Il Comitato Leonardo Awards the Ambassadors of Made in Italy

Every year, Comitato Leonardo presents the Leonardo Prize . Based on the evaluation from an extensive and qualified panel of judges, it is awarded to an Italian or foreign individual who significantly contributed to encouraging and promoting Italy’s image in the world.

On the occasion of significant promotional or concept events organized during Business Missions in markets considered as strategic for the internationalization of Italian companies, the Committee presents the Leonardo International Prize  . It is awarded to a person whose outstanding professional activity has contributed to boosting cultural and economic ties between Italy and the Country of origin.

Comitato Leonardo also presents the Leonardo Italian Quality Prize, awarded to entrepreneurs whose companies have shown distinction in innovation and quality of their products, along with exhibiting strong international, commercial and productive prospects. A Start Up Prize is awarded to an outstanding and innovative Italian start-up.

In the past, Career Prizes and Special Prizes have been awarded to individuals whose outstanding professional activity has contributed to boosting Italy’s image.

2019 – Andrea Illy

Leonardo Prize Winners

ANDREA ILLY

Chairman Illycaffè

Andrea Illy is the Chairman of illycaffè S.p.A., a family business founded in 1933 with the mission of offering the best coffee in the world, of which he has been Managing Director for twenty-two years. As an entrepreneur, he is a staunch supporter of the stakeholder company concept and the role of corporate responsibility in building better societies. A “humanitarian chemist”, he fosters culture and art, a domain to which illycaffè has always been committed.  His appointments outside the company include the chairmanship of ASIC (the only international association dedicated to coffee science) from 1999 to 2014; the chairmanship of the Promotion and Market Development Committee of the International Coffee Organization from 2012 to 2015; from 2013 to 2019, the chairmanship of the Altagamma Foundation which, during its mandate, was institutionally recognised as an ambassador of the Italian lifestyle across the world. Also since 2013, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Italy and, since 2015, of the Internal Audit Advisory Committee. Since 2019 he has been part of the Community of Chairpersons of the World Economic Forum. In 1995, for Academic Press he published “Espresso Coffee: The Chemistry of Quality”, now in its second edition. He is the author of “Il sogno del caffè”, published by Codice Edizioni in 2015 and Italia Felix, published by Piemme in 2018.  Andrea Illy graduated in Chemistry from the University of Trieste; he holds a Master Executive from the SDA-Bocconi University in Milan and an Advanced Management Program from Harvard Business School. He studied Total Quality Management in Japan, Innovation at MIT in Boston, Exponential Technologies at Singularity University, and Complexity Science at Oxford University. In 2018 he was appointed Cavaliere del Lavoro (Italy’s highest honour for professional merit) by the President of the Italian Republic.  Born in Trieste in 1964, he is married and the father of three daughters.

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