Established 2 new businesses in Naples and Turin, coordinating activities from renting offices to the recruitment process of 3 employees, including the compliance with the wide Italian legislative requirements (eg. application of national labour contract, trainings to employees, safety standards of the workplaces, etc.), . Profit & loss and budget accountability.Key activities included negotiated contracts with external stakeholders in FCA, organised tasks and activities, set vision and strategic direction of the company, defined key performance indicators and dashboard approved by the board, created business plan and budgeting forecast.

Business development activities involved generation, screening and assessment of new business ideas, identification of the best projects in terms of value creation and likelihood of success and preparation of business cases (for projects at early and mature stage).Driven the commercial activities of a major divestment (Shell Gabon).Coordinated cross-functional teams and analysts of a major investment bank (~ 20 resources at the peak of activities), co-led creation of and maintained roadmaps, risk register, teaser, information memorandum, management presentation, including discussions with auditing teams, supervision of datarooms, support to the negotiations with buyers and editing of final SPA contract.Represented Shell in primary conferences and meetings of industry association.Enabled the sales of Shell’s Canada exploration blocks through own network of personal contacts (tens mln value added).Key strategy activities covered generation of industry insights, periodic updates on market trends and competitive environments, impact of competitors’ moves and new trends which included geopolitical activities, future potential scenarios and business recommendations to executives in the form of presentations and notes for information.Led a virtual team of 2 resources - originated 28 growth opportunities.Key activities comprised of desk research using industry business intelligence tools such as IHS, Woodmac, Maplecroft, Energy Intelligence as well as company quarterly results and investor day material (including Q&A) and several banking reports available on Bloomberg workstation etc.The competitive landscape built and the strategic recommendations issued were tested and supported by many industry experts from primary consultancy firms in addition to several colleagues with relevant knowledge on the matter.The project was eventually presented to and approved by ~10 VPs and supported by 2 decision review boards.Coached and developed 2 Asian talents.

As Chief of Staff to the Head of Exploration coordinated executives for the creation of briefing notes and minutes of the meetings. Organised and attended meetings with senior executives of industry players aiming to identify potential partnership opportunities.Represented Shell in primary conferences and professional associations.Led the successful response to the anti-trust bodies of Tanzania, EU, USA and China for the multibillion BG acquisition. Coordinating an external legal firm and 3 internal resources, built a case which disproved the presence of new dominant positions within the exploration business.Timely briefed the Head of exploration on industry trends, competitors and vendors moves. Built market segmentation, identified potential threats / opportunities, impact for Shell and recommendations to senior executives.Key contributor to the refreshed exploration strategy presented by the EVP to the Board in 2014 and 2015.For the first time since 2005 the 2015 benchmark was developed in-house (hundred dollars saving vs previous year spent). The study benchmarked the exploration performances of the industry and was developed following the best practices of the strategic management consulting. The analysis was mainly based on external data from IHS and Woodmac (O&G business intelligence data tools). The final report was presented to the EVP exploration and confirmed the need to high-grade the exploration portfolio.Led the turnaround of industry perception regarding Shell underperformances (for exploration). The project included regular engagements with 2 primary industry consultancies in full compliance with legal constraints on confidential data. Trained a resource to manage sensitive information.

Led the economic valuations of the investments for the Italian Upstream division which included major projects such as the Final Investment Decision (it is the last investment proposal needed to commitment the payment of majority of project capital expenditure) of Tempa Rossa and Val D’Agri Oil Centre Expansion (both $bln Capex). Economically Tempa Rossa was a challenging project and its final layout was the option which maximised economics and ensured a technically acceptable solution.As integrator, played a key role reconciling conflicting views and interests across different functions, challenged input owners on the integrity and the consistency of data provided which included risk assessments, viable technical solutions etc. The role involved direct responsibility on the economic and financial sections of investments proposals (the key part of any business case).Mastery of excel modelling techniques and methodologies applied to financial / economic analysis and planning.Led the turnaround of the Business Planning. Created a new fit-for-purpose excel planning tool fully flexible and automated moving away from a 3rd party black-box.The approval of the process from Group Planning took several months and the business case was challenged multiple times but the new planning tool passed all the peer review steps and included an automated reporting system which improved and simplified the cross-checking/consistency of the inputs as well as a dashboard for the senior management which offered a concise report to monitor KPIs against targets.From year 2 the business plan was delivered with 1/3 of the initial resources and in a 50% timeframe – “do more with less”.

End 2007 Italy discontinued the national reference price of the fuels and a new pricing policy for ~1,500 Shell retail stations was shaped and implemented, initially on macro areas and subsequently on site level leading a team of 3 pricing specialists.Led also a technical team of 4 who designed and implemented an innovative IT infrastructure able to change prices at the pumps directly from the Shell office and to receive prices of competitors in real time. A proprietary software called Fuel Pricing System, improved over time, enabled the execution of the pricing strategy with a compliance with the pricing policy of 98% (from initial ~20%).Identified and implemented the price algorithms which ensured profitable growth (ie. value creation and volume sold) on Shell’s owned retail sites together with a team of ~50 Territory Managers (and District Managers) across Italy; for several sites the tactics involved multiple price changes per day (for the 2 maingrades and 2 V-Powers): Shell increased 10% sales volumes on the sites where the new pricing policy was applied and increased margins of ~ €5/m3.New communication campaigns were studied, organised and implemented together with the marketing manager, and results monitored and analysed to continuously improve the satisfaction of the final customer.Led the daily negotiations with wholesalers for the sales of fuels.Instrumental focal point for the forecasted year end results and profit & loss of the business retail. Strong influence on the decisions taken by the General Manager retail.Led the response to the anti-trust investigation of the Italian fiscal law enforcement agency. Within 3 months, Shell’s case disproved the participation to any cartel of prices (if any) resulting in the investigation case dismissed.

Simulated the evolution of fire in residential environments and mitigation with sprinklers using a Finite Element software.

The role was closely working with the technical function to ensure a satisfying quality at the best price on the market. Activities included the scouting, evaluation and selection of new suppliers (including risk assessment of their financial needs and sustainability of business proposals), simplification of the existing vendor list, creation of tendering and e-auctions (innovated the online bidding processes using reverse auctions), negotiation of the level of service, payment conditions, discount on initial offer and so forth, generation of purchase orders in SAP, editing of contracts supported by the legal department.Negotiated major service contracts (~ €500k per annum each) such as cleaning, technological maintenance and beverage as well as acquisition of technological infrastructures such as Base Transceiver Stations and Masts.

This position was held for a determined time span, overlapping with the third academic year. Established long term relationships with key business customers, negotiated prices, payment terms, warranty conditions, discount rebate once target achieved etc. Expanded the customer portfolio with revenues increased of ~40% to ~€10 mln within 6 months (in a market with limited growth), coordinating a workforce of 12 salesmen.

Founded a start-up in the IT business which reached a turnover of ~€2 mln within 2 years. Key activities included scouting of new suppliers (domestically and internationally), negotiation of terms and conditions with suppliers (price, quantity, shipping terms, stock protection etc.). Overseen all the aspects related to the import of goods (freight costs and insurance, custom duties etc.) from extra-EU countries. Through a very competitive network of suppliers, achieved ~10% mark-up.