After almost 30 years with Apple (1987-1999) and Amazon (2000-2016) and an experience of 2 years serving as a civil servant with the Italian Government (2016-2018), I finally started my own endeavor: View Different. The primary mission: invest in and provide mentorship to entrepreneurs who use technology as an enabler to reshape traditional sectors, with an emphasis on education, government, mobility and environmental sustainability.
History: From February 2000 to August 2016, I held the position of Senior Vice President at Amazon.com, where I was a member of the senior executive team (S-team) and I oversaw the International Consumer Business. During that period, Amazon launched and grew e-commerce operations in Europe, Canada, Japan, China, India, and Brazil and started exploring entering new geographies.
Early in my career (1987), I joined Apple in Italy in my home city, Milan. Ten years later, I was appointed General Manager and Vice President of Apple EMEA based in Paris. In late 1999, I joined Amazon in Seattle.
I also served a two-year civil servant term – from August 2016 to November 2018 – as Italian Government Commissioner for Digital Transformation, reporting directly to the Prime Minister. In this role, I founded and scaled the Government’s Digital Transformation Team.
Present:
- Non-executive Chair of the Board of Directors of Apolitical, a global peer-to-peer learning platform for governments.
- Non-executive director of The Economist Group; its flagship businesses include The Economist newspaper, and research and analysis division, The Economist Intelligence Unit.
- Chairman and Advisor for Vento Ventures, supporting its activities and operations; the Vento Ventures invests in the best Italian founders and wants to empower the next generation of exceptional founders.
- Senior Advisor for KKR, a leading global investment firm. In this role, I support the assessment of some investment activities of the company globally and mentor some of the portfolio companies, with a particular focus on technology and sustainable development challenges.
- Advisor and investor in several start-ups across the US, Europe and emerging markets.
- International Advisor Council Member of Bocconi University.
- Board member of Endeavor Italy, which I co-founded in 2016, and mentor of Endeavor Global, an NGO leading the high impact entrepreneurship movement around the world
- Board member of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), an independent global health research center at the University of Washington.
- Board member of the Maasai Association, supporting education and health initiatives in Kenya.
I hold a B.S. in Economics from Bocconi University in Milan and I am a dual citizen of the United States and Italy.
Non-executive Board of Directors roles
- The Economist Group, the leading source of analysis on international business and world affairs. Its flagship businesses include The Economist newspaper, research and analysis division and The Economist Intelligence Unit.
- DoorDash is a technology company that connects consumers with their favorite local businesses in more than 25 countries across the globe.
- Advisor for voi, a company that makes makes city travel convenient by offering best-in-class shared electric vehicles accessible on-demand through the voi app.
Advisor roles
- Senior Advisor for KKR, a leading global investment firm. In this role, he supports the investment activities of the company globally, with a particular focus on technology and sustainable development challenges.
- Chairman and Advisor for Vento Ventures, supporting its activities and operations; the Vento Ventures invests in the best Italian founders and wants to empower the next generation of exceptional founders.
- Advisor to the Founder of Firefly, a company building a street-level digital media platform that connects audiences with dynamic media on taxis and rideshare vehicles.
- Advisor to the Founder of Pachama, a company using AI and remote sensing to verify and monitor carbon capture by forests to help finance conservation and reforestation.
NGO Board of Directors and mentorship roles
- Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), an independent global health research center at the University of Washington.
- Bocconi University, one of the leading European higher education institutions. Member of the International Advisory Council.
- Mentor of Endeavor Global, an NGO leading the high-impact entrepreneurship movement around the world. Also a board member of Endeavor Italy which he co-founded in 2016.