T
hank you for inviting me to help kick off what promises to be a very interesting learning experience. I applaud the co-sponsors of today's event, the MIB School of Management, which is rapidly becoming one of Italy's most prestigious business management schools, and the Project Management Institute's Northern Italy Chapter, which is at the forefront of establishing project management as a fundamental tool for businesses throughout Italy.
U.S. Consul General Deborah E. Graze gives introductory remarks during the Project
Management Symposium in Trieste.
I am particularly grateful to my friend Lion LaGassey for connecting the U.S. Mission in Italy to this important conference.
Today's event complements an ongoing U.S. initiative for Italy, a program we call “Partnership for Growth.” The U.S. diplomatic Mission in Italy has the goal of working in partnership with our Italian friends to help the Italian economy grow.
Promoting the growth of Italy's economy is in the interest of the United States because it will strengthen our ability to work together toward achieving common goals.
The Partnership for Growth is based on four fundamental pillars. We seek, first, to encourage increased university-private sector collaboration in Italy. This collaboration is essential to promote innovation, transfer the benefits of technology to the public, and to create new companies and jobs.
Second, the Partnership seeks to broaden and deepen capital markets. There is plenty of money in Italy, but there tends to be a limited amount of investment in new ideas. We want to broaden access to risk investment, such as venture capital and private equity. This will help promote innovation, and will help small businesses grow.
The third pillar of the Partnership for Growth is to promote stronger intellectual property rights regimes to protect investment in innovation.
The fourth pillar of this initiative is promoting exchanges of young people between the United States and Italy, especially in the study of business and entrepreneurship. As we started collaborating with Italian partners, we agreed this type of exchange is necessary for example, in order to address cultural issues that work against intelligent risk taking. We want to encourage a climate of entrepreneurship because we know its power to drive economic growth.
We established an exciting new program to send brilliant young Italians to the United States to study entrepreneurship and complete internships in dynamic new U.S. enterprises. This is an exchange program for the modern age – based on the idea of the Fulbright Program – designed to promote entrepreneurship through study and practical experience.
This innovative program is called BEST: Business Exchange and Student Training. We started the BEST program in early 2007, sending to the U.S. five talented young Italian research scientists and engineers to participate in a combined study/work program in California, near Silicon Valley. These students will return to Italy in July and we look forward to their sharing their experiences in entrepreneurship.
We plan to expand this program under the umbrella of Fulbright, and details on how to apply will be posted on our website in the coming months. In the meantime, you can read the blog produced by these first BEST participants, on our Embassy and Consulate websites. I hope this will inspire some of the young innovators in this audience to apply for the program.
I am very pleased the audience today includes a cross-section of MBA students, Alumni of the MIB School, and practitioners from industry and business throughout northern Italy and its close neighbors.
The synergy between universities, businessmen and industry – between MBA graduates and engineers for example – is exactly the kind of innovative collaboration that the Partnership for Growth program seeks to encourage. Coming together for this conference on project management demonstrates that this diverse group recognizes that project management is a key tool for business success.
As the U.S. Consul General in northern Italy, I meet with many business leaders from American and Italian companies. One contact, representing a large U.S. company and employer in Italy, told me that he wished there were more people with project management experience in Italy – he would hire them immediately!
I look forward to learning from our speakers, who have impressive experience and expertise to share. I wish all of you a productive symposium and great success in your future careers.
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