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Alfredo Villa, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chairman, holds a degree in Economics from the University of Geneva. Mr Villa's career started at 'Banca della Svizzera Italiana' as a currency option dealer, and then joined 'Soginvest Banca' (CIAL Group). In 1991, he co-founded 'Givigest Fiduciaria SA' in Lugano, Switzerland, which is a firm actively involved in investment banking. In 1994, he co-founded 'SCF SA', a financial consulting firm offering asset management services. These two companies were sold in 2001. Alfredo is a 'Chartered Technical Analyst' (CTA) certified by the US Market Technicians Association in New York, as well as a 'Stock, Option and Futures Broker' certified by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) and a an authorized 'Financial & Commercial Fiduciary' in the Swiss Canton of Ticino. He is a board member and partner of Gabbrielli & Associati in Milan, a financial consulting company. Mr Villa is also an independent consultant and private investor in several venture capital companies. He is also a Director of Moggle a Nasdaq listed Company. Mr Villa is also the chairman of "Fondazione Settembre Onlus" and VP of "Homes for Hope" Charities. |
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Gabriele Gresta, Non-Executive Director, aged 39, a renowned Italian entrepreneur and worldwide expert in the technology and digital media sectors, will become a Non-Executive Director of Brainspark with immediate effect. Mr. Gresta is currently President of Bibop S.p.A. and a Venture Partner in Digital Magics Spa. Bibop, a leading digital media company is 51% owned by Brainspark. Digital Magics is a technology incubator company with 25 investments in its portfolio. The company has invested over EUR15 million of its own money or in conjunction with third-party equity capital partners, including, major industrial groups and financial companies, such as Brainspark, Innogest Venture Capital, TICOM, Telecom Italia, as well as many angel investors. |
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Edward Burman, Non-Executive Director, worked for many years as an independent consultant in the Telecom and Internet sector, and from 1999 to 2003, was the Senior Partner responsible for those sectors in Ambrosetti Srl (Milan), Italy's most prestigious native consulting firm. He was also a Director of Ambrosetti Stern Stewart, a joint-venture. He has lectured MBA students as a visiting professor at the universities of Kent and Bologna, and has been a regular lecturer at the Italian Naval Staff College, at Henley Management College and at Renmin University in Beijing. Since 2003, he has been living and working in China, where he is a Director of China IPO Group and of IPO Beijing Ltd. Edward has published sixteen books, including Shift: Hope, Hype and History in Internet (John Wiley, 2003), and two recent works about present and future trends in China: China, Stealth Empire (2008) and China and Iran (2009). |
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Haresh Kanabar, Non-Executive Director, has over 20 years of experience in senior management for various companies and in various industries including many AIM listed companies. Haresh qualified as a certified accountant in 1986. Following a number of different positions in finance with Fisons plc, Reed International plc and Texas Homecare Limited, he became Finance Director of F E Barber Limited, a subsidiary of Hillsdown Holdings Limited, in 1994. In 1997, he was appointed Group Finance Director of the Whitchurch Group plc which he left in May 1998 to become the finance director of TMV Finance Limited. In 1999 he joined Corvus Capital Inc. where he was the CEO until November 2002 before becoming the Finance Director of Gaming Insight plc. He is currently the director of a number of companies including Aurum Mining plc, Indian Restaurants Group plc, Gasol plc and India Star Energy plc. |
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Alessandro Malacart, Non-Executive Director, was Co-founder and COO of AISoft@re S.p.A. (now Exprivia S.p.A., listed on Milan stock exchange), an Italian IT leader in decision support systems for banking and for the medical sector. Following the first IPO of the company on NASDAQ Europe (1999), he joined Inferentia DNM S.p.A. (now Fullsix S.p.A.) as a COO contributing to the successful listing of the company on the Milan Stock Exchange (2000). During the following two years, he was part of the team that managed Inferentia's fast growth, becoming the first new media agency in Europe through over twenty acquisitions and the consequent integration of mid-size companies in the sector. Back to AISoftw@re in 2003 as a CEO and CFO, he prepared the company for a merge to double the size. Since 2005, he is a Managing Partner in FOR Advisory S.r.l., a financial services boutique, aimed at helping Italian entrepreneurial families to manage their assets. He was recently appointed CEO and CFO of an industrial group with plants in Italy, France, Poland and China, managing the complete restructuring of business and the production. He is experienced in corporate finance practices as well as business development and fast growing of start-ups. |