Andrano 50 innovative entrepreneurs operating in Italy selected byGammaDonna Association for the 14th edition of the Gamma Donna award awarded to the most innovative businesswoman who are willing to invest in digital and sustainability. Women who have founded companies or taken the reins of existing companies and have been able to transform them.
Claudia Persico, in the center, with Valentina Parenti and Marco Parenti. Photo: Gammadonna @Photo Alessandro Rocca
Among the candidates, this edition has selected Claudia PersicoCEO & Rotational Director of the multinational Persico Groupfor “having contributed to orienting the Group’s growth strategies towards a decisive production leap marked by technological neutrality, environmental sustainability and the circular economy, further investing in processes for the drastic reduction of consumption and the use of renewable sources in sectors such as automotive, aerospace, marine, urban mobility and biomedical engineering“.
Who is Claudia Persico
Born as pA small model shop in a cellar that has quickly become a renowned Italian multinational with headquarters in Nembro (Bergamo) Persico Group was founded as a family business in 1976, manufacturing molds, presses, systems and fully automated solutions for various high-tech sectors. Claudia accepted the Green challenge to take the company into the future. The strong attention to technological neutrality and sustainability has led Persico to drastically reduce consumption and use renewable sources. After the consecration in the nautical sector following the construction of Luna Rossa carbon boats for the last Cup Americaamong the future objectives is the positioning in the aerospace and urban mobility sectors. And a further step forward in sustainability through the recycling of waste raw materials, in the wake of Marine business unit which already uses composite waste to make health prostheses.
“Having obtained this recognition it’s like being on top of a mountain. – declared Claudia Persico – A victory that strengthens mine I believe in gentle leadership, capable of guiding the company in change through innovation. But we must never forget how much training, effort and time it took to reach it. For entrepreneurs who have vision, who believe in a new development model and strongly focus on this, there is always a new mountain to climb. Today I’m here because I never wanted to give up: we must always find a way to reach our goals and imagine new heights, because we better savor the achievements if they have required commitment and dedication ».
All the winners of the Gamma Donna 2022 award
From left Claudia Persico, Valentina Parenti, Danila De Stefano, Martin Capriotti @Photo AlessandroRocca
Together with Claudia Persico, on the stage of theItalian Tech Week have also been awarded Danila De Stefano (Unobravo) which won the “Giuliana Bertin Communication Award”, Chiara Petrioli (WSense) which won the “Women Startup Award” powered by Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation e Martina Capriotti (Mirta) to which the first edition of the “Assist Digital Award” went.
“Never before is there a need to support and enhance the courage and vision of women entrepreneurs as in this moment – commented Valentina Parenti, President GammaDonna. – The stories of the 50 selected companies, and even more so of the seven finalists, confirm the potential and talent that women can put in place for a model of sustainable and inclusive development, bringing with them increasingly technical and scientific skills ».
Female entrepreneurship in Italy
According to V Unioncamere report on female entrepreneurship (data from the Unioncamere Women’s Entrepreneurship Observatory – June 2022), the world of women’s businesses has 1 million and 345 thousand activities, 22.2% of the total of Italian companies, with a strong diffusion in the South (36.8% of businesses led by women operate in these regions). Comparison with last year shows an increase especially in industry (+ 0.3%) and services (+ 0.4%), among joint-stock companies (+ 2.9%), in the South (+ 0.6%)among foreign companies (+ 2.6%).
More young women choose the business path: female youth enterprises under 35 are 10.5% of the total number of enterprises run by women (141,360) against 7.6% for all male enterprises. In the first quarter of 2022, women gave birth to 1,840 innovative startups (12.6% of the total): it is on the innovation and green front that female entrepreneurs give their best. As indicated in the report “The post-pandemic recovery has convinced a further 14% of female businesses to start investing in digital (compared to 11% of male companies) e 12% to invest in green (against 9%). To these are added, to an extent equivalent to non-female companies, a 31% of companies that have increased or kept constant investments in digital technologies in recent years, and 22% that have done the same in environmental sustainability (against 23% of other companies).
Business women, therefore, have embarked on the double transition that European policies strongly support and which represents the core of the Italian PNRR. But not without difficulty. In fact, half of the women’s businesses have stopped investing or even exclude wanting to start them in the near future ”.
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