Could you please describe yourself in a few sentences?
Born in Rome, Italy, I moved to London in 1998 with the dream to become a VJ at MTV and I am currently living in NYC. Even though I never managed to work at MTV, London gave me an unimaginable amount of energy; to all those who comment how brave I was to leave my country at the age of 19, I always respond how those who stayed dealing with Italy’s demons are much braver than I could ever be.
I started working at a restaurant in Richmond and worked my way up to become a fairly successful entrepreneur and Sales & Marketing specialist. I did my HNC up to my Postgraduate at the University of Westminster, followed by a Master’s at the Westminster Business School in London in 2005.
I have always studied and worked at the same time (as I couldn’t afford studying full time) and have enjoyed working for the last 17 years in a Sales & Marketing capacity, learning from the best. Research and knowledge have always been a passion of mine, even though I haven’t always been the most diligent of students.
What is your area of interest and what inspires you?
Marketing, sales and their application to digital business models certainly makes me tick. This intersection between mathematics and sociology is fascinating and since people like Zuckerberg and others made is somewhat sexy, I certainly enjoy being associated with it. My focus is on the Digital Strategy, but I have been exposed over the years to Advertising and Digital Publishing.
I also enjoy working with my team at Gartner Inc. working on $1M+ deals and helping companies making better digital marketing choices; I enjoy investing directly into start ups and teaching post graduate students. I have founded 2 companies, one of which is Italy’s largest Academic portal, and I have been teaching Digital Marketing for the last two years in London and in New York.
Could you please tell us a bit about the businesses you are involved in?
Most of my roles revolved around sales and marketing of consulting and research services in the ICT and Digital Marketing sectors. At Gartner in NYC I am currently Business Development Director for the newly formed Gartner for Marketing Leaders research services, creating new business opportunities and working with the research team to deliver value to our clients. My dream would be to grow the business globally and take the division close to $1bn revenue in 8 years from now.
I am also the President and Founder of www.universita.it , Italy’s Voice of Authority in University education, acting as a brand ambassador with Institutions and investors. My responsibility also revolves around the monetization of the portal and its future strategic development. Our goal is to double its current 5M hits by the end of 2015 and raise funds for over €300K.
What was your first job? What did you learn from it?
Chopping vegetables in a restaurant kitchen mainly taught me what I don’t want from life. I like to think that my first job was actually my second, in chronological order, selling advertising spaces for Sport Illustrated Magazine Swimsuit Edition; that was fun!
What did you do in your career before your current roles?
I think I focused on “horizontal learning”; while this expression might have a humorous effect on some of you, the way I intend it is to learn about as many sectors as possible, in different cultural environments, but focusing on a specific Business Role (Sales & Marketing for me).
I have sold advertising spaces in a swimsuit magazine, I have project managed Investment Studies for countries looking to attract foreign investments (Foreign Direct Investments) from Mexico to Czech Republic. I have sold Marketing Research and worked as a Marketing Research Analyst for three years and have become a respected research broker in Europe. I have invested in successful businesses and got invited to conduct business transactions from San Francisco to Tokyo. All my accomplishments have recently been rewarded by an important recognition from the American Government (an O-1 Extraordinary Ability Visa, also often referred to as Einstein Visa).
The common denominator in all my achievements, insignificant as they might seem to some of you, is dedication: a restless desire to understand the governing dynamics of those sectors and manifest the ability to use that information to my own personal advantage.
What advice would you give to the students during their studies and after graduation so that they make the right decisions for their career?
I don’t think there’s such a thing as “the right career choice”. I believe that preferences manifest themselves everyday and “career paths” only make rational sense once reconstructed backwards. This doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be some sort of principle guiding our choices, quite the opposite actually. All I am suggesting is that life often has bigger plans for you than you could ever imagine.
The exercise I normally have with my staff, friends, students and colleagues do to understand their path is to answer as descriptively as possible a few simple questions.
An example of those questions can be: can you please describe me your life 7 years from now? Specifically, imagine yourself coming back home. Can you please tell me about where were you coming from, what does your home looks like, what type of furniture do you have? What kind of light enters from your windows?… I suggest you to try this exercise, you’d be amazed by your findings.
Breaking down my suggestion into During and After your studies, my advice for the during phase would be not to leave anything to last minute. Understanding the governing concepts early on while learning is vital to internalise knowledge and use it to your advantage. This is extremely important if you want to become a thinker, as opposed to an executer. Another vital piece of advice is: find yourself a mentor; someone you want to become in your industry or in your role and have them sharing their secrets with you.
After graduation I woul probably focus on managing your work interviews as if you were managing a business, with a CRM and a history of contacts, then I would never stop studying for your profession. Last but not the least, my advice in any negotiation is: play the player, don’t play the game.
Oh, the final word of advice is listen to all the advice from people like me, from your elders, friends, and family – don’t think you know it all; those who think like that are generally a bunch of incompetents.
If you were asked to give one piece of advice to students who are considering going into Postgraduate study what would that be?
Just do it ! It’s a differentiation factor when looking for jobs and will give you that little bit of extra confidence in life. Don’t just study to get your degree, get involved and create something memorable.
How do you relax out of work? What are your interests/leisure activities?
Spend time with my better half Sara, planning the next life project. I also enjoy cooking and drinking wine with my friends. I do a fairly good amount of physical exercise and read books from contemporary fiction to philosophy… the only problem with reading is that I often drift away thinking about the next big Digital Marketing idea and distract myself.
I want to start meditating and spend more time enjoying art and jazz… I think I have to make a better use of my MOMA subscription !
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