Bocconi Alumni in Boston Targeting Startups

Technology startups and the energy of innovation, this is what you can experience in the Boston Chapter of the Bocconi Alumni Association (BAA). Proof of this was the event organized by BAA at MIT Sloan School of Management last September 18. On that day, the business environments and strategies of US and Italian startups were compared and discussed.

"The whole issue of innovation is of strong interest to the Bocconi alumni living in the Boston area," Francesco Fragasso explains, who has been chapter leader since 2009, in his spare time from his job as CFO and V-P of Operations at Nuvera Fuel Cells, which is active in the hydrogen cell industry "Half of our alumni work in finance, but the other half, and this is another Bostonian peculiarity, work in academia," he adds, citing Alberto Alesina, Professor of Economics at Harvard.

There are in total 50 alumni gravitating around greater Boston, but we usually have three times the audience at the events the chapter regularly organizes. Fragasso comments on this by saying: "Opening these events to people that are not necessarily part of the Bocconi alumni community enables us to promote the Bocconi brand among the US public. Bocconi enjoys a strong image in America thanks to the effort undertaken by the University to internationalize its activities and relations over the last decade. Thus, the number of alumni coming to live and work in the Boston area is growing."

He adds by way of conclusion: "Several of our events are also made jointly with local Italian institutions such as the Italian Consulate (the next one will probably be on reforms for growth) and all take a US-Italy comparative approach. We are persuaded that it is important to discuss our respective entrepreneurial experiences and learn from one another's best practices."