Place of residence: Ithaca, New York 

Position: CMO and Co-founder at SEADS Sea Defence Solutions, Head Executive Leadership Coach at High Performance Leadership 

Please describe a day in your life

My days are quite different, one from another, but I try to be very consistent in how I start and close my days. In his book, The Compound Effect, Darren Hardy refers to these start and endpoints as AM and PM bookends. I usually wake up around 6 AM to do yoga, meditate, and exercise before the kids wake up. I have some family time, and when I am back in my home office, I usually have a 60 to 90-minute deep work session, no internet, emails, or phone, focusing on the most important task I want to complete that day before connecting with the world.

At the end of the day, I have a complete shutdown moment in which I disconnect again; I call it my digital sunset, around 4 to 5 PM. The sun goes down, and all my electronics go off. Then again, I need family time, good food, and hopefully a great night of sleep (I have two toddlers, which is not always easy). In between, I try to make as much progress as I can toward the two key goals I set for myself with the two organizations I founded: impacting 1 million lives by cultivating the world’s best leaders as an Executive Leadership Coach with High-Performance Leadership and stopping 1 million Tons of Ocean Plastic by cleaning rivers with SEADS Sea Defence Solutions, turning pollution into wealth for the local communities.

How many projects are you currently working on? Please describe them

With High-Performance Leadership, I consistently partner with larger organizations like SoundingBoard, Heroic, BetterManager, Skye and Mindbeat, coaching and nurturing hundreds of leaders across three continents. 

With SEADS, we are currently focusing on two main areas: consolidating our presence in Italy thanks to the funds allocated by the new Salvamare law and working with organizations around the world to find the best ways to extract value from the plastic materials we collect from rivers. If we can generate enough revenues to cover the costs of waste management and disposal, we will have a fully circular self-funding solution that could be scaled everywhere. It could represent a Blueprint to transform today’s Ocean Plastic Pollution into tomorrow’s value for local communities around the world.   

In your opinion, who is the most influential person/company in the world of technology these days?

Sam Altman. 

If you could pick one product/project existing now that you wish you were involved in, what would it be?

I am very fascinated with the opportunities that AI is opening for mankind. Bill Gates says everyone will have an AI-powered personal assistant within five years. Being involved in any advanced AI project would be extremely exciting. 

What is the most challenging thing you had to deal with during your career? 

Two things come to mind. When I was in Barilla, Germany, I had just been promoted to Marketing Director. Still, my replacement as Marketing Manager arrived only 2-3 months afterwards, and I had to cover both roles at the same time during a transition with an extremely demanding new boss. It was very hard, but I learned a lot.

The second time was when I quit my corporate job, moved to the US, and started all over again at 38. I had to redefine who I was. It was challenging, and I had to search really deeply, take accountability for my choices, and redefine what being happy and fulfilled meant to me.   

What is your greatest achievement up until today? 

I worked across four continents, managing businesses as big as 1 billion dollars and teams of up to 30 people. The hardest challenge and the greatest achievement so far have certainly been raising two beautiful children and training them to bring out the best in them. And I still have a long way to go on this journey.  

 What do you wish yourself with respect to your career? 

To create as much impact as possible.  

What are the three most important lessons you have learned so far in your career? 

Who you are and how you show up every day is way more important than what you do 

Connections and networking are the lifeblood of any career 

Always assume everyone is doing their best 

If you could say something to your younger self, what would it be? 

Have fun, enjoy, and get excited about the hard stuff; it will make you stronger. 

What is the invention of the century in your eyes? 

AI, no doubt. 

What can’t you do without?

Nature and Exercise. Every day. 

 Which famous person would you like to have dinner with and why? 

Trevor Noah. He seems like fun. 

Where would you like to travel next? 

Mexico. I tried to go twice in the last two years but couldn’t because of a Covid emergency.  

Do you have a person who influences or motivates you? 

Brian Johnson from Heroic has had a deep influence on my leadership.  

 What did you dream of creating/inventing/doing as a child? 

A soccer player or an actor. I ended up hiring both to make advertising.