Ladies and gentlemen, authorities of the city of Trieste, distinguished professors, students, alumni, representatives of the industrial, entrepreneurial, managerial, and institutional world of Trieste. Please take your seats in our hall. In harmony with the tradition of our school, we start on time. We begin this important day in which we will confer an honorary diploma on an eminent figure who distinguished himself during his professional career, also in service to our city. Before starting our ceremony, we want to welcome with applause Philippe Donnet who will be awarded today, accompanied by the CEO of MIP Trieste School of Management, Professor Vladimir Nanut, the scientific director and DEAN of MIP Trieste School of Management, Professor Andrea Tracogna, and the director of the Executive Education area, Professor Francesco Venier. Please.
Thank you, my dearest friend. Good evening everyone. Good evening to the president of Generali, Andrea Sironi, to Philippe Donnet, a big hug. You know, when I talk about my city, it's nice to start like this. So, my city has the headquarters of Generali, the headquarters of Fincantieri, the headquarters of the Chamber of Commerce, an important center of our city, and these are beautiful things. This morning, an honorary degree was conferred on the CEO of Fincantieri. Today we give it to a dear friend, Philippe Donnet, a person I truly love, and I thank him for what he has done and what he will do for my city. Thank you Philippe, truly from the heart, I love you so much. You know, it's been 20 years, 25 in total that I've been mayor around here, and it's a great pleasure. We are the owners, Nanut, we own this place, but you keep it very well, I must compliment you. So I leave you because it's my friend Filippo's party, naturally, so thank you for the invitation and a big hug to you all, and thank you for what you do for my city. Thank you.
We all work together for our city to try to create something to add value to our territory. Now let's continue with the intervention of Professor Vladimir Nanut, who was the one who in 1988, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, had the intuition, the idea to create a business school in Trieste when there was still the Iron Curtain, and when no one imagined that the Berlin Wall would fall soon. Who among us in September 1989 thought that after a month the Berlin Wall would fall? It was a clumsy gesture by Erich Honecker, the first secretary of the Communist Party of East Germany, who decided on October 7, 1989, to organize a large meeting to celebrate 40 years of East Germany. And in the end, it was a boomerang because the population revolted and then the Berlin Wall fell. And at that moment, MIP was born, and MIP wanted to dialogue with the East when reunification was not yet thought to be so rapid. And over these decades, MIP has grown thanks to this intuition, thanks to the tireless work he has done with all his collaborators for many years to create this school. Ladies and gentlemen, Professor Vladimir Nanut.
Well, good afternoon, a personal welcome to all the guests who have accepted our invitation to share with us this event in which we celebrate Philippe Donnet, an absolute protagonist in the insurance and financial sector at not only national but also global level. This event is part of a tradition of our school that has seen since 1993 the awarding of the NBA honoris causa recognition to personalities in the economic and entrepreneurial world who are particularly distinguished in their professional field. That distant 1993, when the recognition was awarded to Gianfranco Viezzoli, then president of Enel, over 30 years have passed, during which MIP has made an extraordinary journey, establishing itself as one of the leading Italian business schools with a recognized and prestigious international standing. During this long period, the school has had the honor of awarding the MBA honoris causa diploma to eminent entrepreneurial and managerial personalities such as Pietro Marzotto, Marco Tronchetti Provera, Leonardo Del Vecchio, Gilberto Benetton, Mario Draghi, Alessandro Profumo, Paolo Scaroni, and more recently in 2018-2019 to Giuseppe Bono and Giampiero Benedetti. This significant tradition was forcibly interrupted due to the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, which, among other effects, effectively prevented the organization of events open to the general public, as an honoris causa diploma awarding ceremony should be. Overcoming this problematic phase, with the full resumption of in-person training activities in our splendid headquarters, the faculty of MIP Trieste School of Management considered it appropriate to resume this important tradition. In addition to the opportunity to valorize absolute protagonists of the entrepreneurial and managerial world, we believe it is very stimulating to offer those in our training programs, who are investing in their entrepreneurial future, valid reference models, that is, established interpreters who with their relevant skills and extraordinary leadership capabilities have managed to achieve excellence in their field of activity. These are, moreover, personal qualities that have assumed fundamental importance in the current economic and social context, characterized by strong discontinuities and radical changes in the main variables, starting with technological ones and ending with geopolitical ones. The consequence of these changes is great uncertainty at all levels, uncertainty whose management requires organization leaders increasing doses of leadership to orient individual and collective efforts towards the set goals. It is not by chance that leadership today represents an aspect that has become fundamental in Business Schools and is therefore present in all training programs implemented in our school. For your information, I inform you that this year the school has conducted leadership interventions for the commanders of the Iulia Alpine Brigade and for the provincial commanders of the carabinieri, showing that the theme of leadership now concerns all organizations. More generally, also through initiatives like today's conferment of the title of MBA honoris causa, MIP Trieste School of Management wants to substantiate not only its strategic role as a factor of growth and development of human capital available to the economic system, but also its function of enriching the entrepreneurial culture in a country where this aspect notoriously has historical limits and shortcomings. After expressing my sincerest congratulations to our honorary graduate, I want to finally thank the many people who wanted to honor and gratify us with their presence in this event, which is important not only for the school but for our entire community. Thank you for your attention and have a good continuation.
Let's continue with the academic intervention that will be given by Professor Andrea Tracogna, who is the scientific director of MIP and the DEAN of our school, and who will then introduce the academic laudatio that will be read by Professor Francesco Venier. Ladies and gentlemen, Professor Andrea Tracogna.
