About Us
Our founders
Aleardo FURLANI (Founder and major shareholder)
Position in the Company: Managing Director and founder of INNOVA
Educational Background:
Aleardo Furlani holds a Degree in Law with major in Economics from the University of Naples (ITALY) and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) in Business Policy and International Marketing from the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa (I.E.S.E.), Barcelona (Spain). He also was a Public Policy scholar at the J.F. Kennedy School of Government Boston, USA (Harvard University).
Professional experience:
Expert in innovation financing, international marketing and business strategies, he is strongly involved in the R&D activities conducted with highly qualified European companies and Universities. He acquired a strong expertise in Technology Transfer activities, encouraging the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises in European R&D programmes and has acquired extensive expertise in panels for RIS-RITTS and regional innovation plan assessment and improvement.
He is an active member of the INSME Board, the International Network for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. INSME’s mission is to stimulate trans-national cooperation and public and private partnership in the field of innovation and technology transfer.
He is also involved in the coordination of the INNO Learning Platform which promotes trans-national cooperation activities.
Since 1993, he participates in evaluations and reviews for the European Commission services.
Since 2000 he has been carrying out the training and technical assistance activities for the network of Innovation Relay Centres and coordinating Regional Innovation Centres consisting of the 71 most important Technology Transfer and Innovation centres in Europe.
Since 2005 he is carrying out a technical assistance activity in Tunisia financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB). Over the three years of implementation (2005-2008), the project aims at sustaining the start-up of 5 Technology Parks in Tunisia.
He is also the Italian senior country correspondent for the European TrendChart on Innovation, the European network providing policy makers and managers with statistics, performances and trends on innovation policies in the 39 member states.
He has given more than 1,000 hours of training, for several National and International organisations such as: the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE); the Italian Institute for Industrial Promotion (IPI), the Italian Associations of Small Enterprises (API), the INSME-WASME international association of SME and the UNESCO. Training, conveyed world-wide, is mainly focused on innovation issues, internationalisation and technology transfer.
He is author of the books: ”Benchmarking the search for IRCs effective marketing practices” (2003 and 2004), “Reinventing the IRC Network through Benchmarking” (2006) and “The International technology transfer networks” (2006).
Antonella VULCANO (Co-founder and shareholder)
Position in the Company: Co-founder and Director of INNOVA
Educational Background:
Antonella Vulcano has a degree in Economics from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and a Master in Foreign Trade awarded by the ‘Istituto per il Commercio Estero’, I.C.E. (Italian Trade Commission)
Professional experience:
She has a consolidated experience in performing activities related to economic market studies, benchmarking analyses and innovation strategies assessment.
Her areas of expertise range from benchmarking studies to economic analyses, innovation policies assessment, best practices identification and transfer, innovation consulting for companies and regional institutions.
Since 2000, she is involved in technical assistance activities for a benchmarking exercise and training sessions for the network of Innovation Relay Centres (IRCs), one of the largest European networks in charge of innovation and technology transfer.
Since 2004, she is part of the team that manages the Innovative Regions in Europe Secretariat that aims to facilitate the exchange and the valorisation of regional experiences and innovation practices.
Since 2005, she is contributing as Italian Correspondent to the Trend Chart on Innovation Report, analysing and assessing Italian policies and governance.
She is co-author of the following publications: ”Benchmarking the search for IRCs effective marketing practices” (2003 and 2004 editions) and “Best practices, a benchmarking exercise to improve the National Contact Point services” (2006).
Alfredo Picano (Co-founder and shareholder)
Position in the Company: Co-founder and Senior consultant of INNOVA till 2000 and presently General Manager of LABOR (a private applied research laboratory, member of the INNOVA group)
Educational Background:
Alfredo Picano holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” (Italy) with a specialization in transport mechanics.
Professional experience:
As General Manager of LABOR, he has acquired a long-standing experience in industrial research activities, more specifically in the fields of electronics and industrial automation, technologies and processes of the chemical industry and renewable energies.
As a senior consultant and partner of INNOVA, he has gained a consolidated experience as a technical consultant in the fields of energy and environment, in industrial processing and new materials, in technology transfer projects and in information technologies.
Since 1993, he is chair of “Traction Systems II” at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” where his main activities consist in intervening in seminars, research and drafting of students’ exams books.
Rina Angeletti (Co-founder and shareholder)
Position in the Company: Co-founder and senior consultant of INNOVA till 2001 and presently Chair of CYBION (a company in on-line business intelligence, member of the INNOVA group).
Educational Background:
Rina Angeletti holds a degree in political sciences with a specialization in international law from the University “La Sapienza” in Rome (Italy) and a Master in Foreign Trade awarded by the ‘Istituto per il Commercio Estero’, I.C.E. (Italian Trade Commission).
Professional experience:
As a senior consultant of INNOVA, she has a long standing experience in managing European funded projects and gained a solid expertise in Community law and European financial programmes. She also carried out a number of review exercises for the European Commission services.
As a senior consultant of CYBION, she has a long standing experience in the management of research and development activities in the software field for institutional customers and for small and medium sized Italian and European companies. Her considerable experience in project management has enabled her to acquire an extensive knowledge of the Italian entrepreneurial requirements.
Giulio Ravizza (Co-founder and shareholder)
Position in the Company: Co-founder and senior consultant of INNOVA and Managing Director of CAMPUS CONSULTING (a consultancy company in business and innovation strategies for SMEs specialised in management engineering and information technology, member of the INNOVA group)
Educational Background:
Giulio Ravizza holds a degree in Electronic Engineering from the University “La Sapienza” in Rome (Italy).
Professional experience:
From 2001 to 2005, he was head of the Research Department of INNOVA and was directly responsible for technical assistance to private companies and universities for the development of research projects promoted within national and regional projects and for project management and result valorisation of projects financed by national and international programmes. He also conveyed a number of training sessions on innovation and technology transfer and financing opportunities for SMEs.
As a Partner in Campus, part of the INNOVA Group, he carries out consultation activities for companies related to technological auditing and design of innovative organisational strategies to enhance the competitive and strategic re-positioning of the client companies.
Giorgio Recine (Co-founder)
Position in the Company: Co-founder and Senior consultant of INNOVA, partner and director of LABOR (the applied research and engineering laboratory of the INNOVA GROUP)
Educational Background:
Giorgio Recine holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” (Italy) with a specialization in plant design.
Professional experience:
Senior technical consultant for INNOVA, he actively collaborates in technology transfer actions, assessment and evaluation of RTD projects as well as valorisation of R&D project results activities, technology auditing and support activities towards SMEs for their participation in European research programmes. He has also participated in the coordination and management of a number of European projects.
Since 2001 he is Head of the Department of Renewable Energies of Labor Srl, part of the INNOVA Group. He has been Coordinator of several European Projects in the energy sector, technical-scientific analysis and promotion of technology transfer activities, research results exploitation strategies.
Antonio Zangrilli (Co-founder)
Position in the Company: Co-founder and Senior consultant of INNOVA, presently partner and Italian representative of INVENT (the seed capital support company of the INNOVA GROUP)
Educational Background:
Antonio Zangrilli holds a degree in Economics from the University “La Sapienza” in Rome (Italy). He also has a post-graduate degree in Export Management from the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade (I.C.E., Rome, -Italy).
Professional experience:
He has gained extensive expertise in benchmarking studies on innovation strategies at European level, in market studies and business plan development for innovative start-ups.
His experience also extends to R&D projects’ promotion and management as well as high-technology university spin-offs deployment emerging from national/international research.
He is also Head of the Italian office of INVENT, the seed capital company of the INNOVA GROUP and is, since over 4 years, member of the Board of Directors of an Italian Bank in the Lazio Region.
