to that typical culture, let’s say, old or conservative for which the student, the young researcher is subject to conditions and sometimes strong discomfort against professors and researchers. It is based on a very pyramidal setting in relation to what it is like here in Britain and in other countries, and certainly it does not properly prepare the students, besides limiting their possibilties to freely choose their training path and to grow as future researchers. Here in England there is definitely a chance to be independent and to make decisions in a less dependent way from others, less than what happens in Italy, provided that you have the necessary funds.
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Career Milestones Andrea Ferrari is one of the best known experts in the world on graphene. He is the director of the Cambridge Graphene Centre and Head of the Nanomaterials and Spectroscopy Group at the Department of Engineering and Nanosciences of the University of Cambridge where he is also professor of Nanotechnology. He is also an associate professor at the Pembroke College awarded the “Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award Holder�. Since 2013 he has been Chairman of the Executive Board of the Graphene Flagship, one of the largest research initiatives of the European Union, a European one billion euro investment for 10 years covered by the program Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) funded by the European Commission. The project aims to study graphene and exploit its potential in a broad spectrum of applications including medicine, electronics, optoelectronics, energy, bringing their discoveries and inventions to the market in the next decade, realizing the development and the innovation of key strategic sectors such as telecommunications, energy, manufacturing, electronics and the biomedical and health world. Italy is among the first countries involved in the initiative with the participation of 17 different countries with the presence of 23 institutes and partner companies involved (out of 156), represented in Europe by the National Research Council (CNR) and by the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). The training path of Andrea Ferrari was in the city of Milan, first at the Collegio San Carlo where he attended school and high school and then to study them at the Politecnico of Milan, majoring in nuclear engineering when he later moved to London hired by the University of Cambridge.
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The Letter to the Young by Andrea Ferrari
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he message I have for young Italians is that they have to be determined. We must be determined and have clear ideas this is the only thing that matters. You have to be able to take the chances, nobody gives you something for nothing, just because you are more pleasant, more beautiful than others, and
this is especially true for research. I mean that if you have the desire to achieve important objectives in this area, as well as instilled in any other, you must understand that you need to fight hard all your battles. And only a few are scientific battles while most of them are related to persuasion, politics, power, all that is needed to achieve the result you are looking for. If you are graduated and you want to enter the working or research environment in Italy you must take a PhD possibly abroad, the reasons are obviously training but also simply for the importance of knowing English in a descent way. Whatever sector you want to devote yourself, your limited English conversational skills will not allow you to have the same impact you could if you knew it well, you will never have the same training level and the same chance of professional achievement. An adaptation that is not limited to the knowledge of the language but also implies a change of approach in the ongoing management of relationships and efficiency, in short, a matter which also refers to cultural aspects. Being open minded from a cultural point of view, able to adapt and integrate to the different professional environments such as here in the UK, is essential. Wishing to enter the working world in this country not only means knowing English well but also the culture and the Anglo-Saxon way of thinking. When I decided to come to England I had no problem to have positions in Italy, I never lacked the opportunities as I do not lack them today if I only wanted them. However, I maintain that it is always very useful to explore, enrich your education in different cultural realities and then decide where to achieve professional fulfillment. Andrea
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Toni Mascolo
Chairman/Chief executive & Co-founder Toni&Guy •
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Toni Mascolo was born in Italy and moved to London, UK, at 14. His career spans over 50 years and through his professional achievements he is considered responsible for changing the face of modern hairdressing. Toni&Guy annual turnover is in excess of £175 million, with over 450 salons in 45 different countries, and over 8000 employees
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‘London Entrepreneur 2000’, Consumer Products and Services category of the ‘London Entrepreneur of the Year’ Awards.
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Italian Knighthood, the Cavaliere Ufficiale (2006) by the Italian Republic.
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Fibell award (2008).
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Honorary OBE for his services to British Hairdressing (2008).
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With his wife Pauline established the TONI&GUY Charitable Foundation in January 2003.
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Humanitarian award (2009) for his outstanding commitment to Charity at the Hair & Beauty Benevolent.
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Sapphire Awards (2009).
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Outstanding Contribution to Hairdressing and Franchisor of The Year award (2010 and 2011).
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Life time achievement Award (2011) by the Fellowship of British Hairdressers.
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With his wife Pauline: award of Knight & Dame Commander of Saint Gregory from the Catholic church (2013) personally bestowed by The Vatican City and Pope Benedict XVI. Honorary Professor for Durham University Business School. AH + AIPP International Legend Award, by Hairdressing Trade Press International Association – Association Internationale Presse Professionnelle Coiffure.
TONI MASCOLO Vision and hard work for the Pioneer of the New Age of Beauty.
It is true that there is no greater power than humbleness. Talking to Toni I realized it like never before. The more he spoke about himself the clearer it was that he was not at all aware of how his professional “philosophy” has really changed the world of beauty salons. We grew up as children with the idea that a barber is a large room with some big, red or black soft chairs where your hair is cut and nothing else. The idea that a hairdresser is a slightly bigger room, with many ladies sitting under space helmets and where their talks sound thunderous. But over the years this has been revolutionized, these large rooms have become more and more salons, more and more elegance, more and more a place where to find peaceful breaks, environments to relax and rediscover one’s own aesthetic beauty. This of course counts more for ladies, but also for us men it has become very rare to end up today in a simple barber shop. Nowadays it is much more common to cross large glass sliding doors and end up at a party of boys and girls who welcome you as if you had just walked into a festive gathering! They make you sit down, they wash, cut, and even massage your head in a way not even your wife would do, and then they give you a bill worth a dinner for two at the best restaurant in Chelsea. But it’s all right, because we know, it is the age of appearance, it is the time of how you appear beyond what you really are, and the two things together make the us, something that Toni&Guy has fully embraced in his own philosophy. Amazing this man, what he did in just 50 years. He has revolutionized the whole concept of barber and hairdresser, he realized millions of years before any of us how much beauty is not only in the soul but also in orderliness, in grace, in cleanliness, in taking care of yourself, in being serious and professional. And he did not understand it in the recent decades while everybody did, he understood that and put into practice right from
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his teenage, that is at an age when people like me would play at the campsite or slide on a surfboard. He was already changing country, changing life, working hard, cutting hair, sweeping it away and saving money in order to present his mother with a house. Toni is clearly all this, a professional with extraordinary entrepreneurial qualities, an example of true Italian night and day. An entrepreneur wholly dedicated to his work and to his own goals. The professional that has never failed to offer support and encouragement to others, and today even more than ever. .
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How I Am What I Am
“ I was born just after World War II, I am eldest of five brothers. My mother’s name was Maria Rosaria Gallo, and in her family they were all traders and entrepreneurs in the wine sector and farming. I can remember for example when one day I went to see my grandfather I saw the house and it looked huge, it probably was not that big but in the memories of my childhood it is a very big house. He was a barber and also a tenor, he sang like Pavarotti! He was really very good and I remember that both he and those who worked with him were all good at singing, they would play the mandolin and the guitar, they were people who loved music a lot. As for me I think that my Italian nature, cultural heritage, traditions, the years lived like that in my homeland alongside people so simple and so beautiful inside, all this is part of me and I am convinced it has made the difference in what I then became here in the UK. If I had not had the experience of those 14 years spent in Italy I would have been a completely different person, I would have missed a very important part of my life, the colorful part, the sense of having to help people and being useful to others, to try to help anyone. I do not know how to explain it but Italy is part of my DNA, and, together with everything I later learned here in the UK, my entire personality emerged, much enriched, certainly better thanks to those roots of mine. My mother was very religious and humble and she always told us that we had to be good, humble and polite and help all those in need. She was referring to simple things, like helping to cross the road and doing everything we could to be helpful to others, and this teaching has become part of my nature, of the culture where I was brought up, part of what I have been and of what I am today. My family was strong, I had been lucky to live in Italy when it was still rural and it was its best period, when you could enjoy the simplicity of the countryside and grow up with poultry and horses, donkeys and you could taste the real Italy. I have very clear memories of those years, it was a way of living that now we call
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the old way, like washing clothes in the river or the culinary traditions, like the first time we killed a pig and we partied. This is what I mean, all this is part of my life. I remember Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast and I remember my cousin’s first Fiat car and a journey of a hundred kilometers we had together, which at the time was a very long distance. My parents had a first trip here in England, before bringing even us children. My father took my mother here to make her to see what life was like in this Country, and they were in Kensington. Then they returned to Italy and since at the time the rule was that the wife had to follow her husband, my mother decided to move to England at that point with the whole family. We all left our home town Scafati, in the province of Salerno when I was 14. My mother, unlike all of us, was shocked when she arrived in England. She came from a good family and she had many relatives and friends in Italy and in the difficult days, in times of economic difficulty she had learned to cook well, to sew well, she took care of every aspect of the house and she did it very well. But when she arrived here she did not know the language and she never wanted to learn it, keeping on talking only and always Italian. She has always been a good woman, very innocent in her way of being, very protective, but she was also the kind who did not trust people from here so she had no friends and no one to talk to. With an utterly different personality, my father Francesco was one of those people who know how to encourage others to do things well, and he has always been a great source of inspiration for me. When he brought me to live here in England I knew immediately that I should have done my best to settle in and become skilled in the field of hairdressing. He claimed that after having followed him for a couple of months I would have been able to dress ladies’ hair, but I thought ‘Impossible! It will take me at least 100 years ... a couple of weeks are not enough to learn everything I have to do’. Evidently his pushing me was very important because it has encouraged me to act. He was a great man and his selfconfidence could be noticed everywhere, constantly. In those years I could have never imagined that life would then have offered me so much satisfaction in my work here in
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England. I started with my father, then at 16 I went to work in a hair salon with my brother Gaetano, I remember that the manager was called Lorenzo. He told me I could not keep on being called Giuseppe because it seemed I sold ice cream, “come on, change your name!” He said. So I decided to choose Toni, as a diminutive of Antonio, but with a final “I”’, however, because I wanted to give it a more Italian meaning. My brother Gaetano decided to do the same and chose the diminutive Guy. That’s how Toni & Guy was born, we liked it, and it sounded really great! We worked hard, and I had only one goal in mind, buying a house for my mother. My father was getting old and spoke English with great difficulty, so I realized that I was the only one who could do it. I worked very hard and I learned so much and doing math I knew that if I kept on committing myself so much I would have been able to buy a house in a couple of years. I worked six days a week and did not earn much, but I aimed at one thing, my project to purchase a house. I was almost able to achieve the goal in less than two years when she died, she was only 45 years old. Only two days went by after my mother’s death when I met Pauline, the girl who soon became my wife. Since then we have always been together and now we are in love with each other with the same love of those years. A love that has never changed in the course of time. From the years of my youth to this day my idea of Salon has never changed. It has evolved, it must constantly evolve, but there is always and only one basic premise: the idea of beauty that each salon should express, as the environment and as the result for each person who enters and leaves. The perfect Salon for me is what we try to achieve every day together with all our staff here in England and in all the other countries where we are present with our brand, it is the environment where the customer is always treated as a real guest. Where staff is well-trained, tidy and wearing beautiful uniforms, and where customers receive all the attention they expect and even the unexpected, they must be happy with their hairstyle, with their color. Our salons are so, beautiful shops where the staff is always ready to help the customer.
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I have never forgotten the difficulties I went through as a young man, the efforts I had to make but also the opportunities I got, and in my life I have always done everything possible to be helpful to any young person who showed passion and commitment. Helping young people to get where they want to get is a very important thing for me. I am 73 years old and I still go to the salons to follow particular customers and they are all very happy when I’m there because for them, for the guys who work there, it is clearly an example. And I’m glad about it. In my professional life I have met a lot of people, judges, actors, lawyers, most of them now are friends, and they realize how our business evolves, the products we choose, the staff dedicated to them which is always updated, always better prepared, I always say that it is essential to constantly evolve, adapt to fashion trends or the company will not survive. And I am convinced that this does not only apply to the activities of hairdressers but to every kind of activity, the rule is the same for everybody. We have been applying it for over 50 years, from the very beginning. I was honored with the OBE (The Order of the British Empire, n.d.a.) by Her Majesty the Queen and for me it was like the fulfillment of one of my most unfeasible dreams! Something absolutely special, even more knowing to be Italian, not to be born here, and when I received it I was very, very excited. Evidently all the work I developed in the United Kingdom, the business I created, the job opportunities given to so many people and so on, in short, it was a recognition that has fully gratified me besides the great honour of receiving it. But honestly the most important one of all was that of “Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great” that was given to me by the Pope. I am deeply Catholic and receiving this honour for me was something unique. I feel very humble and I always feel I do not deserve so much as to receive prizes or awards so when I receive them I am very honored. This one of PrimiDieci UK also truly honors me, I am convinced that there are a lot of people, a lot of Italians in this country far more deserving than I am and yet here we are, PrimiDieci Society honors me this celebration and I’m really proud of.
”
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Career Milestones Toni Mascolo OBE, co-founder of the TONI&GUY empire has enjoyed a career that spans over 50 years and has been directly responsible for changing the face of modern hairdressing. Toni arrived in England in 1956 at the age of 14 with his mother and brothers, to join his father Francesco Mascolo and to start a new life. Having learnt the skills and trade from his father, by 16 he was already the Manager of a large salon. In 1963 Giuseppe and Gaetano changed their names to Toni and Guy and opened the first TONI&GUY salon in Clapham, South London. Soon after, they were joined by both Bruno and Anthony their younger brothers and the TONI&GUY philosophy was born. In the 1970’s the Mascolo brothers instigated the development of education. This was the fundamental base for the growth of TONI&GUY. They started with the first academy in St Christopher’s place London, holding regular courses for beginner and advanced level and performing shows and educational seminars worldwide. They saw the launch of the first educational video and step by step hairdressing book. The PR & image creation became stronger and the brothers started putting all the fundamentals in place i.e. the right tools of the trade, the best scissors, brushes and a uniform recognisable for their staff. The 80’s saw the launch of a professional product line for TONI&GUY salons which heralded the arrival of TIGI and which today has been replaced by the label m Professional Haircare. Throughout the ensuing decades, TONI&GUY has won countless awards and accolades for business and artistic achievements and the group grew throughout the UK and worldwide. Today Toni’s eldest son Christian is Managing Director of Essensuals hairdressing. Sacha Mascolo–Tarbuck, Toni’s daughter, a highly respected hairdresser in her own right and Global Creative Director of TONI&GUY group, directs the global brand image and
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creative direction, while Sacha’s husband James Tarbuck heads the TONI&GUY Media Department incorporating PR, Design and TV. The driving force behind this hugely successful business, with an annual turnover in excess of £175 million, Toni Mascolo ensures that his company continues to grow from strength to strength. With over 450 salons in 45 different countries, ensuring careers for over 8000 employees. In addition to opening salons, Toni has helped to redefine the educational structure of hairdressing, creating a unique ongoing educational system that has become the backbone of TONI&GUY, is practiced at TONI&GUY Academies worldwide and provided the blueprint for modern hairdressing education. In 2001, Toni decided to put his name to a new commercially developed product line, in partnership with Boots - the largest retailer of hairdressing products. Following a relaunch of the range in 2007, TONI&GUY ‘Signature’ haircare is now sold in 52 countries globally. label.m Professional Haircare was first introduced as an initial concept in 2004 as TONI&GUY’s exclusive salon professional haircare range created by the International Artistic Team - overseen by Global Creative Director Sacha Mascolo-Tarbuck. The label.m success story continued with a subsequent global launch that took place in the summer of 2008, with new packaging and a host of line extensions and what is now known as the 4C’s system of label.m. Since then the range has grown extensively and now comprises over 60 products. Currently label.m is now available in 63 countries globally with new markets pending. This diversification has helped Toni to create and maintain a strong corporate identity and fulfil the needs of the ever-growing ‘parent’ company. Another company-owned venture is Mascolo Group Ltd, which supplies all TONI&GUY salons with furniture and equipment and handles salon distribution. Mascolo Group Ltd is also an established project management company that designs and oversees the creation of the TONI&GUY
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salons from building services, commercial and residential property acquisitions, as well as both internal and external construction and maintenance. Mascolo Support Systems was set up to support the salons with all their information technology needs, from making appointments in an electronic diary, on-line bookings, marketing, to maintaining their client database, controlling stock levels/usage and accepting payments in different currencies. Mascolo-Styles controls the financial and accountancy side of the franchised network, and it is an important part of the growth of the company, Franchise Development & Legal, supply in excess of a hundred franchises and other independent companies with management accounting services, business startup, funding services, specialised expansion planning services, renewals, leases and instructing legal’s. Essensuals, a second hairdressing chain was established in 1997 representing the next generation of salons from TONI&GUY. This company is directed by Toni’s eldest son Christian and has over 30 salons throughout the world at the present time. TONI&GUY Media is an in-house media agency, headed by Toni’s son– in –law James Tarbuck, incorporating PR, Design, TONI&GUY.TV and TONI&GUY magazine completing the range of central support systems. Toni won the coveted title of ‘London Entrepreneur 2000’ in the Consumer Products and Services category of the ‘London Entrepreneur of the Year’ Awards. He has also been a finalist in the ‘Franchisor of the Year’ awards in both 2002 and 2003. In October 2006 Toni received an Italian Knighthood, the Cavaliere Ufficiale; in June 2008 he was awarded a Fibell award, and in October 2008 he was awarded an honorary OBE for his services to British Hairdressing. Toni Mascolo is also involved in many fundraising and charitable causes: in February 2009 he was presented with a humanitarian award for his outstanding commitment to Charity at the Hair & Beauty Benevolent and later that year two awards at the Sapphire
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Awards June 2009; Outstanding Contribution to Hairdressing and Franchisor of The Year award – an award he won for the second time in 2011. Most recently Toni was honoured by the Fellowship of British Hairdressers with a ‘Life time achievement Award’ and 2013 was a busy year for awards for Toni: in March Toni and his wife Pauline Mascolo were honored with the award of Knight & Dame Commander of Saint Gregory from the Catholic church, the honour was bestowed personally by The Vatican City and Pope Benedict XVI, before his recent retirement, May saw Toni announced as ‘Honorary Professor for Durham University Business School and October saw Toni being awarded by his own younger brother Anthony Mascolo an AH + AIPP International Legend Award, jointly given by the Alternative Hair and the AIPP (Hairdressing Trade Press International Association – Association Internationale Presse Professionnelle Coiffure). Only one other person has received this award to date. Constantly committed to charitable causes, Toni and his wife Pauline established the TONI&GUY Charitable Foundation in January 2003. The Charitable Foundation has completed the construction of a ‘state of the art’ children’s ward within the Variety Club Children’s’ hospital, Kings College, London, raising £700,000 for this project alone. Other charities that the foundation supports are: MacMillan Cancer Support, The Princes Trust, The Stroke Association, Crime Stoppers & HABB to name but a few. Toni also continues to support L’Oasi Regina degli Angeli, helping Father Carmine Zacchariello build a Church in his native Italy to aid in the construction of a centre and accommodation which offers support to those people who are at a disadvantage due to physical or psychological problems, or vulnerable children and young people from all over the world such as Albania and Africa to escape problems of abuse. Another venture has seen Toni enter previously un-chartered territories, with a chain of Cafés, ‘Caffe Fratelli’. Having opened five outlets in their first year, Caffe Fratelli is set to be every bit as successful as Toni’s ventures in hairdressing. Toni has also launched the first TONI&GUY Opticians.
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The Letter to the Young by Toni Mascolo
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here are no right or wrong in business and certainly not in hairdressing. My advice to anyone wanting to succeed in any business or career is simple. Love what you do, this is one of the key factors in achieving your dreams, because if you love what you
do and have a real passion for it, it won’t seem like work and it will make that journey the best that it can possibly be. Don’t think about money, just think about doing the best possible job, when you do this then everything else will fall into place. Be consistent, consistency is very important, you can be the most amazing hairdresser or businessman in the world but if you are not consistent it will not work. Education, education, education… you must know your trade, and lead by example, and once you grow, you need to make sure your team around you are well educated. Your staff will follow you to the end of the earth if you train them, and keep them motivated, they will look up to you as their leader so this is vital to growing and maintaining a successful team. Change, you must always change, evolve and move with the times. We live in a changing world and this is fundamental to staying at the top of your game. And finally courage. You can have all of the above, but you also need to have courage to make it all happen. If you see a gap in the market and a need for a product then that’s the first step in becoming an entrepreneur. Step out of your comfort zone, and if you get a gut feeling about something, do it, don’t be scared to fail, as there is no real failure in business, it’s all a learning curve and lessons to be learned to make you the best version of yourself. Toni
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Antonio Pappano
Music Director, The Royal Opera House •
Born in Epping, England, from Italian immigrant parents.
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He moved to the United States at the age of 12.
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Piano education with Norma Verrilli, composition with Arnold Franchetti, orchestra conductor with Gustav Meier. At the beginning of the 80s he starts the collaboration with the New York City Opera, with the Opera of San Diego and of Cleveland. In 1987 he makes his debut as orchestra conductor with the “Bohème” in Oslo, in Norway and in 1990 he is music conductor of the Den Norske Opera. In 1992 he is appointed music conductor of the Opera House La Monnaie of Brussels. From 1999 he is music conductor of the Royal Opera House in Londra, with effective assignment starting from September 2002. In 2005 he is music conductor of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale of Santa Cecilia in Roma. As an orchestra conductor he also conducted: the Berlin Staatsoper, the Metropolitan Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the English National Opera, and he was guest conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He regularly conducts the London Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
awards/ honours In 2012 he was appointed “Sir” by the British Crown.
ANTONIO PAPPANO Royal Opera House & Santa Cecilia: my two families.
So much leather and so much dark wood furnish the large room where the music of time goes by. And I have had the privilege of spending some time there observing what completes it, curiously looking around for details each time the meeting with Sir Antonio was interrupted by just a brief communication of his staff. While sitting in the comfortable armchairs of his study on the top floor of the Royal Opera House in the charming complex of Covent Garden, the music director and the writer stood having a wonderful conversation. At least it was wonderful for the writer who did not miss the opportunity to make his own every moment of intense artistic vitality the fascinating context was offering. Having the chance to write about Antonio Pappano, meeting him in his world, collecting his thoughts and his memories was utterly like reviving the reason why this PrimiDieci initiative itself exists: experiencing, learning, getting excited, discussing, praising, narrating. The path leading to him had already been an experience in itself: my eyes were dragging me from one side to the other while Rosemary, his gracious PA was escorting me to him. We walked down long corridors with many rehearsal rooms, the balcony open spaces on the great stages below where they were assembling or disassembling theatrical scenes, coming across boys and girls in white tights leaning against the walls warming up their muscles... The strongest feeling was that of a child living a fairy tale, enchanted to find himself in the middle of theatrical preparations face to face with the figures that usually fill the imaginary of representation.
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How I Am What I Am
“ I was twelve when it occurred to me. It happened the day I passed an exam here in England, it was a very difficult piano exam and that very day I realized it would have been my way. Until then I had been much more interested in football and I did not think about such things like my future, becoming a grown up ... I had started playing the piano at the age of six and since then it has always been my main instrument. I began with the piano because we had one at home, my father was a teacher of singing and there were some pianists who occasionally came to visit us. From then on I started taking piano lessons, I was not so fond of it but over time the passion developed. Then at the age of 13 I moved with my family from England to the United States and that was undoubtedly the period that mostly influenced my musical education. Even today I speak on the phone with my piano teacher of the time, Norma Verrilli, a person who has had a strong influence in my musical education therefore in my life itself. Those were the years when I went through the stage where I was trying to figure out what kind of musician I wanted to be and I remember, I will never forget it, that the best lesson she gave to me was not only teaching me the piano but that of knowing how to become a real musician. She did not merely teach me music but was able to direct me to the right path in order to make me become a conductor. She did not do it intentionally, and probably quite unconsciously she made me however become a great musician. And being a great musician is first to become a conductor. It is said that my professionalism, my enthusiasm and my energy come from the fact that I have lived in America and that is probably true. I am very grateful for having received this gift from my family, the fact of having had the opportunity to learn about that country, knowing the musical culture, and having the musical and human teaching of a
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person like Norma Verrilli. Those years spent in the United States have given me the opportunity to admire the strength, taking note of how after the Second World War it blossomed from every point of view, from the industrial, cultural and musical ones. We were in the 70s and it was a fantastic time to experience the strong sense of opportunity that it offered. A lot of people would ask me what my ambitions are. My ambition is simply to have a life! I am trying to, it is getting better but the music world requires your highest attention and the more you give the more it demands. My daily commitment is to direct two families: the Royal Opera House here in London and the Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome. I am the musical director of both, and I really try hard to do my best. The sacrifices are many, because you always have to keep on studying, always keep on learning, you constantly have performances, and then the rehearsals, keep on rehearsing, and as a director I have to take care of the economic aspect. Today the world of music has changed a lot because you are always looking for sponsors to cover the costs. In this sense my commitment is focused on creating conditions which could be of interest to the sponsors who may invest in our commitment and this is very important today. In America things are different because there is a strong tradition of giving, facilitated by tax relief benefits, whereas in Europe involving contributors is a very hard achievement. For example in Italy they ask me how things are going ... and I say that artistically things are going very well, but for the rest we hope to survive! After all we must also be honest, it is useless making promises if you cannot guarantee a continuity of content. All those musicians who have a position of power must do it and it has become a very challenging part of my work, it requires a strong sacrifice in terms of time and then you will fail having it for the important aspects of your life. My job like any other brings a lot of thoughts, great responsibilities and a strong and sustained commitment, but it also has its extraordinary implications. For example, the context in which it takes place also allows to live by emotions, it allows you to work with wonderful people, with a very thick inner side and everything takes the most beautiful
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shape, everything is inspiration. As musical director in addition to my regular job with the Opera House in the past I have worked in many cities including Brussels, Oslo, but also France, Germany, Israel, Japan, many different places, but it is the commitment that I have had for ten years in Italy with the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, that is giving me a lot. In Italy I have met such wonderful people, such kind Italians, true Italians, the Italy of culture. I live it all, the pros and the cons and I learn every day to appreciate every aspect more and more. My father always told me “be nice to everyone, be kind.” I must say that today I am almost always able to do so and this is thanks to the teaching of a family that has suffered a lot of difficulties. My parents emigrated here in England and have made a lot of sacrifices, every day of their lives and I have learned a lot from that, I have seen them work so hard for need. They came from a situation of great poverty, a small town in Campania called Castelfranco in Miscano, in the province of Benevento where they grew up, but they got married here in England. They have origins that hold a strong ability to withstand sacrifice, as immigrants they feel a strong sense of duty, they have a real work ethic, values they have been able to instill in me and my brother, who is two years younger than me. They tell us that we are “workaholics” but I do what my job requires and work is the most dignifying thing you can do. You work, you do your best engaging yourself with all the passion that carries you, then one day you receive the honors you have never seen not even in your most impossible dreams. Receiving the honor of “Sir” (Sir, n.d.a.) no doubt it was a wonderful surprise. Calling my mother on the phone and telling her “I will become Sir!” was fantastic. But the even deeper aspect I feel for this reward is the human warmth shown by other musicians who know me. They have shown such a strong participation and it is something that made me really very happy. Even before I had received in Italy the honour of “Cavaliere della Gran Croce…” Knight of the Great Cross…” the two things together made me feel very important! My commitment here in London with the Opera House and the commit-
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ment in Rome with Santa Cecilia, and what I am trying to do is utterly taking care of both magnificent realities. I have to direct, I have to inspire, and I have to create a strong energy for myself so that I can then encourage others to do their best. The goal is to get the most out of the people who work with me. When they are in the rehearsal room with the stage manager and the singers, that is where you realize what you have become as an artist. Especially when I am involved in a project that I particularly like it is in that context that I like to feel the creativity, to create the music by combining stage and voices! This is my job during the rehearsals, creating music! And those moments involve me a lot, it is passion, it is excitement for what we are creating. As to my private life, I think I still have to understand how to get it! My wife, Pamela Bullock, worked like me in the Opera House as a pianist for many years. She is American, a beautiful woman with blonde hair and she is above all a fantastic partner who by the way also helps me a lot in everything I do. We have always been very good friends ever since we started working together in Chicago and I absolutely trust her. In order to spend a little bit more time with me she also decided to reduce her job commitments, so she often accompanies me. Certainly we do not have a simple life, in our profession having a private life is difficult to achieve, but she likes to travel and every year she has beautiful adventurous journeys with her friends. We met in the early 80s but we became friends in 1987, then in 1992 I asked her to become the director of the Department of Music at La Monnaie in Brussels and at the time we really started going out together. We got married in 1995 and still now it is a beautiful adventure, a wonderful relationship for both of us. When we can spend our time together and only the two of us, we really like for example going on a cruise. We often do not even get off the ship, it is not necessary because the real pleasure is simply being on the water. Just looking at her pleases me, and I would like more and more. Whether a cruise or anything else, however, the main occupation in those cases is just doing nothing. We find a nice place to stay and most of the time we do nothing, and we both like it very much! Doing nothing for musicians is important because
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it means silence. Music is linked to the silence that precedes it, and when you are a musician, a pianist, a conductor, before you start you need silence. Everything is bound to silence, but if you have no experience you will not know what to do with it, you will get lost. So that is it, I love to enjoy the few moments of privacy in silence.
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�
Career Milestones Sir Anthony was born in Epping, Essex, England, from a family of Italian immigrants from Castelfranco Miscano, in the province of Benevento. He starts getting fond of music since his childhood thanks to his father who played the piano for pleasure, fond of singing and of Italian opera. In 1973 he moved with his family from England to the United States, where he carries on his piano studies privately under the guidance of Norma Verrilli, composition with Arnold Franchetti and then orchestra conductor under the guidance of Gustav Meier. He soon obtains the assignment to work in Chicago as the assistant of some orchestra conductors and in 1981 he starts working with the New York City Opera and later with other opera houses such as the San Diego Opera. He has been the youngest conductor of the Royal Opera House Orchestra in London, where he also conducted the Royal Opera and the Royal Ballet, and when very young he was the assistant of the Argentinian-Israeli Daniel Barenboim at the Bayreuth Festival. Other commitments of the early years of his career as a conductor have also taken him to Barcelona and Frankfurt. In 1987 he made his debut as a conductor with the “Bohème” in Oslo, Norway, and in 1990 he became the music conductor of the Den Norske Opera. In 1992 Pappano was appointed music conductor of the theater La Monnaie in Brussels, an assignment he held until 2001. In 1999 he became music conductor of the Royal Opera House in London, with effective assignment starting from September 2002. Always at the Royal Opera House in 2002 he directs Wozzeck. In 2003: Falstaff (Verdi), with Bryn Terfel and Massimo Giordano (tenor); Madama Butterfly, with Marco Berti and Lucio Gallo; Pagliacci (opera), with Plácido Domingo, Angela Gheorghiu and Dmitri Hvorostovsky; Don Giovanni (opera), with Anna Netrebko, Robert Lloyd and Nuccia Focile; Aida, with Ildikó Komlósi and Carlo Colombara. In 2004: Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, with John Tomlinson; Faust (opera), with Roberto Alagna and Simon Keenlyside, Peter Grimes; La Gioconda, with Violeta Urmana and Marcello Giordani; Werther (opera),
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with Marcelo Alvarez; The power of faith, with Salvatore Licitra, Ambrogio Maestri and Ferruccio Furlanetto; Das Rheingold. In 2005: Die Walküre, A masquerade with Thomas Hampson (Singer), Elisabetta Fiorillo and Karita Mattila; Othello (Verdi); The girl from the West, with Andrea Gruber and José Cura; Siegfried (opera). In 2006: The Marriage of Figaro; Twilight of the Gods; Tosca (Opera), Carmen, with Jonas Kaufmann; Anna Caterina Antonacci and Ildebrando D’Arcangelo. In 2007: L’Heure espagnole; Gianni Schicchi and Fidelio with Eric Halfvarson. In 2008: the world premiere of The Minotaur, of Harrison Birtwistle; Don Carlo, with Rolando Villazón; Sonia Ganassi and Les Contes d’Hoffmann. In 2009: The Requiem (Mozart), with Piotr Beczala; Requiem (Verdi), with Barbara Frittoli; the War Requiem by Benjamin Britten; Lulu (opera), with Jennifer Larmore; La Traviata, with Renée Fleming and Joseph Calleja; The Barber of Seville (Rossini), with Juan Diego Flórez, Pietro Spagnoli and Joyce DiDonato; Tristan und Isolde. As an orchestra conductor, he conducted among the others: the Berlin State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the English National Opera, and has been guest conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He regularly conducts the London Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In Italy, in October 2005 he was appointed musical conductor of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale of Santa Cecilia in Rome. In July 2009 he conducted in Piazza Plebiscito in Naples the concert of “Verdi Gala” with choirs and orchestras of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia and of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. Antonio Pappano was appointed “Sir” by the British Crown in 2012. .
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The Letter to the Young by Antonio Pappano
T
he sense of curiosity is what I think is most essential in young people. In order to carry out this job you must have a strong sense of curiosity, you have to be inside the music. If you have talent, if you are really talented you must devour everything, listen to any kind of music,
try all forms. Practicing is essential, constantly practice. But above all read. Read not only music but whatever you can read. Try to play with other people, do not lock yourself in your room playing alone. Try to share your music with other musicians. Speaking of school and education, no doubt there are lucky people, those who immediately find the right teacher who is best for them and puts them n the right track. Unfortunately, sometimes for many young people it is much more difficult to find a person who is in some way able to guide them in the best way. But you still have to do your best to find it. Keep on looking for your ideal teacher, do not settle down, because he or she exists. If you think you have talent, this is the mentor you need, the one who not only teaches the instrument, but the love for music, the love for the feelings that your composing offers you. As for the Conservatories, think hard before deciding for it! Of course this is only my very personal opinion, and it’s true that there are positive aspects in attending the Conservatory, but I believe that for a young musician it is essential to live a full life. You have to socialize, go to college, meet and get to know people who can stimulate you, immerse you in competitiveness. It is stimulating, it is creative.
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It really depends a lot on the personality of each of us: there are people for whom a conservatory education is absolutely necessary, for others not at all and generally speaking, this would be however an evaluation suited to the very young. While for example, and I want to be very clear, if you are already 25 years old or more and you’re still unsure of one or the other choice, most likely this job is not for you. As a boy I did not have a precise idea of my career, being an orchestra conductor was not even in my most vague thoughts. One thing though I already knew well and it was my will to make music for the rest of my life, I was happy when I was playing the piano, and when I sang, and when I was doing all those things that were related to music. But I was a kid and I was lucky enough to find people who were able to recognize my potential. They encouraged me, helped me understand my qualities and overcome my mental block, my fears. But let me insist, it is curiosity over every other feature the one I wish you to have. Nobody can give you curiosity, you must have it and you have to hold it. That is the quality that makes you feel like a child, it is what will always make you look for the right answers, the preparation that allows you to search for wisdom, knowledge, the information that can enhance your best skills. Being curious is a beautiful thing and you will only be successful if you are able to count on your own strong curiosity for all things in life.
Antonio
Ornella Barra Stefano Pessina
Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. Stefano Pessina is Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Walgreens Boots Alliance, having been appointed as a non-executive Director of Walgreens in August 2012. •
Prior to this, he was Executive Chairman of Alliance Boots since July 2007.
Executive Vice President, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. President and Chief Executive of Global Wholesale and International Retail. Ornella Barra is currently Executive Vice President of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. •
She was Chief Executive Wholesale and Brands of Alliance Boots •
•
Pessina previously served as Alliance Boots Executive Deputy Chairman. •
2009 - 2013: Chief Executive of the Pharmaceutical Wholesale Division and Wholesale & Commercial Affairs Director. •
April 2013: appointed as an independent member of the Board of Assicurazioni Generali •
Prior to the merger of Alliance UniChem and Boots plc, Pessina was Executive Deputy Chairman of Alliance UniChem, previously having been its Chief Executive for three years through December 2004. •
Pessina was appointed to the Alliance UniChem Board in 1997 when UniChem merged with Alliance Santé, the Franco-Italian pharmaceutical wholesale group which he established in Italy in 1977. •
Pessina also serves on the Board of Directors of Galenica AG, a publicly-traded Swiss healthcare group, and a number of private companies. •
January 2015: served on the Board of Directors of AmerisourceBergen Corporation, a pharmaceutical services company •
STEFANO PESSINA & ORNELLA BARRA Respect: the key to success for a winning couple.
Appreciation, respect, balance, measure, love, this is the image I immediately took of Stefano Pessina and Ornella Barra when we first met. And if it’s true that respect is the soul of love, just as I believe it is, the meeting with Stefano and Ornella did definitely confirmed it. Both at the head of the giant Walgreens Boots Alliance, both with a great passion for medicine and business since childhood, both extraordinary industrialists with unique managerial skills. Two people with so different life stories and yet so similar in principles, goals, and so amazing in their sharing a mutual respect for each other. Listening to their training paths, their initial businesses, from a small business to the first mergers, to the opening on the global international market, each in their own way proved a professional who has never missed the target. Never missed one! What’s behind so much accuracy in working, what allows entrepreneurs not only not to make mistakes, but even to bring growth and constant value to their companies? I got the answer from their manners, way before even listening to their story, and that was just by noticing their way of talking to me, in their way of relating with their assistants and their team. In my experience of collecting stories, seizing life evidence entering the great offices of such celebrities between the US, the UK and other countries I believe it is always essential to understand the relationship that successful people have with their own employees. It is worth telling their stories when they are real human beings, even before being great, extraordinary examples of talent and this is a prerogative that makes a globally successful person a true PrimiDieci.
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Without knowing me until that day, Stefano and Ornella were just like a comfortable living room for me, sitting on an extremely soft sofa and stretching my feet on a coffee table as laid back at home. Certainly not, the meeting did not include a sofa and not even the chance of stretching my feet on a table, but the feeling of serenity in having them sitting around a large, long, crystal meeting table was exactly the same. The last thing you must do when finding yourself with people like them is to have in mind that you are sitting in front of a couple of millionaires who travel on their private jet alternating private and professional life between Monte Carlo, London, the United States and so many other countries. You must not do that because suggestion affects performance, it affects your being natural, spontaneous, in putting them questions that mostly intrigue you and that you feel are useful to recount the personal qualities more than the professional ones eventually much better known to the general public. So you do not think, do not want to remember everything you read about them, absolutely you do not want to feel the weight of so much global authority in the field of heath care because you would feel so tiny and you would lose your objectivity. A feeling that I honestly speaking never perceived not even for a second. And not because I was good at knowing how to manage the meeting, but simply because the conversation with Stefano and Ornella was immediately very forthright, direct, I would say natural because this is how I was given the opportunity to listen to them. I collected their thoughts and even their memories, recounted as if they were in the company of a friend, and for this I would like to thank them again. For the trust and availability, for the frankness with which they have also been able to analyze the value of the initiative PrimiDieci Society with, not making me miss opinions and valuable suggestions.
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STEFANO PESSINA How I Am What I Am
“ I love art a lot, I have a classical culture and I have always wanted to devote myself
to a highly scientific discipline. I was born in Pescara, in the Abruzzo region, and as a child I had always been very keen on astronomy, physics, astrophysics, nuclear physics, always curious to learn. As a boy at high school when I could read topics of this kind I was truthfully happy! Thanks to my family I had a traditional Italian education, very much culture oriented. But I also have always had a very pragmatic sense so at university I decided to study nuclear engineering at the Politecnico of Milan and I must say that I really worked hard in order to do my best. Since then I have always loved doing what I did. And it is so because I believe in what I do and as I deal with it I enjoy it. I am an engineer, I like building, building businesses, building groups, always pushing the boundaries of what I know and do and of what people around me know and do. Steadily moving further because when you achieve a target it automatically becomes your past and it doesn’t matter how much you pursued it you have to think of something else. First of all you must identify the new target then switch to its realization, the development, and this is the stage that gives me more intellectual satisfaction. Of course when such targets are corporate or business we cannot escape what is known as the analyzing step in terms of practicality, usefulness, the need to work, an aspect that maybe is not so exciting, but not less necessary because, if not carried out to the utmost, you will not be able to achieve the other targets. Goals that nonetheless must always be for the benefit of the company. I always thought that when an entrepreneur does what he has to do it has to be for the sake of the com-
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pany, never for his own sake. When you do what’s best for your company in the end you have done what is best for everybody, shareholders, suppliers, employees who may have more certainties according to the better economic conditions and therefore more future, what’s best for the customers because you can give a better service. To do this, however, you must have in mind exactly what you want to do, have clear strategies, you must have an efficient implementation and it must be achieved by respecting the fundamental values that every business should have, values based on the English concept of ‘integrity’. These can vary from company to company but in the end they are very similar and entranced in the importance of the social responsibility that each company must have. The concept of integrity is quite wide and if it is true that everyone has their own motivations to develop a company. For instance I can have the motivation of wanting to build something, while shareholders aim at gaining from the growth of the company’s value, the employees aim at making a career within it, but in the end the social aim of the company is to deliver value and employment. And that it is easier to achieve if those rules are followed; rules that have to be clear enough and precisely based on the concept of integrity. After fulfilling the fundamental social aim, of course, the basic component of a company is the entrepreneurial one but referring to our group the psychological component is also very significant. We deal with people who come to us certainly to buy products, mainly pharmaceutical or cosmetics, but often together with the products they want help, hope, a dream, and our duty is to meet their expectations. In this sense, we work a lot to best train our staff and ensure that they share these values, and show customers that they can rely on them. The entrepreneurial aspect, confidence and sensitivity to be transmitted to the client, the social aim, these are all components and factors that continually intersect: on one hand there is the growth of the company, the search for efficiency, the search for new markets, the search for solutions that aims at larger platforms, on the other the aware-
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ness that our sector is absolutely special. The awareness of having to offer both material assistance, through our products, and psychological, with our attitude to those people who address us. In our industry we have always been at the forefront. We have been so in our constant updating, in innovation, we have always shown the others what they had to do. Allow me to be a little bit presumptuous but as a matter of fact we have always been a school, we taught others. In Italy with the first mergers then also “copied” by other groups, then when becoming pan-European, and again when we changed the logic of pharmaceutical distribution integrating it with pharmacies. More so when we tried to extend the real concept of vertical integration between the distribution of the pharmacy and retail when things were definitely distinct. And more recently with the international operation of acquisition in the US when we became truly global, nowadays being present pretty much in all continents. We will soon be even more present in the US, because today we can observe a fast horizontal integration of the various health sectors but sooner or later there will be an equally vertical integration. Also during this new phase we will be able to be forerunners and prove it, and I am definitely sure about that! Always at the forefront, our group constantly aims at new experiences, we work a lot on creativity, relying heavily on the work of the many people who have been with us for many years and also counting on the new elements, on the new employments. The goal is often to expand the group by acquiring companies that are a little bit behind, who have suffered the ravages of time and therefore have a range of problems. We heal them and then we create the basis for new ideas, new market strategies, and this is what has been done for example in the case of the acquisition of ‘Boots’, and what we are currently doing with Walgreens, what we have done in the past with UniChem and with several other companies. During one of these operations carried out several years ago I met an extraordinary entrepreneur who became my business partner and only later also my great partner in
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life. I met Dr. Barra when she was interested in the merger between her pharmaceutical distribution company ‘DiPharma’ and my own ASI in order to defeat a group of local competitors. She convinced me it would have been a successful opportunity for both and indeed it had been since such merger contributed very positively to all our development as it is well known today. Our private life is precisely only ours and I would leave it out of my story for PrimiDieci, but I can certainly say that we are very happy together. For me Ornella is, and has always been, a wonderful support both in our private lives and professionally. Our relating to each other when talking about work could be defined as ‘the utmost coordinated autonomy’, in the sense that we both operate mostly independently although availing of a constant coordination, but all this is carried out in great autonomy.
”
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STEFANO PESSINA Career Milestones
Stefano Pessina is the Executive Vice Chairman and Acting Chief Executive Officer of Walgreens Boots Alliance, a global leader in the distribution of pharmaceutical products and wellness. Born in Italy, he took a degree in nuclear engineering at the Politecnico of Milan before starting his career in the academic world. He later worked for the research company ACNielsen in Milan. In the mid ‘70s he started working for the family business in the pharmaceutical distribution sector. He dealt with the restructuring of the family business by acquiring other small pharmaceutical distributors that merged in the creation of Pharmaceutical Alliance in 1977, which later became Health Alliance Italy. In 1985, ASI was the first pharmaceutical distributor in Italy. In 1988, through mergers, acquisitions and partnerships, he expanded his activities in several southern European nations. In 1991 he created the Alliance Santé Group, the result of several acquisitions and of an innovative merger with several French pharmaceutical distributors, a launch pad for the next expansion. In 1998, following the merger between Alliance Santé and the English UniChem, he created the Alliance UniChem Group of which he was CEO until 2004 when he took on the role of Executive Deputy Chairman. Within a few years, he transformed Alliance UniChem from a company operating in the field of pharmaceutical distribution with a presence in a few countries, to a pan-European leader group with two core activities (the intermediate distribution and pharmacies), present in more than 12 countries. In 2006 he led the merger between Alliance UniChem Plc and Boots Group Plc creating Alliance Boots Plc. In 2007 he created AB Acquisitions (a company jointly controlled by Stefano Pessina and some funds with the advice of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) through whom he then acquired and privatized Alliance Boots.
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In August 2012 Alliance Boots announced a strategic partnership with Walgreens, the largest drugstore chain in the United States, which later acquired 45% of Alliance Boots. Walgreens Boots Alliance is the first global enterprise in the world of health care and wellness with roots in pharmacy. The company was born from the merger of Walgreens and Alliance Boots in December 2014, which united two leading Companies with “historical� brands, complementary geographic presence, shared values and a background of trusted healthcare services, ranging from pharmaceutical distribution to the pharmacy with a history that goes back more than 100 years. The Company employs more than 370,000 people and operates in over 25 countries and represents the main reference point in the US and Europe for the purchase of medicines and products for personal care. Including associates, Walgreens Boots Alliance is global leader in health & wellness retail pharmacy with more than 13,100 stores in 11 countries. The Company is headed by the most extensive network of pharmaceutical distribution and wholesale worldwide, with more than 350 distribution centers that supply each year more than 200,000 pharmacies, doctors, health centers and hospitals in 19 countries. In addition, Walgreens Boots Alliance is the largest buyer of prescription drugs and many other health and wellness products globally. Walgreens Boots Alliance has a long-term partnership agreement with AmerisourceBergen, one of the leading distribution companies in North America. The collaboration between the two companies enables them benefits of larger scale and to work together to improve service levels and efficiency. Stefano Pessina is part of the Walgreens Boots Alliance Board of Directors as well as the Board of Directors of Galenica (the Swiss group of the pharmaceutical sector and which also offers logistics services) and of Consumer Goods Forum. He is also the major shareholder of Walgreens Boots Alliance. He is considered a leading figure in the health care industry and has received numerous awards and honors for his fundamental contribution to the development of the sector.
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The Letter to the Young by Stefano Pessina
I
am convinced that for the young talented and not the prospects must be the world, not the country of origin. This applies both to Italy and to other countries. And if you come from a country where being young is par-
ticularly difficult in order to be able to start a professional career the matter related to the “where� does not
even arise: clearly go out and try to learn, then, if anything, you can come back. For a young man the field of observation must be the world, not the country of origin. Chance and luck have a relevant importance. What counts a lot is being in the right place at the right time and understand it. Because being in the right place at the right time can also happen but the problem is to understand it. Figuring out how to handle the situation is luck. Luck is when you are in the right place at the right time and understanding it in order to make the most of the situation. Knowing how to best manage the situation depends on the personal characteristics of the individual and even here there is a certain amount of luck because it all depends on the way in which that situation is read. It often happens that you read it in a different way and the decision that follows may not be the right one, therefore it is all a matter of skill in analyzing the various factors and then arriving at the right conclusion. There is certainly a successful conclusion but finding it, understanding it depends on the personal characteristics of each individual, such as the commitment but also the strength of the desire to create, to realize. And if the opportunities do not come you must also look for them. You must also figure out what you want to do. I worked ten years to finalize a transaction in the US, I had contacts with many people, but it
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just did not happen. Then within a year or two I not only concluded that operation but I also carried out a second one. By this I mean that even if I had clear ideas, I knew exactly what I wanted to do, most probably I was not in the right place at the right time. Of course we all work in our own way and far from wanting to give great teachings, but as for me perseverance is a very personal characteristic really essential to achieve what one is aiming at. I believe knowing where I have to go is very important, as well as having a clear vision and working hard until I get there.
Stefano
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ORNELLA BARRA How I Am What I Am
“ As a child I used to play with medicines.
When I was with my nanny or grandmother I was their despair because if I disappeared they knew they would have found me playing with the box of medicines. My favorite games were not dolls but medicines and they were always afraid I could open them and swallow some but fortunately this has never happened! A passion for medicine that I then pursued anyway. In my life I have indeed always known what I wanted to do. I think it is an absolutely crucial aspect especially in young men and women to know what they want to do with their own future. You have to know it and then you have to be consistent in pursuing it. It is important to realize that the choices made lead to sacrifice and you prove valuable when you manage to be consistent, that is, to pursue that choice even if it means adjustment to difficulties, maybe travelling or otherwise. This is what I tell my managers but also my collaborators, I always remind them that having made choices they must then know how to pursue them, by accepting the advantages and disadvantages. There is no taking on responsibilities and then complaining if they absorb us beyond what we actually expected. Going back to young people, we must recognize that there are those who are more talented and those who are less, no matter what nationality they are. I am convinced that as far as this concerns the values that are taught by families have a great influence and nowadays recognizing in young people that bit of ambition seems to be more and more rare, the desire to succeed, the passion to create something while challenging difficulties. We often see them maybe driven by the desire to succeed, by the desire of money, but not inspired by different and better values. I can think of the values that my parents taught me, for example, to get involved to realize myself, the importance of hard work, to always keep our feet to the ground, to be humble and to know that in life things can change and thus to be able to face such changes. What my family taught me has always
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been the common thread of all my life, parents who despite being entrepreneurs, despite being wealthy people, they have always taught me to be hard working, to be able to face difficulties, and to be humble. The parents of the following generation have been the parents of wealth. They have been the ones who have tried to give everything to their children and this has meant that the will to create, together with the desire to achieve, have defaulted. If this is true from a sociological point of view, I am also convinced that there are many cases of young people willing to take action, to accomplish important things, and I notice it, for example, when I go to university and I lecture. I see so many guys who are willing to take action, who ask questions, young people who are curious and projected in doing something important, and this suggests that you should never generalize. Living with a sense of humbleness and recognizing the constant insecurity of life, this is basically my own way of facing life. I am the kind of person who always tries to keep her feet to the ground because I am aware that life can change in one second for thousands of reasons that you may not be aware of. It changes you in a split of a second for thousands of reasons, it can be an economic difficulty, a health problem, thousands of reasons. I also believe that we should all have a sense of gratitude; recognizing what we have, always realizing this is essential to live better and in harmony with ourselves and with the others. Today I feel that my age is the best age for a woman because it allows to better understand all these aspects and look at things with maturity, with a different experience, from a different distance. When you are 27 you want to conquer the world, the passion inside pushes you to create projects, you are focused on realizing everything. I was so when I met Stefano, ready to build a company that could only keep on being more and more successful and we started sharing the same business values. The first time we met it was because I decided to. I was in the process to develop my company DiPharma and asked my friends if they knew somebody on the market able to share my own entrepre-
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neurial vision and they spoke to me about Stefano. I made an appointment with him and we met. That is how it started at first a mere professional relationship, very dynamic, very constructive, but only professional. Then over time the same interests, and of course whatever makes two people like each other also from a personal point of view, led us to stay together also in our private life. The respect between us is certainly the key to success in working together. This mutual respect is there and it is necessary both between us and among all the other people who work with us in any department. Then I have to say that we are very complementary because he is a financial genius of all that concerns the new strategies whereas I spend time in the company aiming at creating a common culture within the companies of the group, I put people together, I create new operations, new activities. We are therefore definitely complementary to each other and this is a highly positive factor for the success of our work and it is so because it is a result of a way of relating to the company that has always brought us together. Though both coming from wealthy families, although with different paths we have always wanted to face uphill roads. I could have run my pharmacy in Genoa, or followed my father’s business, he could have carried out a much more relaxing activity that did not require such great initiative, but we both have always been driven by this desire to create, develop companies and develop work. Uphill paths that I have been very happy to undertake, and that I would undertake again, and I am sure he would do exactly the same thing.
�
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ORNELLA BARRA Career Milestones Ornella Barra is Executive Vice President of Walgreens Boots Alliance and President and Chief Executive of Global Wholesale and International Retail. Walgreens Boots Alliance, with a presence in more than 25 countries, employs more than 370,000 people and is the largest retail pharmacy, health and daily living destination in the USA and Europe, and (including equity method investments) is: - a global leader in pharmacy-led, health and wellbeing retail with over 13,100 stores in 11 countries - one of the largest global pharmaceutical wholesale and distribution networks with over 350 distribution centers delivering to more than 200,000 pharmacies, doctors, health centers and hospitals each year in 19* countries - one of the world’s largest purchaser of prescription drugs and many other health and wellbeing products Born in Italy and now of Monegasque nationality, Ornella graduated from the University of Genoa with a degree in pharmacy and started out as a pharmacist, first managing and then setting up her own pharmacy. In September 2015, Fortune magazine ranked Ornella in fifth position in its “50 Most Powerful Women in Business” for Europe, Middle East and Africa. In the late 80s, Ornella was appointed Managing Director and later Chairman of Alleanza Salute Italia, which later became Italy’s leading pharmaceutical wholesaler. She joined the board of Alliance Santé, an international pharmaceutical company and relentlessly remained at the forefront of every deal, helping to establish this company following a series of acquisitions.
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At the end of the 90s, Ornella was appointed as board member and Executive Director of Alliance UniChem Plc. In 2006, Alliance UniChem Plc. and the Boots Group PLC merged, forming Alliance Boots and the following year Ornella became Chief Executive, Pharmaceutical Wholesale Division and later Chief Executive, Wholesale and Brands. Ornella has played a leading role in the development and implementation of the partnership between Alliance Boots and Walgreen Co. (Walgreens), which merged to form Walgreens Boots Alliance on 31 December 2014. In 2013, Alliance Boots and Walgreens signed an innovative long-term partnership with AmerisourceBergen, one of North America’s largest pharmaceutical services companies. This relationship will enable the companies to benefit from greater scale and global opportunities and work together on programmes to improve service levels and efficiencies. In January 2015, Ornella was appointed to the Board of Directors of AmerisourceBergen. Within Walgreens Boots Alliance, Ornella Barra oversees International Retail, which is part of the Retail Pharmacy International Division, as well as directing the Pharmaceutical Wholesale Division. The Pharmaceutical Wholesale Division, which mainly operates under the Alliance Healthcare brand, supplies medicines, other healthcare products and related services to more than 140,000 pharmacies, doctors, health centers and hospitals each year from 302 distribution centers in 12 countries. Ornella is also chair of the Walgreens Boots Alliance Social Responsibility Meeting. In this role, she oversees all corporate social responsibility activities across the Company and will be pivotal in building a strong platform for this agenda to thrive across Walgreen Boots Alliance.
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The Letter to the Young by Ornella Barra An open letter to young people who are starting to face the working life…
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have always greatly appreciated the opportunity to interact with young people, and I think that the new generations inspire me to do better and more, in an innovative way. It’s almost a truism, but the future is in their hands, and they are the ones who have a fresher approach, a more innovative and open vision to
the world. If I had to give young people who are entering the world of work and their careers some advice, definitely I would start by suggesting them to understand quickly what their personal capacities might be, through which they can offer ‘added value’ to companies or to projects in which they will be involved. Young people have on their side the energy and enthusiasm required to get involved, and they must try to use them in order to understand what they really want to do, and then undertake the necessary choices to achieve the ‘target’ they have set with determination. Today’s world is much smaller, more interconnected than in the past. Borders are probably now nonexistent, and if it was once unthinkable for a young graduate to find a job in another country, now it is almost commonplace. However, being ‘world citizens’ and competing with peers from other countries requires a strong amount of spirit of adaptation and will to ‘evolve’. Competition will definitely be stronger of course, but I always encourage to be open to new experiences. An “unconventional” CV can become the mirror of an international mindset, leadership qualities that in the long term will have more value than the mere academic qualifications still important for a basic culture. If you have a clear plan in mind, the right will to take risks, the ‘skills’ required, the flexibility and mobility that the labor market today asks for, I believe there is no competitor that young people should be afraid of in the path to build up a successful future. Finally, I often say that a good day is a day during which I have learned something. At any age, you should never stop wanting to learn, and engaging with energy and passion! Ornella
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Greta Scacchi Actress •
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Born in Milan, at the age of six she moved with her family to England and, at the age of 15, to Australia. At the age of 18 she returns to England and studies acting and drama art at the Old Vic Theatre of Bristol. In 1981 she graduates with top marks. She made her debute at the cinema in 1982 in the German film “The wife ... the birds” (Das zweite Gesicht), by Dominik Graf. Among the many films she had great fame thanks to “Coca Cola kid” by Dušan Makavejev, and later with “Presumed innocent” alongside with Harrison Ford. Among the many other important interpretations are: “Shattered” by Wolfgang Petersen, “The player” by Robert Altman, “Emma” from Jane Austen’s novel. Some of the Italian films to be mentioned are “Il ronzio delle mosche” by Dario D’Ambrosi, “Sotto falso nome” directed by Roberto Andò, “La donna della luna” directed by Vito Zagarrio, “L’amore nascosto” directed by Alessandro Capone, “Un altro mondo” directed by Silvio Muccino.
GRETA SCACCHI When Hollywood loves Italy.
I spent some time in Australia a few years ago, enough time to realize what amazing country it is. Listening to the stories of Greta I relived its sense of freedom, of spaciousness, the pleasure of being able to be ourselves without any influence, completely immersed in an absolute multiculturalism founded on the pride of diversity. We are all a bit the result of our life and professional experiences and in Greta Scacchi all that is literally volcanic. While following her retracing the steps of an absolutely intercontinental human and artistic route, you get dragged into exotic stories, passions for places and countries that have determined her success, love for the finest works of Italian filmography, worship of the ongoing confrontation with cultures of the most different countries. Greta has worked with producers, directors and actors among the most famous in the world. She worked in many countries, including the USA, the UK, and Italy. Even if I know the really long list of movie and television works, while bringing some of them back to her mind she does not hide the belief that the interpretations produced or directed in Italy are those that have offered her true artistic satisfaction. And I must admit it, it’s nice to hear it from a woman like her, listening to the love for Italy from a person who was brought up in three countries and two continents and who has really worked everywhere in the world. Travelling with her among the memories of how she was able to play this or that film in Italy, her experiences on the spot, the diversity with which she necessarily had to confront coming from England or Australia, was for me the most beautiful film where I saw her playing the main character. Having the privilege of her time, of her attention and having the chance to wander with her behind the scenes of a film path of great artistic value, let me tell you, made me feel a bit main character myself, Main character in collecting the thoughts and memories of a half Italian woman that has always wanted to be one hundred percent Italian!
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This is therefore the Greta Scacchi I have got to know. A woman with bright enthusiasm for life in all its forms, film, television and theatre actress strong of her own international success yet simple, friendly, with a surprising serenity. The artist constantly involved and always open to new movie interpretations, new theatrical plays able to gratify her great love for the art of interpretation.
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How I Am What I Am
“ The actor’s job is a creative and interpretative job. The more you have the opportunity
to travel, to meet different cultures, the more you realize how important diversity, mentality, such different behaviors in each place are. You realize that each country has its own atmosphere, its own way of being that could be dictated by the moment it is living. It is true, no doubt the world is becoming more and more united, but there are still incredible differences everywhere and the actors’ job is to give shape, to express those differences making them their own, identifying themselves totally in those situations often completely unrelated to themselves. This is what I had already understood at the age of 8, while I was travelling from England to Italy and then moving again from Italy to get back to England. It was at the time of my childhood, and already at the age of eight I felt I had some kind of double personality in the sense of adaptation to the context. When I was in Italy I found myself in a body, I remember the warmth of the people, the friendly way of being, and then the noise, the liveliness; then getting back to England I found myself managing my way of behaving in a totally different way, linear, precise, orderly. Therefore this is how I grew up, mostly under two great continents, Europe and Australia. I was born in Milan and I soon moved to England with my family, I was 4 years old and then between 15 and 17 we went to Australia. I always felt very much at home in Australia. Since we got there I remember that I never felt a foreigner, also because all white Australians are in some way foreigners. Today there is still a very strong sense of immigrant in the Australian, far from how Americans live their belonging to their country. In the Australians the sense of immigrant is still quite alive because it goes back to the history of their own country, because those who went to Australia, the white people who at the beginning of the colonization went there did it against their will. Having to go to Australia as punishment, feeling obliged to stay there has kept alive the dream of their country of origin in the people of the time. Australia was formed in my opinion as a country where everybody is still strongly stuck to their roots,
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where everyone is very proud of them. While American people have always tried to cancel their origins in order to develop a sense of belonging and of identity, in Australia this never happened, as a strong multicultural pride developed expressing itself in the great enthusiasm of every Australian for their own land. Australians are enthusiastic about their country because it offers such beautiful, mysterious, strange things, and the country is so powerful, so huge and wonderful, such that they are indeed proud, while holding so much to the origins and traditions of each of them. This is why when we moved to Australia, I felt for the first time part of a society that was immigrant itself, I did not feel different from the others at all. A difference that instead in England I felt a lot, coming from a family with an international culture and surrounded by the world of art. Both my mother and my father were great travelers in the 60’s and by the beginning of school I had already traveled a lot, much more than the others. Also travelling around Europe was not common in those years therefore I felt a bit disconnected from the others, not aligned with my classmates; then of course I returned to Italy, where I was an English girl therefore always a foreigner. In Australia I integrated much more naturally, in a much more normal way. In the last decades, Australia has had a very strong growth and we have a relative, my great uncle, who went to Australia in 1840 where he founded a village which now has become one of the most important areas of Sydney. Therefore, compared to other Australians, I can say that my family in a sense has really been Australian for many generations. My father, Luca Scacchi, died last year. A very creative and charming man, a great art dealer who has really impressed a whole generation of artists, merchants and critics of Milan. Everybody knew him by the nickname Gracco and he would tell us that when in 1954 and in 1955 he had been Picasso’s assistant, it was Picasso who had given him this nickname. I was a child and I remember that it took my parents many years to separate in practice because it was a very important relationship. I must say that my mother Pamela was in love with Italy and wanted to stay and live there, but it was my father who convinced her to go back to London. We were accommodated in an apartment in Lon-
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don but he was always away, he wanted his life in Milan, but without his family ... A man who besides his great qualities in the field of art was above all a great traveler. He taught me the pleasure of traveling, of admiring landscapes, different cultures and how to settle in different countries. He spoke several languages perfectly, German, French, English and Swedish; even a little bit of Arabics and Swahili to defend himself in Africa and in the Middle East, areas that he fully explored for his own passion. My mother married another Italian, Giovanni Carsaniga, a professor of Italian who was living in England. Then when I was 15 for his job we at first moved to Perth, in Western Australia and later he had a more important position in La Trobe, near Melbourne, where he founded the Academy of Italian and the position as professor for the department of Italian at the university of Sydney. He and my mother decided they were so much fascinated by Australia that they then lived 10 years in Melbourne and another 15 in Sydney. Giovanni retired 12 years ago so they returned to England. More recently his health has seriously gone bad because of Parkinson, and now that my mother is 84 years old she takes care of him daily. He is an amazing man with an amazing culture, he has written books of great importance for example of various writers of the Middle Ages, about the Renaissance, Jacopo da Todi but also about Giacomo Leopardi. A really deep culture and passion. Being half Italian and having a tendency to learning languages I would have not expected they would have helped from my first approaches and then during my whole career as an actress. Actually it has definitely helped me a lot opening a series of wonderful opportunities over the years. Thanks to what was coming from the education I received from my mother and from the English education I had inherited the appearance and many useful skills in representing classical English characters. However, I also had the chance to quickly create a reputation as to recognize myself capable of handling characters and related scripts in Italian, French and German (as well as Australian and American!). So that in a short time Hollywood producers were happy to have me as a Cuban or Icelandic interpreter.
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I was a little girl when I realized I wanted to be an actress. I was only 8 years old and I had already decided. My mother taught dancing and since I was very small she often took me with her and I remember that I sat in a corner and while I was playing on the floor she was dancing. She used to take me out to Covent Garden and then to the theatre and I remember that I felt completely comfortable in that environment. I found it very normal for me, but I must also say that my mother never pushed me in that neurotic way some mothers do trying to instill their passion in their children. She let me live my dream of being an actress in a very normal way, and this gave me a lot of courage and balance allowing me to start forming myself when still very young. Being an actress for us was considered something quite normal not impossible, we were not very excited about it, with my mother who had the discipline of a ballerina this gave me some very solid basis and in a very natural way. From an early age we looked for courses and activities that I could attend in Sussex, where we lived, but at the time – we are talking about the sixties - it was not like today where children are very much encouraged to do theatre and there are groups and clubs everywhere, absolutely not, there was no such thing as to encourage children to act. I remember taking lessons to learn the correct form of conversation, to tell poems and to present the classics, but it was when I arrived in Perth that I was immediately offered many more opportunities, many more chances for a better education. I was 15 and Perth in particular at the time was a city considered situated in a rather remote area of Australia and it lived with the complex of having little culture. Therefore it was already very active in bringing all sorts of forms of art, such as many theatrical performances, more and more art galleries were opening and a very strong pride developed in how to present the city, in how to show they had a strong knowledge of culture. So I found myself in a city that could offer me many important possibilities: theatrical companies often came touring and I could meet the actors, an aspect that was very different from England where it would have been much more difficult. The two years spent in Perth were really exciting, so much that the opportunity to start my career was right there, playing different roles even in the company of university stu-
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dents. But it was already very clear to me that at the age of 18 I wished to go to drama school in England. And that is what I did later on. My first success was Heat and Dust by James Ivory. I had just finished drama school when he invited me to play the role of Olivia and the film had a strong launch at the 36th Cannes Film Festival. The role was beautiful for me, and I never again had the chance to feel a role so close to my personality, suiting my character, a role of great artistic importance. I believe that from that moment on, from my performance in Heat and Dust I could choose. I received high level proposals and I addressed my choices for roles, which led me to work in Italy, because it was there that I wanted to return, after all that time spent in England then in Australia I wanted to understand something more of my roots. In those years I realized not to be able to speak Italian properly and for the opportunity that I had to choose the roles, I tried to make experiences in Italy. It may have also been luck because a great time followed, I got roles and made experiences that were perfect for me, and I was traveling in many Italian cities and regions. My training since the time of Australia is deeply rooted in the Italian productions: in Perth there was an essai cinema and I could watch many foreign films and that was how I discovered the great Italian authors. I was 15, 16 and 17 years old and I started to discover the great cinema, watching the Taviani brothers’ films, Fellini’s films, Pasolini’ s films, but also Coppola’s films that impressed me a lot. But one in particular is still in my soul, and it is “The Night of the Shooting Stars” by the Taviani brothers. A culture on Italian cinema after Perth I also continued cultivating once I returned to England, when I was attending the theatre school in Bristol. In an essai cinema of that town I saw “Chaos”, the film about the stories of Pirandello set in Sicily. That’s how the passion and the strong desire to work for Italian productions was born and developed, in Italy! At the time I was 20 and I thought that in order to gain experience alongside directors such as the Taviani brothers I would have done anything, I could have also been a cook’s assistant, anything! And the opportunity came to me at the age
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of 24 when I was asked to perform in their first film in English “Good Morning Babylon”. They were looking for Italians who could star in American, and for me it was the perfect opportunity. The production recreated the Hollywood of 1914 in an area in Tirrenia, near Pisa, with the mountains of Ferrara which represented the Hollywood Hills; it was a large field where they had built a tram line, a road and some wooden houses with small palm trees, recreating the famous Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles of the early years of the century. That was the only film that the Taviani made in American, we shot it in Pisa, however, the producer was American and the film was in English. After such experience in Italy I took part in four other films one after the other, I settled in Rome for a while. When I was contacted by Hollywood I was more interested in working with European cinema so I had roles in “Man in love” with Diane Kurys, the film about Cesare Pavese which was a great success, then I was always the main character in “The woman of the moon”. With Margherethe Von Trotta, a German woman who spent a lot of time in Italy, we shot a version of “The Three Sisters” by Chekhov entitled “Fear and Love” with Sergio Castellitto, Fanny Ardant and Valeria Golino in Pavia. I’ve always liked Sergio Castellitto a lot and together we also shot an episode of “Maigret” for the Italian TV. As you can understand, although often against the advice of my agent in London who wanted to push me to work harder in France, I have always wanted to deepen my personal and professional relationship with Italy. I shot a lot, worked in different countries but it is in Italy that I have strong friendships, and where I have made very rewarding professional experiences. Then I decided to settle in England because it is the center of theatre. Today I devote myself to theater a lot. With the Headlong company I’m working on a classic: “The Glass Zoo” by Tennessee Williams opened in the Fall of 2015, and according to the critics we are doing very well. My character, Amanda, is considered one of those ethical roles for an actress of my age and that’s why I have always dreamed of doing it. Today I have all the freedom to choose my roles and I chose theatre because it is a great love for me.
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Career Milestones Greta Gracco, in art Greta Scacchi, was born in Italy in Milan and at the age of six she moved to England with her family. At the age of 15 they moved to Australia and at 18 Greta went back to England to study acting and drama at the renowned Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol where she graduated in 1981 with top marks. She made her debute at the cinema in 1982 in the German film “The wife ... the birds” (Das zweite Gesicht), directed by Dominik Graf. Following a series of films, television fictions and theatrical works, and a strong reputation followed with the film “Coca Cola Kid” by Dušan Makavejev, presented at the Cannes Film Festival. The confirmation of her artistic success entirely deserved is with “Presumed Innocent” alongside with Harrison Ford. Following are other relevant interpretations of which these are just a few: “Shattered” by Wolfgang Petersen, “The player” by Robert Altman, “Emma” from Jane Austen’s novel. Some of the Italian films were “Il ronzio delle mosche” by Dario D’Ambrosi, “Sotto falso nome” directed by Roberto Andò, “La donna della luna” directed by Vito Zagarrio, “L’amore nascosto” directed by Alessandro Capone, “Un altro mondo” directed by Silvio Muccino. Among the other American productions also “Beyond the Sea” directed by Kevin Spacey and also a role in the thriller “Flightplan”. The list is really very long but in order to remember and mention a few more: “Shattered” (you had already mentioned this film), directed by Wolfgang Petersen; “Salt on our skin”, directed by Andrew Birkin; “The Browning Version” by Mike Figgis; “Jefferson in Paris”, directed by James Ivory. Greta was also a jury member at the Cannes Film Festival in 1996.
The Letter to the Young by Greta Scacchi (Letter to the Aspiring Actors)
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feel ill-equipped to advise young people hoping to have a career in the acting profession mainly because we can only pioneer our own course -in our own era- and hope that opportunities will come our way and, unless we write or produce our own material, we are mostly at the mercy of chance. Having said that I know that my own success relied largely on meeting opportunity with preparation. In
fact it is only with preparation that we can recognise the right opportunity -and even engineer opportunities to come our way. It is not enough to think “I want to be an actor.” It is necessary to be inspired by something we see or like and ask ourselves: Why is that effective? How did she do that? Who is the director? Who is the writer? I want to read more! I want to watch more! If these questions are not brimming over within you then forget it! I have no time at all for aspiring actors who just want to be rich and famous. If it is that they crave they are in the wrong profession. Anyway, with fame you might have more power to choose, that is true, but the spotlight will expose you if you are not prepared. We live in a world that uses celebrity as a marketing tool, a quantification for its own ends. But it is QUALITY that endures. Also it is easy to believe that nothing is of value unless it is seen by millions and talked of all over the media. The magic of theatre or of film can be felt in a tiny theatre or a small film festival. When you are fascinated by the craft and feel moments of connection with the spirit of creativity you don’t need the covers of magazines to tell you what is good. I see many Italian actors wanting to make it as actors in the US. It IS possible and I wish them luck if they go to it with preparation - language study, drama study and exploration of what is going on in London and New York - and a LOVE for the material. But again, when it comes down to it the only solid difference is the size of the market, the size of the audience, the size of the budget. Most of the Italian actors who have made it in the US began by developing their work and establishing themselves at home first. Keep well, keep fit, dance, sing, read and ENJOY your endeavours! Greta
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Massimo Tosato
Executive Vice Chairman of Schroders •
University education at the Università di Roma; MBA at the Columbia Business School, NYC, NY.
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1981-1991: founder of Cominvest SpA, investment and private banking company.
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1982-1987: co-founder of Tonic-Ata-Ecom, advertising company.
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1993-1997: co-founder of Viasat Assistance SpA.
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1995: enters in Schroders, Managing Director for Italy.
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1999: he relocates to London – In charge of Schroders Investment Management for Continental Europe and for the Middle East. 2001: he enters the Board of Directors of the parent company Schroders plc and is in charge of Global Retail distribution.
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2004: is in charge of institutional and retail global distribution.
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2007: Executive Vice Chairman of Schroders plc and from 2012 CEO SIM ltd.
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Member of the Advisory Board of the Columbia University, New York and trustee Parasol Unit, foundation for Contemporary Art.
MASSIMO TOSATO Pioneer of Italian finance, futurist in European investments.
I observed all the charm of the financial heart of Europe with my nose pushed against the large windows of the meeting room. As I had got to the meeting a few minutes earlier I had time to realize where I was. I watched the impressive and elegant buildings, tall but not arrogant, I watched how skyscrapers that express the absolute modernity can coexist with alleys surrounded by incredibly enchanting historic buildings. Millennial pubs adjacent to restaurants for millionaires, everything in equal harmony, cleanliness and general order, functionality and magnetic energy that captures and fascinates. Tucked inside one of those tall crystal cigarettes that emerge out of cathedrals, bridges and Shakespearean theaters, I loved the elegance and attitude of the City of London, for its enormous diversity from the power and vastness of Manhattan from which I came. While I was waiting for Massimo Tosato, executive vice chairman of Schroders Plc, one of the leading independent international financial groups, a little man in white appeared in the meeting room. He was discreet, he moved around silently, he could even not exist, and he brought in a steel and crystal trolley with coffee cups, sugar lumps of various colors, a jug of milk, water, biscuits and silk napkins. He slided it near the large oval table and disappeared in the silence with which he had appeared. And I thought of this world of high finance, between ease, elegance, and precision, accuracy, discipline, strong determination, all inevitably backed by hard work and a dose of genius, a feature of the few who are able to make this enchanted world their own for many years. And here enters the man who already at the dawn of the 80s in Italy created one of the first private companies in investment banking services. At the time a young man who was starting a career path of over thirty years of
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international corporate successes. He comes in and shakes my hand, staring at me with a certain hardness, then he introduces me to the head of communications who has asked to participate. Only a professional hardness, a way of behaving cautiously that little by little gives way to a smile while tension is eased, as he reminisces about beautiful moments in his life. Pioneering adventures in a financial world that he took part in building, in a period when so much and everything was possible if equipped with excellent training, ideas and a great deal of courage. Aspects that Massimo Tosato obviously never lacked in his ferrying Italian and foreign companies from the past of the Lira to the future of the Euro, or managing forms of private and institutional savings through the strategic leadership of multinationals such as Schroders. A journey of memory that did not fail also to recall very personal memories, an intense conversation, through countless life and professional experiences for which a whole book would be needed and that I do not therefore expect to tell in its entirety. It is just the pleasure to introduce the man, even before introducing the celebrated manager of the City of London, among the most respected and valued figures in the international economic and financial sector.
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How I Am What I Am
“ My early career was a reverse process of what normally happens in our industry. Usu-
ally it starts with working in a large company, to gain experience, possibly with the idea to start up your own business later on; from the first day I started as an entrepreneur with the desire to fulfill my entrepreneurial dream. When I started in Italy it was hard times, we are talking about 1981, our country was recovering from that tragic period of history from a cultural and political point of view, let us remember even the physical clashes between the various political factions, terrorism and labor struggles. In order to succeed in those years we needed courage, self-confidence, the willingness to do, and of course also a good dose of disregard! I was a young man of 26 who was entering the financial field without a clear understanding of the true level of risk, because at that age you are fearless, alone and independent, you do not have a family, children, and the only thing you want is to conquer the world. I was strongly motivated due to my cultural and family heritage: a family of entrepreneurs in Veneto, co-owners of one of the most important transport and logistics companies in Italy at the time, Domenichelli. My father died at a young age and we were forced to sell the business because I was an 11-year-old child, and no one to manage it. I still remember when I was at high school, I felt like an entrepreneur, but with no enterprise! I was like a noble without a castle ... I was looking forward to starting up my own business. A few years later I found myself at Columbia University in New York when Manhattan was the global financial capital. I had the opportunity to learn about the world of investment banking. It was 1981, at that time enrolling was considered the most rewarding destination, the highest peak, labor aristocracy for the young, also for the level of compensation: it was by far the best opportunity for our generation, as well as digital is for today’s. At the same time Italy was getting close to a turning point, we began to talk of privatizations, labour flexibility, Fiat’s managers were demonstrating in Turin to support the company, terrorism was being decimated. These were all very important signals for
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an Italy that was beginning to recover from decade made of oil shocks, of clashes and bombings in the street, the Brigate Rosse (Red Brigades) and kidnappings, labor struggles, occupied schools and universities and so on. Our ecosystem influences our choices: I decided to return to our country with the idea to start doing Investment Banking and we started from bond trading. In those days the government bond market was the only really active one in Italy and we started our first activities through Cominvest (Compagnia Internazionale d’Investimenti). I founded it together with a couple of friends, including Professor Bruno Trezza who had been my professor at university, a very independent Republican economist. The headquarters were in Rome but the financial intermediation market in Italy had always been in Milan, so after less than a year I opened a branch office. After three years, 90% of our turnover was produced in Milan, where I moved for most of the week, while little by little we launched new areas of activity. We were among the first independent private companies dealing with investment banking , we came up with ideas studied in America thus quite innovative. At the institutional level the market was dominated by Mediobanca and IMI. Euromobiliare, SIGE, Pasfin, Ersel were born and growing. Our growth was rapid and extraordinary: In the first three years we closed with geometric profit growth. Unfortunately, some years later some international competitors also noticed that - so they started to land in Italy! It was a remarkable period: success encouraged us, the historic moment was in our favor and the pros were higher than our lack of experience. We learned day by day, very strong in dreams, less in experience, learning, making mistakes and redoing. We grew with a good competitive edge for about ten years. What mainly helped us was our enthusiasm, creativity and the constant desire to innovate. We imported “the financial and commodities futures� to Italy; together with the bond trading we also developed the equity brokerage, M&A advisory and company listing private banking, leasing and counter-trade with international partners, opening for this reason also a subsidiary in Geneva. In hindsight, some things went well others a little less but on the whole they were years where we gained and enjoyed ourselves very much. This is indeed the most beautiful
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aspect of running a business, implementing ideas, and for us they were satisfactions that went beyond material gain. It was the early 90s when I decided it was a good market time to sell the company, capitalize and take a gap year with Ilaria, the person who would later become my wife; an economist who at the time was working for Euromobiliare. She was used to travelling and she had been brought up in an international context by her parents, therefore Ilaria immediately shared the idea, so she quit her job and I sold the company and we set off for a year’s journey around the world, visiting once again the United States, then China, Tibet and many other beautiful places. A gap year in truth halved because after six months I started to think “but I am only 36, I have to do something else, I must work. What can I do now and for the next 30 years? “. I would wake up at dawn with anxiety and I realize that I was looking forward to starting doing something new. And something was done considering that before the end of the gap year Ilaria and I got married. The honeymoon was short, however, only two weeks, since we had been around the world for six months! As soon as I got back I devoted myself to some investments in growing and innovative sectors. Already in previous years we had created with two skilled friends who were experts in the field, an advertising agency, which we called “Tonic” and that we managed for some years with incredible success in sales. Later I invested to launch in Italy a totally innovative satellite alarm system for luxury cars, imitating a project that I had seen in the United States. I talked to a couple of friends, at the time CEOs of Telespazio and of Europe Assistance (Assicurazioni Generali). Thanks to them we managed to have immediate access to an operational center open 24 hours a day and to a satellite network, at the time a state monopoly. We were also the first to complete the first digital mapping of the Italian territory. The operating system was built by the fourth business partner, specialized engineers, and after one preparatory year the company started and we called the product “Viasat”. The beginning was difficult because the service was expensive; we started from luxury
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cars such as Ferrari but when transport companies, who suffered theft on the trucks, became our customers, business began to turn. In the meantime I was starting to engage with Schroders and decided to hand over my shares to Telespazio, that had made a great offer. It was during this period I also went to negotiate with Schroders Ventures, today “Permira”, at the time one of the largest private equity firms in Europe, owned by Schroders group. I was dealing with them with some cousins of mine on the acquisition of a small company, leader in the artisan food products sector; during those meetings they told me “why are you devoting yourself to an activity so different from your training, you have made all your career in the financial sector, come with us. We are very strong in investment banking in Italy, but Schroders fastest growing sector the asset management and in Italy we have nothing! You could create it with us! “ Who was really forward-thinking at that time was the managing director of Schroders Italy, Panfilo Tarantelli who had great trust in me. It was 1995 and the idea to gain experience in a prestigious international company not only appealed to me, I was also convinced that for the asset management industry in Italy it was an amazing time of change. Furthermore, Schroders represented the corporate world that was lacking in my education, and the opportunity to develop the ability to manage processes and learn about large organizational models. Therefore I accepted the proposal and began my full-time job at Schroders, building up their business in Italy. In those years Schroders was a company specializing in managing defined benefic pensions, but the complementary individual savings market was beginning to grow, to expand, and I was excited by the opportunity to develop a business based on mutual funds. I strongly believed in the arrival of the Euro, the currency which was still entirely theoretical and in England they did not think at all that it would have become a reality
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(they still do not believe in it!). The currency alignement process had started and, despite some internal resistance, I built Luxembourg fund with products denominated in euros and distributed throughout Europe; today I am still its chairman, and it has about 100 billion euros under management. Italy soon became a major source of revenue in Europe and once again I must say that I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time; the overall economic environment has certainly helped because it was a boom market, a time of growth for the asset management business in Italy, after decades dominated by government bonds and real estate. After four years I was proposed to move to London and develop our asset management business in Continental Europe. This was a positive opportunity for the quality of life that we could offer to our family, to my children, who could have been brought up in an Anglo-Saxon world with English as mother tongue, in short, I saw it as an insurance for their lives. I was convinced, I accepted and, at least for a while, I set aside my dreams to resume being an entrepreneur. After only two years I was offered to build the global retail business and join the board of directors of the listed holding company. It was the field where I worked more in those years, developing it globally, traveling continuously for 120, 130 days a year, meeting with governmental and private institutions all over the world, from Japan to Australia, from China to Germany, from France to the United States, all countries where we then built a business. It was a very rapid success, constructed by identifying the secular trend of individualization of long-term savings, which compensated for the difficult time we experienced the institutional business. In 2004, the responsibility was extended to the institutional and then from 2007 to present to the global asset management, including strategy and product management, marketing, client servicing and sales. Today, twenty one years on from beginning the Schroders adventure, we are a company that manages more than 400 billion euros with clients in 40 countries worldwide,
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with offices in 28 countries, a diversified customer base and product range. A company capable of overcoming systemic risks or macroeconomic crises much more than before; in fact our revenues has grown year after year and in the last six years with continued record profits. With some concern I have to say no growth is infinite; of course I hope it will end as late as possible but we know that sooner or later there will be a negative cycle! For me Schroders was a creative opportunity, a great commitment, always trying to maintain a good work-life balance. Tomorrow, who knows, maybe a new enterprise? With Ilaria we have three children, one is finishing college in the United States, the second is at university here in England and the third is 15 years old and is at high school. I have two hobbies: one is contemporary art, which I have been following since I was 24, although given my age, someone who was a contemporary is becoming modern! The other is wine making: my wife and I started a winery called Villa Pinciana in our house in Maremma, in the Capalbio area. Despite being a small production, it has become a real small business; we have three labels called Tilaria, Terraria and Airali, for a total of about 50,000 bottles a year that we sell in 8 countries worldwide. Ilaria deals with everything full-time as she is very fond of it. She has also won several international awards.
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Career Milestones Massimo Tosato has been working for Schroders since 1995. He has been executive vice chairman of the group since 2007, in charge of Distribution globally, as well as CEO of Schroder Investment Management ltd. He was born in Venice, with university education in Rome he then took an MBA at Columbia Business School in 1980. He grew up with a passion for entrepreneurship, in 1981 he founded Cominvest SpA, an investment and private banking company sold several years later to the Cassa di Risparmio di Roma Banco Santo Spirito. He also co-founded Tonic, an advertising company of which he was president from 1982 to 1987, and subsequently Viasat Assistance SpA, co-founded in 1994 and then sold in 1997 to the Telecom Italian Group. He started working for Schroders in 1995 as managing director for Italy, and in 1999 he moved to London, where he was initially responsible for Schroders Investment Management for Continental Europe and the Middle East. He has been Vice President of EFAMA (the European Association for asset management). In 2001 Schroders appointed him global head of retail, and joined the Board of Directors of the listed holding company; in 2004 he became global head of distribution, both institutional and retail. Between 2002 and 2005 he served as an Independent Director of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro SpA. He is member of the International Advisory Board of Columbia Business School in New York, and is a trustee of the Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London.
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The Letter to the Young by Massimo Tosato “written thinking about what I would like to tell my own children”
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ream the impossible, dream of greatness, only by dreaming you will develop creativity and resourcefulness. However, you must also be ready to conciliate aspirations with reality, that is, the opportunities avail-
able and the effort required to achieve them. There are no shortcuts to success. Do not hope in winning the lottery or in some kind of miracle. Build your own miracle, brick by brick, day by day. Success never comes without hard work and discipline. Be ready to commit yourself for hours and hours, until late at night. Do not be held back by the fear of failure – you will make mistakes, you will need to make U-turns and you will find yourself in a dead end; but what you will learn from those moments will give you strength for the next important realization. Sometimes life will bring you down to your knees: get up on your feet and start all over again. Never give in. Be optimistic and get to know your weaknesses; You will be rewarded. We have all made and we will keep on making mistakes - some big, some small. At the end of your life what really matters will be the sum of failures and successes, in the family, socially and morally, financially. Always be open to advice and not only from those who seem wiser – they may not be so. Not for nothing many disruptive ideas come from the intellectual freshness of youth. Once you have listened to other people’s advice, always trust your judgement and take your own decisions. Use any doubt or uncertainty (we all! Have some) as an incentive to improve, to learn new things, to change your attitude or your perspective and build confidence in your ideas. The greatest innovators, artists and entrepreneurs are the ones who have the courage to reject the common belief, and turn their gaze to unexplored territories. This does not always mean great acts of faith, but it can result in small steps taken with courage and conviction in the direction of your ambition. Be innovative, think laterally, always curious and strong in comparison, ready to speak your mind.
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Your whole life will be full of opportunities and unexpected events. Do not limit your perspective but be ready to adapt and accept change in order to achieve your goals. Do not level economic rewards and personal fulfillment; keep an open and a curious mind. Remember the importance of contributing to the welfare of others and of returning the kindness you have been proven. Preserve your cultural heritage. During our path to success it is easy to lose sight of the quality, of the experience and of the style inherited from past generations; these are the foundations that will give you the strength to accept the risks and do not jeopardize the possibility of improvement and progress. Use them as a strong foundation to look forward, but not backward. Always look forward. I will leave you finishing with the words of Johann Wolfgang Goethe: “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” Massimo An important post scriptum… Given my profession, it would be a shame not to offer a practical wisdom note to the younger generation. Do not believe that retirement is so far away, or that the state or companies will support you as they did for the “baby boomers” generation. Start saving when you are young as soon as your income will allow you to. As well as you place each brick to achieve your dreams, as soon as possible start saving a little, day by day, for your future. You will not regret it.
Francesco Vanni d’Archirafi CEO, Citi Hodings Group •
Chief Executive Officer of Citi Holdings, which comprises Citi’s non-core assets.
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April 2009: Chief Executive Officer of Citi Transaction Services (CTS).
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Until 2009: Global Head for Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS).
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Joined CTS in 2003 as the Region Head for Europe, Middle East and Africa.
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1983: began his career with Citi as a Management Associate in New York.
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1984 moved to the Corporate Bank as a Relationship Manager in Lima, Peru.
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1987 moved to London and launched Citibank’s Southern Europe Structured Finance business.
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1993: appointed Corporate Finance Head for Italy, based in Milan.
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1996: returned to London as the Global Co-Head for Mergers and Acquisitions.
1998: appointed the Market Manager for Iberia responsible for the Corporate Bank and customer relationships in Spain and Portugal; also appointed the Country Corporate Officer of Citigroup for Spain, based in Madrid. •
2001: named Chairman and CEO of Citibank International plc and the European Customer Group Executive for Citigroup’s Corporate Bank headquartered in London •
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2003: asked to join CTS.
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Finance graduate of the American University in Washington, D.C.
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Stanley I. Posner Award.
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M.B.A. in finance and international business from Columbia University in 1983.
FRANCESCO VANNI D’ARCHIRAFI The global manager who teaches children.
The world must be really small seen through the eyes and experience of a man like Francesco Vanni d’Archirafi. Travelling has always been a prerogative for the man who is the CEO of Citigroup Holdings. He is so by profession, and by nature. After all he was born traveling, but definitely not traveling as a gypsy but as a diplomat, as a member of a family of ambassadors for generations. It is really interesting to meet a man able to live and fully adapt to so many different cultures, languages, customs and habits and who is able to do so for a long time. Personally I have always found these qualities fascinating, and I have always considered these kinds of people as gifted with utterly uncommon sensitivity. Having the opportunity to often settle in different countries and building up a working life, business and social relationships, affection, changing houses, furnishing them, filling them with clothes and personal items, simple daily habits, requires very special skills, exceptional openness, great adaptability, and relentless curiosity for life. The conversation with Francesco Vanni d’Archirafi has entirely confirmed such opinions of mine. Listening to him retracing his life experiences among which Spain, the United States, England and other countries, was an inner enrichment because it gave me the chance to perceive every opportunity he lived as well as the difficulties he had to go through. Understanding lessons of life through the experiences of those we listen to and treasure them in order to improve ourselves is one of the advantages of the writer and biographer. An opportunity that I fully enjoyed with Francesco as I had no doubt that there was so much to learn from the “global head” of the banking giant Citigroup Holding. Then comes the surprise! As if it was not enough I discovered that his commit-
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ment is also constantly devoted to teaching children in 123 countries worldwide how to become entrepreneurs and why. This journey through his life was becoming absolutely extraordinary.
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How I Am What I Am
“ I am the son of a diplomat, brother of a diplomat, grandson of a diplomat, great-grandson of a diplomat. Our whole family has served our country in diplomacy.
I am also a ‘blessed among women’, because my family consists of my wife Charlotte and two wonderful girls, Caterina and Allegra, the former of 8, the latter of 7. As a child I did not at all imagine that my professional life would have been built up in the field of large bank groups, I saw myself as an architect, as a firefighter, something like that, a bit what happens to all children! Then I travelled a little around the world with my father and that was when my life took its path. Born in Munich we then moved around from Belgium, to Argentina, Italy and Spain. My English was not that good though they tried to make it improve by sending me to Ireland in Summer. At the age of 18 as I finished high school my parents put me on a plane going to the United States where I would have attended a course of English for foreigners at Washington University. An opportunity that allowed me to learn the language very quickly and after only three months, I was so happy of how things were going that I decided to carry on studying there. I really liked the educational system of the American University and in two years and a half I completed a Bachelor degree in “Financial and Business Administration” with full marks, and I was also awarded best student of the year. I then should have gone back home but I really did not want to. I was determined to follow a Master degree, so I sent an application to all the best universities in the US, among which Harvard, Stanford, Gorton and Columbia. The first two replied telling me I did not have enough working experience, since I had only worked during the two previous summers at Wall Street, in New York, and they wrote I had to resubmit the application two years later, after acquiring more experience. But I did not want to waste time, I was 21 and considering that among the three universities Columbia had however accepted me
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I did not think about it anymore and I enrolled. The first year was really very hard but the second year they already offered me the opportunity to work and I thought it was great. At that point I was 23 and I knew I wanted to work for a big multinational company and among the offers I received the one I preferred, it was from Citibank. I knew Citibank for being a group with a strong global presence and its Training Program was particularly interesting and had an outstanding reputation, both theirs and Chase’s, but Chase did not make me any offer so I chose Citi. At Citi they knew I was bilingual, I spoke Spanish well, and by now I could also speak English well so they admitted me on a management program where the idea was to be trained in New York. The program included an initial period to be spent in New York and then relocate to Latin American countries where I would have been able to develop my career. In New York I was in charge of some very interesting projects for Ivan Cherman, such as the analysis of all the joint venture operations the bank had carried out over the last 100 years. We had to analyze the reasons why some had had excellent developments, while others had just had the opposite ones, and others who had never gone beyond the initial announcement. But I must have done something right or wrong, I still have to understand... because I was sent to Lima! And this really was not one of my targets. We were in the ‘80s, and when I then went back to the US I started working very hard. Starting from “operation”, “treasury”, then following the clients and the last year I was appointed bank treasurer. We went through the stage when the situation had become so critical that the decision of dramatically cutting down on the budget of the bank was taken in order to keep the license. In short, a series of particularly challenging experiences, so many years in the United States and so many also in Peru, too many I was by then longing to go back to Europe where I kept on receiving several job offers both coming from banks and from other companies. Among all these proposals I was also offered the position of Citi treasurer in Spain, but I had just completed a major acquisition, therefore I decided to settle in London. It was 1987 when I arrived with my first assignment in London, I was the analyst of a group of “venture capital and deleverage by house”. I began making the first “buyout”
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operations in Southern Europe, operations Citi was the very first to be involved in, such as the first “management buyout” the first “family buyout”, and many others. Operations that led to the creation of Citigroup. In the late 80s there was a strong financial crisis and I was entrusted with the responsibility for all the “corporate finance” for Italy. The MNA activity in Italy apparently went so well in those years that I was asked to return to London in 1996, to be the head of Global MNA for Citibank, which I was for two years. My dream had always been to have the responsibility of a Country for Citi. My father was in Spain as an ambassador, I had studied in Spain, it was a country that was going very well and I asked the assignment to settle in there. It was confirmed so I went from London to Madrid where I was the Chairman of Citi for Spain and Portugal. After that my boss who was responsible for Europe went back to the United States and asked me to go to London for the third time, and this time entrusting me with the responsibility of Europe, both for institutional clients and as Chairman and CEO of Citi International PLC. I took on this role and two years later in Spain the merger between Citibank and Travelers created Citigroup. As usual over such mergers there is always an ‘internal restructuring’. Frank Bisignano from the New York headquarters, head of Global Transaction Services–one of the bank’s biggest business, above all the only one that was present in 100 countries, asked me to take on the responsibility of Europe, of the Middle East and Africa. So by then he was the global head of Transaction Services, and I was the head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Four years had gone by when in 2007 I was asked to come to New York to be the head of one of the Transaction Services division, the Cash Management, and then acquire the responsibility of Trade Services and Trade Finance. The merger of these two divisions took place under my leadership, creating TTS (Treasure and Trade Solution) and subsequently I was also entrusted with the responsibility for all the other services of the bank
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becoming the head of Transaction Services, that is what Bisignano had been up to that moment. An assignment that I carried out until May 2013 when I was asked to take on the responsibility of all Citigroup’s non-core activities, that is becoming the head of Citi Holdings. With this new assignment my responsibility is to cut down all the assets and all the businesses that the group believes to be necessary as quickly as possible and in a smart and efficient way. For example, in Baltimore we have just sold a major American group, in Spain we have completed the sale to a local bank and the same thing has happened in Greece; we are doing the same in Egypt, Hungary, Czech Republic, Japan, Korea, Central America, Peru and Canada. My commitments in addition to Citi see me involved in the Advisory Board of IESE which is the best business school in Europe for executive programs; I am also in the Advisory Board of the Business School of the American University. But above all I am in the Advisory Board of the Vatican Centesimus Annus, a foundation that deals with the social doctrine of the church with the help of people who bring their own experience in the private sector. These are all commitments I believe in a lot, because my idea of leadership has two aspects: the first is the ‘purpose’ of the mission of the company or group of people that one is leading; the other is the ‘legacy’ that you want to leave. In particular, I treasure the concept of legacy, that is what I want to leave to those who will follow as a result of my professional and human commitment. I am deeply convinced that the future of companies will be bright only for those who will be able to have a clear strategy of social action, not as charity or by signing a check but they must have in their own corporate structure a department sensitive to volunteering and to social intervention. This concept brought to the large numbers of such big companies as ours means to make sure that whatever we do, is done having a vision which is more important than just giving the shareholder a profit. I strongly believe that it is right in the mission of the enterprise that there must also be the skill to ensure that municipalities and communities
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are better because we are there. And the list of things that can be done is very long, and although it is true that not everything can be done, that it is not possible to solve the problems of the whole world, the fact remains that today the responsibility of companies is much more important in a world where the public sector must unfortunately be cut down, considering how the major economies are going. We all have a responsibility in sharing in some way with the others the luck that we have had in our work, in our careers. I have worked hard in my life, I have faced countless risks, challenges, and I could not always do what I really wanted, but I must admit it, I have been very lucky. I am very happy with what I have done and my way to reciprocate such luck is also devoting all the time and all the energy left collaborating with humanitarian, training or similar organizations. For example, one of my ‘night jobs’, is the recent appointment of Chairman of the World “Junior Achievement - Young Enterprise Initiative”, an organization that teaches boys and girls, from kindergarten to the end of high school, to become entrepreneurs. It is present in 123 countries worldwide, in 50 states in the United States and every year we collect $300 million available for this organization that reaches 10 million children and 450,000 volunteers. How do we achieve such goal? There are three fundamental pillars: the first is to teach them finance since young, what a budget is, what cash flow is, this at kindergarten in a very simple way but in a more sophisticated way in higher classes until the last year of high school. The second is to teach them how to get to know the world of work, thanks to the volunteers who come from the private sector. Finally, the third one is to be sure they learn all this while having fun. Depending on the type of class and age we teach more and more seriously how to create enterprises, micro companies, and develop the concept of corporate competitiveness celebrating the best ones, those who have managed to get the best results, the highest capital. The results are then rewarded, first within the school and then in their city, in the region, in the nation and in the continental area which could either be Europe, the United States, or others. After that every year all the winners reach the final where there is a jury made up by people like me!
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What we are particularly proud of is the result of various analyzes made on the impact of this initiative on young people. We have discovered, just as expected, that the children of primary and secondary schools participating in Junior Achievement programs are three times more likely to become entrepreneurs after finishing their studies. What we want to make people understand is that the real tragedy of the countries’ economy is unemployment. Unfortunately, today the big companies do not hire as much as before, and the same thing is happening in the public sector, therefore it is essential for children to learn how to become entrepreneurs or to know how to build their own working reality. It is a programme I am very proud of also because I contributed a lot to develop this organization at first in Spain, then in Greece, Portugal and even in Italy. It all started during my first assignment in London for Citi when they asked me to join the European Council, then I became the chairman of the structure for Europe. When I relocated to the United States I was asked to be part of the World Council, then vice president up to more recent times when they wanted me as chairman. A responsibility that I carry out with passion and with great pleasure.
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Career Milestones Francesco Vanni d’Archirafi is the Chief Executive Officer of Citi Holdings, which comprises Citi’s non-core assets. Prior to running Citi Holdings, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of Citi Transaction Services (CTS) since April 2009. Prior to being promoted to CEO of CTS, Francesco was the Global Head for Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS), a major business division of Citi Transaction Services. He joined CTS in 2003 as the Region Head for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Francesco began his career with Citi in 1983 as a Management Associate in New York before moving to the Corporate Bank in 1984 as a Relationship Manager in Lima, Peru, where he later took on the role of Treasury Marketing Manager. In 1986, he was ap-
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pointed Country Treasurer for Peru, before moving to London in 1987 to launch Citibank’s Southern Europe Structured Finance business. In 1993, he was appointed Corporate Finance Head for Italy, based in Milan. Three years later, he returned to London as the Global Co-Head for Mergers and Acquisitions. In 1998, Francesco was appointed the Market Manager for Iberia responsible for the Corporate Bank and customer relationships in Spain and Portugal. He was also appointed the Country Corporate Officer of Citigroup for Spain, based in Madrid. In 2001, he was named Chairman and CEO of Citibank International plc and the European Customer Group Executive for Citigroup’s Corporate Bank headquartered in London; two years later he was asked to join CTS. Francesco is the Chairman of Citibank Holdings Ireland Ltd and Chair of Citibank Europe plc. He serves on the Boards of the Citi Foundation, CitiFinancial Credit Company, Associates First Capital Corporation, PEFCO (Private Export Funding Corporation), Mapfre America S.A. and Business in the Community (BiTC), where he is the Vice Chair of BiTC’s International Leadership Team. In addition, Francesco serves on the International Advisory Board of IESE and the Advisory Council for The Kogod School of Business at American University. He is the Chairman of Junior Achievement Worldwide, a member of its Board of Governors, and a Board member of Junior Achievement-Young Enterprise Europe. Francesco is a finance graduate of the American University in Washington, D.C., where he received the Stanley I. Posner Award as the graduating senior with the highest overall academic average. He obtained his M.B.A. in finance and international business from Columbia University in 1983.
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The Letter to the Young by Francesco Vanni d’Archirafi Dedicated to all New Graduates
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ongratulations on your graduation. You must be anxious to start and accelerate your career and embark on this exciting journey. Your hard work has brought you to this point in your life, and you will have numerous opportunities to influence your career.
I have worked in Finance for over 30 years, and I remember the anticipation you must be experiencing now as you start your career. Am I selecting the right job? Am I making the right decision? Are my choices aligned with what I envision my future to be? Am I going to be successful in what I am doing? Here is some advice. Work hard. Work incredibly hard! You are starting and building your career, and this takes time and effort; strong performance is the building block of your career. Always strive to be better and stretch yourself as much as possible. Create a brand for yourself of being the one with the impeccable work-ethic that gets the job done. When you see problems, even when not exactly under your responsibility, offer a helping hand. Giving support will show your team members your commitment and your willingness to help and learn. I cannot stress enough how important it is to be diligent about creating and maintaining your reputation. Always strive for the highest standards of behavior. Do not lose your curiosity. You are entering an environment with people who have been doing the same duties and tasks for months or years. Your co-workers may not see what you are able to see as an outsider just coming in with fresh eyes. Do not settle for the current way of doing things, but instead let your curios-
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ity guide you and ask questions. If you don’t understand something, ask. If you feel intimidated asking your manager, ask your co-worker. Asking questions is not a sign of weakness. Learn from all around you. Do not silo yourself in your specific responsibilities. There is always an opportunity to grow and learn, and it is solely your responsibility to take advantage of that. You will learn from your peers and from networking. Surround yourself with people you admire, observing how they react to problems, the questions they ask when facing issues, and how they communicate will teach you so much more than classes or textbooks can. Do your job, but also take the time to seek out mentors and cultivate relationships. Be willing to take risks. You are starting your career and many doors will be opening for you. Do not close yourself to embarking on new opportunities. Taking new experiences as they come can only broaden and develop you. Do not be afraid to take that job “far away” and be open to take on challenges that come your way. Every step in my career has been a stepping stone to where I am today. Many I originally did not plan for, but looking back each has helped me get to where I am today! I encourage you to always do the same without fear. Most importantly, the advice I want to leave you with is: do everything with passion. Find what drives you and do not be afraid to go down that path.
Francesco
Riccardo Zacconi
Co-founder & CEO King Digital Entertainment •
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Born in Rome; attended LUISS University of Rome and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in economics 1999: served as vice president of European Sales and Marketing at uDate.com Ltd. He was managing director for Spray Network GmbH an online portal based in Hamburg with a presence in Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Developed solid company strategy, intelligent plans for sustainable growth and strategic partnerships, which supported the successful sale of Spray Network to Lycos for $764 million. Consultant at LEK Consulting LLP. Entrepreneur-in-residence at Benchmark Capital Partners, a Qualified Case Leader at The Boston Consulting Group, Inc. March 2003: co-founded King Ltd and has since grown the company into the leading interactive entertainment company for the mobile world. wServed King Ltd on Board of Directors and as chief executive officer since March 2003. King Ltd is the developer of the popular mobile games app Candy Crush Saga
RICCARDO ZACCONI Entertainment: The Millionaire Successful Strategy.
For Riccardo Zacconi time has definitely got a very precious value, obviously far more than what it has already got for myself as I barely managed to speak to him. After all you just have to put your hands on one of the games King Digital Entertainment creates: they are fast, amazing, unique. And this somehow summarizes the impression I got when talking to the mobile gaming man who has conquered the global market. He is young in spirit, brilliant and greatly successful exactly like his games. We retraced the stages of his life very quickly, how he grew and studied in Italy, in Rome, then in Germany, in the United States, the many international experiences but above all the steady growth of his entrepreneurial creativity that led him besides consultancy, management and company management, to co-found a company in London with a turnover of millions of pounds and he simply does it by making kids and adults have fun. The managerial strategy that Riccardo applies in order to ensure a constant growth of King’s success is very simple: he is always surrounded by collaborators who are better than he is. It may look like a contradiction, or be perceived as Columbus’ egg. However you interpret it one thing is for sure certain, it is a concept as obvious as wise. But a wisdom obviously not meant for everyone, because you do not happen to perceive it in many entrepreneurs so often, and not even to see it applied in practice, functionally. .
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How I Am What I Am
“ I left Italy after college, I went to work in Germany, and I really liked it a lot, but it is
always hard when you settle in another country. It was very difficult to find a job in Italy so after receiving an interesting offer to work in Germany I decided to accept it. After a few years I received another offer from a company in Silicon Valley, in America. Their headquarters were also in the United Kingdom where I was asked to relocate to. In practice, the proposal was that in order to get into their group I should have found a new great idea for the company, and if I had done so they would have funded me. I asked them if I had to find funders, but they told me I needn’t but they still expected me to study the operation and to elaborate the project. So I accepted the challenge and my proposal was to found u.Date.com and they approved it. I settled in England and became part of their group and have been here ever since. These are the many advantages, the kind of incentives that countries such as the US, and the UK offer to attract minds. Opportunities provided by a flow of investors that allow the development of ideas and thus of companies. After all the headquarters of all the main companies of Silicon Valley such as Apple, Google and Facebook are located here in London and this is a kind of circle. A link among investors, ideas, companies, minds. In Europe, London is the center of this circle and inside such circle there is also Berlin, then Barcelona that is growing with excellent perspectives and where currently new important companies are establishing. In fact we also have one of the main headquarters in Barcelona. However I recognize that my background, the fact of being Italian has certainly helped me in affirming my professional skills. Our culture is very open minded, friendly and these are all advantages in building up interpersonal relationships. Also we Italians have this feature of knowing what we want and how to get it. And we do not give in until we get it! Therefore I can only be very proud of being Italian, Italians are great.
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Unfortunately it is also true that for a person like me going back to Italy to work would be difficult after such experiences, constantly very close to international people I build up relationships with every day. Working in a dynamic environment such as the one we have created here in England constantly upgrades the professional skills of whoever is honestly dedicated to success. But first of all we must be able to set a good example, a boss cannot make others do what he is not able to do himself. It is also essential to choose and hire people who are better than you are, I am sure about that, you must engage people who have specific knowledge in the field of interest and 50% of collaborators must be employed for those positions where you are lacking. As the founder of King Ltd I immediately hired people who were the best I had ever worked with, for example they worked in the field of design, professionals able to understand what the user wanted and who knew technology very well. Therefore a small and very strong team was created and we have kept on doing our best in order to hire the most valuable people on the market, collaborators who would have increased our knowledge and our ability to succeed. The role of the CEO is just that, finding the best people who can work for the company, and the collaborators who create the games are the most valuable people in our company, not the CEO! For us the team is important, it is part of our culture and it goes without saying that for any operation, for any meeting everyone can have their own say, if we do not agree with each other anyone can speak out, you needn’t agree. Candy Crush, our game that is having a truly global success, has been the result of about fifty other games created and studied before and it was just an idea of those I call the wizards of technology, technicians and creatives that I brought back from Germany, and those are the same people who make our company the best in this field. I am often asked how can a game that is globally free bring money and the answer is simple, it is based on the concept of ‘fremium’, which is the blend of ‘free’ and ‘premium’. It is the positive consequence of large numbers, a result of offering a free product by collecting hundreds of millions of users. Users who actually become true wealth both in terms of advertising and as direct revenue, this when you ask them a micropayment of just few cents, multiplied by hundreds of millions, can turn into a stunning income.
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Career Milestones Riccardo Zacconi was born in Rome where he also attended LUISS University and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in economics. In 1999 Riccardo served as vice president of European Sales and Marketing at uDate. com Ltd., an online dating service, and was involved in driving market penetration and partnerships until the company was acquired by InterActive Corporation in 2002. Before that, he was managing director for Spray Network GmbH an online portal based in Hamburg with a presence in Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. In this role, Riccardo demonstrated his understanding for developing solid company strategy, intelligent plans for sustainable growth and strategic partnerships, which supported the successful sale of Spray Network to Lycos for $764 million. In addition, Riccardo has been an entrepreneur-in-residence at Benchmark Capital Partners, a Qualified Case Leader at The Boston Consulting Group, Inc. and a consultant at LEK Consulting LLP. In March 2003, he co-founded King Ltd. He has since grown the company into the leading interactive entertainment company for the mobile world. He has served King Ltd on Board of Directors and as chief executive officer since March 2003. With over 20 years of experience in strategic management, consulting and e-commerce, Riccardo brings exceptional knowledge and expertise to both the social and casual gaming domains. Riccardo’s favourite King game used to be Jungle Bubble. He’s currently deciding on his new favourite King game.
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PrimiDieci 2016, the Author PrimiDieci USA’, ten biographies, ten stories of lives and successes, ten different and original portraits which depict unique people united by their exceptional talents, strong characters, and huge, passionate hearts. The visionary who committed all of this to the written word is Riccardo Lo Faro, a biographer and ghost-writer. Born in Rome and having studied at both Italian and American universities, Riccardo Lo Faro is a biographer and ghost-writer based in New York, with clients in the US, Europe and other countries. His previous work experiences have brought him to Australia, with Sea World Australia; South Africa, with Ladbroke PLC - Hilton Hotels International; Italy, with Veio Country Club of Roma and with Hotel Mirage in Cortina d’Ampezzo. He was the New York correspondent for the international culture magazine ‘NewYorkCityV,’ which is published in the US (New York) and in Italy, as well as distributed on Delta Airlines flights. Since 2004 he has been the editor-in chief of “Convivial Spirit’, in New York, the official publication of the New York Delegation of Accademia Italiana della Cucina – an Italian government cultural institution with delegations in all of Italy’s regions as well as all major foreign cities. As a writer and journalist, he is member of the US Department of State - Foreign Press Center, and member of the Italian Association of Journalists. He is the author of books, memorials, articles and other editorial and web content, working mostly anonymously in the employ of private clients and companies, while maintaining various collaborations with journalistic and cultural titles. He is the founder of PrimiDieci Society and the author of the annual books by the Society: PrimiDieci USA and PrimiDieci U.K.
For proposals and projects, please contact:
New York, USA 152 West 36th Street, suite 504 New York, N.Y. 10018 info@riccardolofaro.com Tel. +1 (646) 287-5901
www.riccardolofaro.com
Acknowledgements Firstly, I wish to thank our distinguished Selection Committee’s Chairman and Members: Chairman of PrimiDieci Society Selection Committee: H.E. P.Q. Terracciano, Italian Ambassador in the UK. Members: Benito Fiore, Director at A.T. Kearney, and Chairman PrimiDieci-UK; Massimiliano Mazzanti, Consul General of Italy in London; Massimiliano Cattozzi, Head of International Network at Intesa Sanpaolo –Corporate and Investment Banking Division; Anna Marra, UK Representative at Banca d’Italia; Leonardo Simonelli Santi, President of Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the UK; Fortunato Celi Zullo, Director at ICE, Italian Trade Agency, London; Roberto di Lauro, Scientific Attachè, The Italian Embassy in London; Anna Chimenti Sorgi, Cultural Attachè, The Italian Embassy in London. The cultural-publishing initiative PrimiDieci Society is financially supported by the personal contributions of the founders, that is myself and Alessia Pertosa, by some sponsor companies and some benefactors. The Society does not receive any governmental grant, from any nation. As the founder of this initiative and author of the annual books I would like to thank: Benito Fiore. Benito is above all a very dear friend. He was chairman of the ENI Group in foreign countries, such as the USA, the UK, and Canada for a very long time. Then executive of Montedison in Milan, Canada and northern Europe. He was senior executive of EniChem, then bought back by the ENI Group. Besides other chief positions, Benito Fiore has been Director of A.T. Kearney, in the London office, one of the major American companies in the field of management and strategic consulting, for 19 years. Benito immediately understood the cultural importance of PrimiDieci, enough to propose and promote it for the British territory. Today we are honored to have Benito as Chairman for PrimiDieci-UK and it is thanks to his constant voluntary collaboration that today we are able to inaugurate the First Edition of “PrimiDieci-UK”, supported by a Board of excellence, whose Chairman is H.E., the Italian Ambassador in the U.K., P.Q. Terracciano. Claudio Bozzo. Dr. Bozzo, vice president and COO of MSC - Mediterranean Shipping Company (Geneva), soon understood the importance of this initiative, especially for its value as source of inspiration for young people. He was the president of the IACC – the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce for two terms
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and until 2014. Thanks to Claudio insight and thanks to the partnership of the IACC, PrimiDieci Society has been known and appreciated by an audience of the highest level, nationally and internationally, in the US and worldwide. We are honored by Claudio’s position of Honorary Chairman of PrimiDieci Society, and he is for us above all a great friend, a true source of inspiration for everybody. Alessia Pertosa. She is beautiful, good, loving, she is a surprisingly good and patient mother. She is a wonderful partner in every way. And she is my wife. And what makes her truly unique is that she bears me. She bears my ups and downs, especially financial, due to this obsession of mine of wanting to take forward PrimiDieci Society without a minimum economic return. She rejoices with me like two kids when we are given a new lease of life, when some kind of sponsorship is confirmed and we rush to drink Martini Cocktails, strictly dirty, in order to celebrate. She puts heart and soul into the work of the Society, research, analysis, organizing the selections and interviews. Although having a degree in art history, she has not blamed me for having torn her from this world for the glorification of Italian excellence yet. Not yet. How can I not thank her! Rhuna Barduagni. A special thanks! Rhuna is the Society’s Managing Officer, actually the heart and the engine of our work! Energetic, brilliant and professional, Rhuna does not spare courage and determination in a continuous work aimed at increasing the global success of the initiatives of the Society. I met Rhuna many years ago and we have been sharing a great friendship since than. When two years ago I asked to get involved with launching PrimiDieci Society in the UK I was already aware she was a talented professional but never had the idea she could have been so much vital to the success of the operation. Grazie Rhuna, thanks for your wonderful and voluntary cooperation. Anna Marra. Our amazing Anna! Director of the Banca d’Italia in London, Anna has a long experience in international relations right within the Banca d’Italia, formerly at the headquarters in Rome. A woman amazingly passionate for life, constantly absorbed between work and the prestigious London’s cultural commitments, Anna immediately appreciated the value of our initiative, by offering precious suggestions and all her cooperation in order to enhance its results in the UK. Thanks Anna!
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The family! Together with Alessia I want to thank our respective parents, Giuseppe and Gabriella Lo Faro; Norberto and Daniela Pertosa. For their fundamental support, lavished in a myriad of ways, always tangible, and even respectfully silent. We are deeply grateful to them for always having made us feel their full trust in our objectives, not easy, very idealistic. I thank the precious “benefactors”: Mariafrancesca Carli. Mariafrancesca is “PrimiDieci USA 2014 Awardee”. She is a Managing Director of BDT & Company. Prior to joining BDT, Mariafrancesca was a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan for the last 8 years and at Goldman Sachs for 15 years prior to J.P. Morgan, with coverage responsibilities in London and in New York. Mariafrancesca, over her 23 years in Investment Banking, has executed a variety of M&A transactions and capital raisings for clients across sectors in EMEA and in the US, including banks, insurance, asset managers, exchanges, corporates, infrastructure funds, financial sponsors and private families. A strongly professionally successful woman and with a great and profound human depth, benefactor of the Society thanks to her annual financial contribution, Mariafrancesca is constantly dedicated with her concrete suggestions and aimed at the steady success and consolidation of the Society, national and international. Monica Mandelli. Monica is “PrimiDieci USA 2016 Awardees” and has decided to offer her financial support to the Society in early 2016, months after her celebration as US Awardee (Awards Gala Dinner in New York: November 2015). After many years as Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, USA, Monica is currently the Managing Director at KKR, USA, responsible for Family Office Coverage and Strategic Relationship Management Group, within the Investment Banking Division at worldwide level. Thank you Monica for your generous yearly support and for your understanding the importance of our commitment. Anonymous: respecting his request to remain anonymous, I thank our benefactor who has decided to support the Society in 2016 with a contribution of staggering dimensions. Surprising! Together with his partner in life and in business, two extraordinary successful entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom, in the United States and in other countries, despite their position of authority, they have not failed to understand the value as well as the economic difficulties of taking forward an initiative like PrimiDieci Society, deciding to support it financially. An awareness and support we are deeply grateful for.
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So, thank you everybody! Un grazie di cuore a tutti! Riccardo Lo Faro
Thank You. We wish to thank the following sponsor companies for supporting “PrimiDieci UK 2016”.
Their contribution is greatly appreciated as it benefits PrimiDieci Society’s mission in celebrating Italian excellence in the UK and worldwide.
A message of personal sincere appreciation goes out to Saclà Italia and its General Manager, Chiara Ercole. Chiara embodies the third generation of the family that created Saclà in the late ‘30s. Since 1939 when founded by Secondo Ercole and his wife Piera, each generation has built on the company’s spirit of creativity, ingenuity and sheer passion. A family company built on family values: having been owned and run by three generations, the Sacla’ family philosophy shapes everything the Company does. That’s at the heart of Saclà’s philosophy and culture today, successfully run by Chiara, Lorenzo and Lucia Ercole. Memories are what give us moments, instants of intense sense of self, and when I see the Saclà products or just its logo, it simply brings me back to my childhood. The TV commercials of Carosello, my local Alimentari displaying olives and other Saclà products in fully recyclable –already at the time– glass containers. 2015 is the 25th Anniversary of Saclà in Great Britain. Not only Saclà has fully committed itself in PrimiDieci USA, but has also extended its participation as prestigious ‘Presenting Sponsor’ to the United Kingdom edition of PrimiDieci UK. This will be the highly anticipated debut in London, with a major Award & Gala Event at The Dorchester Hotel, in early March 2016. Thank you Saclà. Thank you Chiara!
The author
“We celebrate and champion real food by using generations’ worth of expertise and resource to make sure that future generations will continue to share in Mother Nature’s endless bounty.”
In 75 years, Saclà has become one of the leading food manufacturers worldwide and has earned a reputation for being at the forefront of authentic Italian fine food.
Saclà Worldwide: Europe; North America; Africa; Asia; Middle East; Oceania. Fratelli Saclà S.p.A., Piazza Amendola, 2 – 14100 Asti - Tel. +39 0141.3971 www.saclà.com
London | Geneva | Zurich | Milan | Padua | Hong Kong | Singapore | Tokyo | Sydney | British Virgin Islands New York | Greenwich | New Haven | Los Angeles | Rancho Santa Fe | San Diego | San Francisco
PRIMIDIECI SOCIETY 152 West 36th Street, suite 504 New York, N.Y. 10018 USA: +1 646-915-1607 U.K.: Tel. +44 (0)74 3836 9268 info@primidieci.org • www.primidieci.org