It’s Forbes' ranking that illustrates the landscape of the world's largest publicly traded companies: the 2024 Global 2000 list, published last June. Overall, it features companies from 61 countries, and this year, 28 Italian companies have made it into the ranking.
Five of these have “Politecnico leadership”: here are the Alumni at the helm of these companies driving the nation forward.
ENEL, 2nd place in Italy, 94th in the global ranking. The CEO is Flavio Cattaneo, a Politecnico di Milano Architecture graduate.
GENERALI, 4th place in Italy, 141st in the global ranking. The group's general manager is Marco Sesana, an alumnus in Management Engineering.
PRYSMIAN, 18th place in Italy, 1,156th in the global ranking. Massimo Battaini, a Mechanical Engineering alumnus, serves as CEO and General Manager.
A2A, 19th place in Italy, 1,257th in the global ranking. Renato Mazzoncini, a Politecnico di Milano graduate in Electrical Engineering, is the CEO and General Manager.
NEXI, 27th place in Italy, 1,856th in the global ranking. The group’s CEO is Paolo Bertoluzzo, an alumnus in Management Engineering.
Discover other Notable Alumni of Politecnico di Milano: Alumni who, through the success of their ideas, companies, and works, become ambassadors of the University and its values worldwide, contributing to their transfer into the technological, industrial, and social realms.
A retrospective: it was 2016 when we published “2099”: the book in which 87 prominent alumni shared just as many pieces of advice for young people, taking a glimpse into the future. Are they still relevant, 8 years and a pandemic later?
The appointment with the Convention for the Alumni of Politecnico di Milano is coming!
Through dialogue with alumni, the University creates a space for sharing that encourages reflection on its own journey of innovation and the professional growth of its Alumni, with the pragmatic approach tied to Politecnico's know-how.
This year we will see the participation of exceptional guests! On stage, also:
Donatella Sciuto is the Rector of Politecnico di Milano, where she is a Full Professor of Information Processing Systems. She graduated in Electronic Engineering from the same university and obtained her PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder (USA), as well as a Master's in Business Administration from Bocconi University. Since January 2023, she has been at the helm of Italy's first technical university, being the only female rector since its foundation. A member of the Supreme Council of the Bank of Italy, she also sits on various Boards of Directors of listed companies. Among her major institutional roles, she participates in the Boards of Directors of STMicroelectronics, F.I.L.A., Avio, Fondazione Corriere della Sera, Fondazione TIM, and Fondazione Lombardia per l’Ambiente. She is part of the Council of the Italian Institute of Technology and the Technical-Scientific Committee of the National Cybersecurity Agency. She is co-author of over 400 scientific articles and holds 4 international patents. She has served as President of the IEEE Council of Electronic Design Automation, an international scientific society.
Enrico Zio is the Rector's Delegate for Alumni and Fundraising, President of the Alumni of Politecnico di Milano, and Vice President of Fondazione Politecnico di Milano. He holds a degree and a PhD in Nuclear Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, a Master's in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA, and a PhD in Risk Analysis from MIT. He is a Professor at Politecnico di Milano and at Ecole de Mines, Paristech in France. Additionally, he is an honorary professor at various international universities and a distinguished lecturer for the renowned international associations IEEE and Sigma Xi.
An internationally recognized scientist in the field of risk analysis and resilience of complex systems, he is the author and co-author of numerous educational and research books, and over 700 scientific articles in international journals. He has served as President and Vice President of various industry associations and international conferences, as well as associate editor and contact person for many international journals.
In 2020, he received the prestigious Humboldt Research Award, one of the most esteemed research awards in the world in the field of scientific disciplines. In 2021, he was appointed Ambassador of the Center for Resilience Engineering of the four Dutch technical universities and became a Fellow of the Prognostics & Health Management Society.
Rosalba Reggio is a multimedia correspondent for Sole 24 Ore, focusing on economics and social sustainability. After working in satellite television, radio, and print media, she founded Sole 24 Ore's web TV in 2013 and led it for 10 years. Since 2017, she has been hosting a weekly market video segment and a live broadcast on economic topics. In the past year, she participated in a rescue operation in the Mediterranean with Doctors Without Borders, completed a report in Uganda with Emergency, and followed an MSF mission in Chad, in two refugee camps on the border with Sudan.
Claudio Spadacini is the founder and CEO of Energy Dome, a leading company in the field of long-duration energy storage (LDES) solutions, renowned worldwide for its key innovation: the CO2 Battery. Claudio, an innovator and serial entrepreneur by nature, has founded several successful companies in the energy sector prior to Energy Dome, taking them from seed concepts to market leaders.
Alessandra Accogli è Cofounder e CEO di Sinergy Flow S.r.l, una startup che si occupa dello sviluppo di batterie a celle di flusso basate su materiali riciclabili e a basso costo e che aderisce pienamente ai principi dell’economia circolare. Ha svolto il Dottorato di Ricerca al Surface and Electrochemical Engineering Laboratory al Politecnico di Milano focalizzandosi sullo sviluppo e l’ottimizzazione di batterie di nuova generazione che utilizzino materiali abbondanti e a basso impatto ambientale, conseguendo il titolo cum laude nel luglio 2021.
Nel 2019 vince la Rocca Foundation Doctoral Fellowship per svolgere attività di ricerca presso l’Electrochemical Energy Laboratory al Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) dove si occupa dello studio di batterie sodio-aria.
A maggio 2020 viene premiata con il Lamborghini Future FAB Award – 2019 Edition nel settore Tecnologia per il suo progetto sullo sviluppo di una batteria anode-free a base sodio come alternativa più performante, sicura e sostenibile rispetto ai dispositivi agli ioni di litio per il settore automotive.
Luca Verre is the co-founder and CEO of Prophesee, the inventor of the world's most advanced neuromorphic vision systems. Prophesee's patented technology is inspired by human vision, restoring sight to the blind and unlocking new standards of performance, safety, and autonomy for robots, consumer devices, and cars.
Luca is a Technology Pioneer at the World Economic Forum. He has extensive international management experience in the industrial and electronic sectors. His background includes roles in project and product management, marketing, and business development at Schneider Electric. Before joining Schneider Electric, Luca worked as a research assistant in photonics at Imperial College London. He earned an MSc in Physics, Electronic and Industrial Engineering from Politecnico di Milano and Ecole Centrale, as well as an MBA from INSEAD.
Mariagrazia Brunetti was born in Milan. After graduating from Scientific High School, she earned a degree in Electronic Engineering from Politecnico di Milano.
After various technical experiences at Agusta Elicotteri and SIA, particularly in the field of SW Engineering, she focuses on Business Development activities related to consulting services, outsourcing, and the implementation of Test Automation projects for Key Accounts.
In 2014, she founded Quence srl, where she serves as Managing Director. The mission of Quence is to introduce innovative methodologies and solutions for Software Quality Engineering, which has led to consistent growth over the years. In 2022, the company became part of the TXT e-solutions SPA Group.
Since 2021, she has been a member of the Board of Directors of Assintel, the Confcommercio Association that brings together companies in the ICT sector, where she also serves as Vice President and leads the working group on entrepreneurship and women's empowerment.
She loves innovation, challenges, and new opportunities.
Marco Nocivelli: Born in 1966, a graduate in management engineering from Milan Polytechnic, he joined the family business in 2000 as CEO of Costan, an Epta brand. He later became CEO of Epta in 2011 and chairman of the board of directors in 2016.
Marco Nocivelli was appointed Vice President of Confindustria with responsibility for Industrial Policies and Made in Italy in April 2024. He has been President of Assofoodtec and since 2019 has been President of ANIMA-Federation of National Associations of Miscellaneous and Related Mechanical Industries after serving as its VicePresident for 5 years with responsibility for economic relations.
He received the appointment of Cavaliere del Lavoro by President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella conferred on the occasion of Republic Day on June 2, 2020.
Stefano Scaglia graduated in 1986 with a degree in Electronic Engineering from the Politecnico di Milano and obtained an MBA from INSEAD Business School in 1990. After working at GTE Telecomunicazioni spa, Philips spa, and Bain & Company, he has served as the CEO of Gruppo Scaglia since 2000 and, since 2004, as the founder and CEO of Scaglia INDEVA in Brembilla, in the province of Bergamo.
The Group, active in the fields of mechanical components, industrial automation, and robotics, operates with offices in Europe, the USA, and China.
From 2005 to 2011, he held the position of Vice President of Confindustria Bergamo, with responsibilities for innovation, education, and energy.
In 2006, he was the promoter of the Intellimech Mechatronics Research Consortium, and from 2012 to 2018, he served as President of AFIL – Associazione Fabbrica Intelligente Lombardia, the Technological Cluster for Advanced Manufacturing.
From 2017 to 2022, he was President of Confindustria Bergamo.
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The Alumni network is one of the strengths of the "employability" system of Politecnico di Milano, as pointed out in the interview with Corriere by Francesca Saracino, head of the Career Service at Politecnico di Milano. In addition to being directly involved in the QS surveys, they play a leading role in orientation events and mentoring programs, curricular internships («over 6,000 internships initiated every year,» confirms Saracino) and the design of innovative teaching, which sees a growing number of courses that include "experiential learning" in collaboration with businesses.
These are data that accompany a year of excellent results from the perspective of the university's international positioning, as confirmed by the QS World University Ranking 2025, the most authoritative among university rankings: Poli ranks this year at 111th place out of a total of 5,663 universities analyzed in 106 countries around the world, showing a remarkable improvement of 12 positions compared to last year. For the first time, we enter the top 8% of global excellence universities.
A result made possible by significant factors that contributed to achieving this position. Politecnico di Milano ranks among the top 100 universities in the world for academic and corporate reputation. The university has indeed improved its score in Academic Reputation, moving from 94th to 90th place. In terms of Employer Reputation, the leap is a remarkable 17 positions, reaching 82nd place. Positive results were also recorded for International Faculty, with 10 positions gained due to internationalization efforts, and 251 positions gained for sustainability, reflecting the many initiatives undertaken in the past year, many of which were promoted by the university's Strategic Sustainability Plan.
Italy faces an unprecedented demographic crisis, but that is not the only alarm to be aware of, according to Lutech CEO Giuseppe Di Franco, a Polimi Alumnus in management engineering.
For several years, "productivity per worker in our country has been flat, like a billiard table," he states in an interview with Fortune Italia. "The keystone cannot be paying people less, but rather making their work productive", through technology and, naturally, artificial intelligence. First, however, we must understand how to use it. Read the full interview
Researcher at the Bruno Kessler Foundation in Trento, Politecnico alumna and energy engineer Elena Crespi is the new "Young Scientist of the Year": the award was presented to her in Brussels by Hydrogen Europe Research, an international organization comprising 150 universities and research centers from 29 countries. Journalist Eleonora Chioda wrote about it in La Repubblica, for the Beautiful Minds column: "I want to make a contribution to this sector. I’m working to create a better world. A less polluted planet," Crespi says.
The award ceremony for the winning students of the Girls@Polimi 2024 scholarships was held in the Aula Magna Pesenti at the Leonardo Campus. Together with the girls, Isabella Nova , Executive Vice Rector, Mara Tanelli , Rector's Delegate for Diversity and Inclusion, and representatives of donor organizations participated in the event.
Girls@Polimi is the initiative of the Politecnico di Milano designed to bring girls closer to the world of STEM subjects and encourage their enrolment in Engineering programmes with a low female presence. Students will receive scholarships worth € 8,000 / year each, with the possibility of renewal for the next two years of study, and will have the opportunity to participate in accompaniment, training and mentoring activities.
For this edition, the scholarships were funded by companies and foundations: Analog Devices Italia, Associazione Eugenio e Germana Parizzi, Capgemini, Fastweb, Fellows of Politecnico di Milano US, Inc (FPM US), Fondazione r.e.ACT ETS, Getec Italia, Hitachi Energy, Intesa Sanpaolo, Italgestra, Leonardo, Mediobanca, NHOA Energy, POMINI Long Rolling Mills, SLB Italiana. These are flanked by Alumni Politecnico di Milano and the University itself.
We’ve heard a lot about them over the past year: they are fast-growing young startups with a deep-tech core, aiming to improve some aspect of the society we live in. Major innovation outlets are covering them. What's their common thread? They were founded by alumni of the Politecnico di Milano.
Cap_able Founded by alumna designer Rachele Didero, Cap_able has patented technology for biometric data protection: they create clothing capable of confusing facial recognition algorithms.
SunCubes aiming to develop a wireless charging system for sensors and—potentially—satellites, the company was founded by two Politecnico alumni, Alberto Chiozzi and Federico OgnibeneWe met them last June—discover the video interview at this link
From left: Francesco Morgan Bono, Lorenzo Benedetti, Giancarlo Donizzelli; Luca Radicioni
Soundsafe Care combines robotics and ultrasound technology for therapeutic purposes, enabling surgical treatments without incisions, in a completely non-invasive way: a new frontier in tumor treatment. Among the founders is alumnus Andrea Mariani
On the left: Andrea Mariani
The founder of Foreverland Food Alumnus Massimo Sabatini, invented Freecao, a chocolate made without cocoa—it's produced from carob. For those asking why we should give up cocoa, we answer that carob is a much more sustainable ingredient in terms of water consumption: it grows abundantly in Italy, especially in the southern regions, which are prone to prolonged droughts.
On the right: Massimo Sabatini
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