The Institute for Competitiveness (I-Com) is a think-tank founded in 2005 by a group of scholars, professionals and managers, with offices in Rome and Brussels. The objective of I-Com is to promote debates and analyses on competitiveness concerning innovation, in the Italian, European and international politico-economic contexts. The main areas of interest of I-Com are: digitalization, energy, innovation, health and institutions. In 2017, I-Com joined the Global Trade and Innovation Policy Alliance, a worldwide network of 25 independent think-tanks from five different continents, each active in the fields of innovation and international trade. The president of I-Com is the economist Stefano da Empoli.
Stefano DA EMPOLI
President
Stefano DA EMPOLI, President
Stefano is the president and principal policy analyst at I-Com, the Institute for Competitiveness, a think tank based in Rome and Brussels which he founded in 2005. He currently teaches political economy and economic policy at the Roma Tre University, in Rome. Stefano is a graduate of the Coripe Consortium for Research and Continuing Education in Economics (Piemonte, Italy), where he received a Masters Degree in Economics, and the George Mason University (Virginia, USA) where he obtained his MA (Economics). Stefano has served in key advisory or expert positions on a number of taskforces or scientific boards, including: Vice President of the Health City Institute; Scientific Director of the La Scossa Association; Board member of the European Foundation EYPROM; Expert Member of the Eurelectric Task Force on Investment; Expert Member of the Technical Secretariat for the Protection of Nature in the Italian Ministry of the Environment; Director at the Observatory on Energy Policy of the Einaudi Foundation. He has authored numerous publications on economic themes, particularly with regard to policy and regulation of the energy market and infrastructural services and the governance of the institutions, and his opinions and analysis has featured in major Italian newspapers including Il Foglio, il Sole24 Ore, Huffington Post Italia and more. Stefano has also undertaken study and consultancy assignments for Italian and international public institutions, including the Senate of the Republic, the Department for EU policies, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and the OECD, leading companies and non-profit organizations.Franco D’AMORE
Vice president
Franco D’AMORE, Vice president
He is Vice President and Director of Energy Area of the Institute for competitiveness, an independent Research Institute that he helped to establish in 2005 and that promotes themes and analysis on competitiveness with an innovative emphasis, within the European and international policy-economic framework . He is a member of the Scientific Committee of UNCEM – Unione Nazionale Comuni Comunità Enti Montani. He works or has worked as a consultant for public institutions and private authorities on issues of local development, innovation and European planning. He carried out numerous studies and research on energy and environmental issues, with a particular focus on sustainability of energy systems, renewable energy and energy efficiency, on policies for the containment of greenhouse gases emissions and energy innovation. To the study and analysis activities added an intense activity of implementing projects in the field of energy and environment, for both private and public authorities. Before dealing with energy he worked in the area of research of optical properties of matter for photonic applications. He graduated in physics at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” (1998). Later he earned a Master’s degree at the European School of advanced studies in material Science (University of Pavia – 2000) and a Master’s in Energy resources management (SAFE – 2004).Andrea PICARDI
General Secretary
Andrea PICARDI, General Secretary
xxxSilvia COMPAGNUCCI
Head of Digital Area
Silvia COMPAGNUCCI, Head of Digital Area
xxxFederico Girolamo LIOY
Head of Public Affairs
Federico Girolamo LIOY, Head of Public Affairs
xxxMichele MASULLI
Head of Energy Area
Michele MASULLI, Head of Energy Area
Head of Energy Area of the Institute for Competitiveness (I-Com), previously research fellow at the same Institute. After graduating in Economics and Economic Policy at the Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, he achieved a postgraduate diploma in "Export management and development of international projects" from the Sole24Ore Business School. He is currently a PhD student in Applied Economics at the Department of Economics, University of Rome Tre. He mainly deals with energy scenarios and sustainable development policies as well as industrial policies and firm internationalization.Eleonora MAZZONI
Head of Innovation Area
Eleonora MAZZONI, Head of Innovation Area
Graduated in economics at the University of Rome - La Sapienza, with a thesis on statistical breakdown of the wage differential between foreign and Italian citizens. After a collaboration as a research assistant with the Fondazione Brodolini, she worked for the Centro Europa Ricerche. She studied the main econometric techniques for evaluation of public intervention at the IRVAPP di Trento and at the summer school in Econometrics Cide – Bank of Italy. She is currently employed at I-Com as a research fellow. She carries out statistical analyses, economic and regulatory researches for the innovation and energy areas.Gianluca SGUEO
Head of Institutions Area
Gianluca SGUEO, Head of Institutions Area
Gianluca Sgueo (Phd in Public Law, MA in Administrative and Public Law, LLM in European Public Law) is New York University Global Professor at New York University – Florence, where he teaches “Media Activism and Democracy“. He is Adjunct Professor in “Global Advocacy” and “Gamification in Politics, Advocacy and the Business Sector” at the Vesalius College, in Brussels. He is Scientific Coordinator of the Master Program in “Economy and Management of the Public Sector” at the Sole24Ore Business School, and Coordinator of the module on “Political Participation” of the School of Politics of LUISS School of Government and Sole24Ore Business School. His professional background includes several experiences in the public sector. From 2011 to 2013 he was the Head of Communication of the Italian Government; in 2014/2015 he was Coordinator of the Italian Task Force on Youth Policies for the Italian Presidency of the EU Semester. Since 2014 he is Policy Analyst at the Parliamentary Research of the European Parliament.Antonio SILEO
Head of Innov-E Observatory
Antonio SILEO, Head of Innov-E Observatory
Research fellow at the Institute of Economics and Policy of Energy and the Environment (IEFE) of the Bocconi University, where he has been researching since 2003. In I-Com since 2006, since 2014 he has been Director of the Innov-E Observatory. His research interests are in the fields of energy markets, energy and environmental policies and automotive. He collaborated with the ISPI-Institute's Energy Watch for International Policy Studies and was a non-resident fellow at the Caspian Strategy Institute in Istanbul. He has been on the staff of ANIGAS, National Association of Industrial Gases, of Confindustria and has held teaching and research at the The Polytechnic University of Bari. He has worked on numerous research and advisory projects for private companies, associations, and public bodies. As a scholar, he has published articles in a variety of journals and has been author and editor of several books. He workes also for Staffetta Quotidiana since 2008 and publishes regularly at lavoce.info since 2009 and other specialised magazines. It also conducts consultancy activities on dissemination and communication.Paola DE ANGELIS
Strategic Counsellor
Giuseppe COLANGELO, Strategic Counsellor
Paola De Angelis is a recognised expert on issues related to national, regional and global health as well as on policies related to pharmaceutical governance. She has held numerous positions in the world of institutions, associations and in the profit sector. Advisor to the Minister of Welfare from 1998 to 2001 and manager for Southern Europe for the Global Alliance on vaccines and immunization GAVI - The Vaccine Fund, during her career she represented as Public Affairs Manager pharmaceutical companies like GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis. She currently also serves as Senior Advisor for the Global Solidarity Fund.Giuseppe COLANGELO
Scientific coordinator of the DEEP-IN
Giuseppe COLANGELO, Scientific coordinator of the DEEP-IN
Our team
Alessandra BIANCHI
Public Affairs & Comunication
Alessandra BIANCHI, Public Affairs & Comunication
Born in January 1982, mother of Giorgia since 2015, in I-Com since 2010 first in the Communication office and later and until today in the external relations team. Graduated with honors in International Communication, with specialization in the fields of advertising and institutional communication of International Bodies and Organisms. He worked in Xerox for a year in Public Relations dealing with corporate advertising and organization of events and exhibitions, acquiring skills in the fields of business communication and marketing.Francesca CORRADO
General & Administrative Affairs
Francesca CORRADO, General & Administrative Affairs
Francesca was born in 1987 and she has worked in I-Com since 2009. She is a 360° business partner. In these years she carried out all the main functions. General and Organizational Secretariat, External Relations, Administration. In 2009 she successfully get a diploma for Payroll Attendant with McS Informatica. In 2011 he obtained the Master "Event Planning and Organization" with Delta Comunicazione srl, deepening all the aspects that characterize an event: from the creative and ideation phase to the organizational and productive one. Thanks to an eclectic and polyvalent training, she presents himself as a personal, executive and assistant manager. For years she has been in charge of the administrative management of the company, of relations with the Human Resources Office and of Public Relation with members and sponsors. Reserved, reliable.Maria Rosaria DELLA PORTA
Research Fellow
Maria Rosaria DELLA PORTA, Research Fellow
Maria Rosaria Della Porta graduated from the University of Naples “Federico II”, with a Master’s degree in Economics and a postgraduate degree in “Competition, Economics of Regulation and Evaluation”. After her academic studies, she completed the apprenticeship for admission to the State exam to qualify as a Chartered Accountant. From 2015, she is a research fellow at I-Com, Institute for Competitiveness. She started her experience in I-Com working exclusively with the Innovation Area, which deals with issues related to the health sector and the pharmaceutical market. She is currently also collaborating with the Digital Area on issues related to artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. Finally, within the ORTI Observatory, she deals with issues related to taxation in Italy and relations between Italian public administration and companies.Laura GAGLIARDUCCI
Public Affairs & Comunication
Laura GAGLIARDUCCI, Public Affairs & Comunication
Graduated in Political Science from La Sapienza University in Rome, she worked as editor for the agency Axia multimedia, mainly handling in-depth and articles for the monthly Technet and Atlas on topics of sustainable development, Corporate Social Responsibility, ethical finance, and new technologies. She contributed to editing and proofreading with the publisher Memori. She worked for Fondazione Etica, taking care of the mapping and reworking of electoral programs for the volume "Il Federalismo che già c’è" (Ed. Il Mulino, 2011) and collaborating to the research project REP (Rating Etico Pubblico) for the composition of a sustainability index of the public administration (regions and local health authorities). He collaborated in bibliographic research and editing of the volume "Sanità a 21 velocità" (Ed. Rubbettino, 2013). He has been working at th Institute for Competitiveness since March 2013. Since June 2015 she is in the External Relations team.Niccolò GIUSTI
Head of EU Affairs
Niccolò GIUSTI, Head of EU Affairs
Niccolò is Head of European Affairs of I-Com - and of the Liaison Office in Brussels - since July 2021. After obtaining a Bachelor's degree in European Studies from the University of Reading, he obtained a Master's degree in European Public Affairs at Maastricht University and a Master with scholarship in Management and Business Strategy from Sole 24 Ore Business School. Before joining I-Com, he worked - again in Brussels - at the EU Representation Office of the Renault Group, dealing with European industrial policy and funding instruments for companies. Prior to his arrival in Belgium, he worked at Confindustria in Rome, being selected from the 'Confindustria per i Giovani' competition and also working at the Union of Industrialists of Rome and Lazio. He also did an internship in 2014 in the Investment Sustainability and Stakeholder Relations Unit of the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg.Giusy MASSARO
Research Fellow
Giusy MASSARO, Research Fellow
She graduated at the Bocconi University in Economics, with an experimental thesis on innovation and the determinants of survival of companies in the telecommunications sector. She holds a Master's degree in Economics at Università Tor Vergata, specializing in the use of econometric techniques. After a brief experience at the Financial Direction of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, where she performed competitive analyses, she worked at the Research Department of Consip, dealing with the economic assessment of calls for bids, in accordance with the regulatory, transparency and competition principles inherent in public procurement procedures, with a particular focus on the transportation, energy, facility management and IT goods and services sectors. She is currently employed at I-Com as a research fellow. She carries out market analyses, economic and regulatory researches in the TLC, digital, start-up and energy sectors. She is also engaged in data mining and dataset analysis, database creation and elaboration of papers, reports and presentations.Giulia PALOCCI
Public Affairs & Comunication
Giulia PALOCCI, Public Affairs & Comunication
xxxLorenzo PRINCIPALI
Senior Research Fellow
Lorenzo PRINCIPALI, Senior Research Fellow
Lorenzo Principali deals with digital media, web services and telco economics and trends. From 2007 to 2012 he worked as a researcher for the Institute for Media Economics, providing analysis and consulting services for the main national and international operators. He won a research grant from Fondazione CRT for the Civil Society Young Talents Master, with a project on IPTV, and he acquired a Master Degree in Business Administration at the Link Campus University of Malta. He conducted researches and consulting services for Italian and international institutions such as the Ministry of Communication, the Italian Senate and the Council of Europe. He also collaborated with several digital start-ups as a web marketing consultant, project manager and co-founder, developing a 360° experience in the digital business environment.Giorgia PUNTEL
Public Affairs & Comunication
Giorgia PUNTEL, Public Affairs & Comunication
Giorgia was born in Rome in 1987 and works in the External relations team of I-Com since 2014. In the same year she achieved a post-graduated diploma in “Institutional relations, Lobby and Corporate communication” at the LUISS Guido Carli University of Rome, with a thesis on the conflicts between pharmaceutical and animal welfare lobbies. In 2012 she graduated with honors in Multimedia publishing and Journalism at the Lumsa University of Rome, while for the first three years of her university career she dedicated to the study of foreign languages, with short work experiences in London as well. Giorgia loves travelling and animals.Domenico SALERNO
Research Fellow
Domenico SALERNO, Research Fellow
Born in Avellino in 1990. He holds a bachelor’s degree in “Economics and Health company management” at the Catholic University and a master’s degree in “International Management” at LUISS Guido Carli. After the graduation he attended a Master Course in “Export Management & International Business” at the business school of Sole 24 Ore.Giorgia TERMINI
EU Liaison Office
