Made in Italy, the Leonardo Committee returns to rewarding business excellence

After the stop imposed by the health emergency linked to the Covid -19 pandemic, the Leonardo Committee’s Italian Quality Day is back, with the delivery, in the presence of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, of the Leonardo 2019 Awards, recognition of the quality and value of Italian companies. The Leonardo Award 2019, reserved for a person who has particularly distinguished himself in promoting the image of Italy in the world, was awarded this year to Andrea Illy, illycaffè president. The ceremony at Palazzo Barberini was attended by the president of the Leonardo Committee Luisa Todini, the president of Ice Agency Carlo Ferro, the president of the Young Entrepreneurs Confindustria Riccardo Di Stefano and the undersecretary for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Manlio Di Stefano. The initiative is promoted by the Leonardo Committee, born in 1993 from the common idea of ​​Sergio Pininfarina and Gianni Agnelli, the Ice Agency, Confindustria and a group of entrepreneurs, with the aim of spreading and strengthening the image of excellence of Italy in the world. Among the members of the Leonardo Committee there are over 130 companies whose total turnover is 380 billion euros, almost 23% of the Italian GDP, with an average export share of 56% and 1.2 million employees. “After long months in which fear has mixed with courage, we are once again celebrating Italian quality and production excellence with new eyes towards the future” declared Luisa Todini, President of the Leonardo Committee. “Our companies are protagonists of the recovery, as evidenced by the 6% growth in 2021. Recovery: this is the key word that most represents us in this historical moment and we like it more than resilience” explained Todini. “Recovery that, like the global health emergency has taught us, it can no longer ignore fundamental values ​​such as respect for the environmental and social ecosystem, responsibility, the creation of shared value. The construction of a new narrative for the made in Italy must continue which, leveraging tradition, combines technology and sustainable innovation, enhancing our uniqueness on international markets “he continued.” Uniqueness well represented today by our award-winners, exponents of excellence Italian entrepreneurial business, to which this year is added a special recognition for the hospital one, a symbol of the extraordinary ability to respond to the pandemic of those who have been and continue to be at the forefront “said the president of the Committee. The Leonardo Quality Awards Italy 2019, which reward quality, innovation and export vocation, were awarded to 4 made in Italy excellences from different industrial sectors: Allegrini; Avio; Fabbri 1905; Flou. The Leonardo International 2019 Award was awarded to Beda Bolzenius, President and In addition, this year the Leonardo Impresa Storica Award was established, assigned to Fratelli Piacenza (Pres idente Guido Piacenza), a company active in the processing of wool since the early decades of the 18th century, which for over three centuries has been weaving the finest fibers in the world, with a know-how handed down from father to son: a complete cycle from the highest raw materials quality, selected with respect for nature and local communities, to the creation of fabrics and clothing. Also this year the Leonardo Committee, in collaboration with Mise and the Ice Agency, awarded the Leonardo Start Up Award to a highly innovative reality: Bioscience Genomics (Founder Giuseppe Mucci) an academic spin off, participated by Bioscience Institute spa of San Marino and the Tor Vergata University of Rome, focused on the sequencing of fetal DNA circulating in maternal blood and free DNA circulating in the individual for advanced genetic analysis in fetal medicine and cancer prevention. Lastly, this year’s novelty is the Leonardo Special Award 2021, awarded to the National Institute for Infectious Diseases Irccs “Lazzaro Spallanzani” in Rome, for the capacity shown in the response to the pandemic, both in the treatment and in that of tracking and testing. As every year, the Ceremony was also an opportunity to deliver the Degree Awards, funded by entrepreneurs who are members of the Leonardo Committee, an initiative that has been rewarding the best theses on the excellence of Made in Italy for 22 years. This year the Awards were 11, in different sectors: fashion, food, energy, technological innovation, jewelry, large distribution, sport, internationalization of Italian companies.