Interview with Marina Tavecchio, Duferco SA, Lugano

Tell us a little about yourself

I have attended Liceo Scientifico and graduated with a degree in Business and Economics from Bocconi University, Milan, Italy. I also hold an Executive MBA from USI Università della Svizzera italiana. After 5 years in a consultancy firm in Milan, Italy, I joined the leading steel trading company Duferco SA, based in Lugano, Switzerland and belonging to the DITH Group, where I am currently the Head of Trading Administration & Control, General Accounting, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable Departments and responsible for currency risk management and auditors’ relationship. I am a member of the Board of Managers of Duferco Celik Ticaret Limited in Sirketi, Turkey, and a member of the Advisory Board of ATG Deutschland GmbH in Germany, both subsidiaries of DITH Group.

Tell us a little about your professional background?

My first job after graduation was in the consultancy firm Ernst & Young, Milan, Italy. I then joined Altoprofilo SPA, a consultancy firm, where I was project manager. Two and a half years later I joined Duferco SA, Switzerland, as member of the Administration and Control Group, and then became head of the Trading Administration & Control Department, where I still work today.
 
Why did you decide to attend the USI EMBA program?

I decided to attend an EMBA because I wanted to update and strengthen my knowledge in business and administration. Among the available EMBA programs I chose the USI’s EMBA mainly for two reasons: it is taught in English and the number of participants is small in comparison to other programs, allowing a one-to-one relationship with the teacher.

How has the EMBA changed your perspective at work? How has it changed your career?

I feel more open-minded, I approach problems with a wider perspective and I have enlarged my competences in different fields useful for my job such as finance and management. I’m now able to evaluate investment opportunities and to better analyze financial statements, I’ve learned how to participate in a board of directors and provide valuable input, as well as how to manage teams and how to manage business relations. Such skills allowed me to be nominated as member of the board of newly acquired companies and to actively participate in due diligence processes on new acquisition targets. My job is now more interesting and I deal with new and stimulating projects.

What is the most important skill you feel you have learned/developed during the EMBA?

I have learned many valuable skills, it is difficult to say which one is the most important. Business evaluation (business plans, investments’ evaluations, EVA, NPV, IRR…), organizational behavior, and statistical methods for risk assessment are the ones that I use most often, but also negotiation and group interaction are important soft skills I have developed.

Would you recommend the program to others and why?

Yes, I recommend the program. It is stimulating and allows a continuous exchange of opinions among the participants, thanks to class discussions and group projects, as well as with teachers. This is mainly due to the limited number of participants and the availability of teachers. The program covers all the main topics of business and administration and offers the possibility to customize the learning program by choosing the elective courses.

EMBA Scholarship

Dicronis is a start-up company that develops innovative pharmaceutical products for the early diagnosis of diseases with high and urgent medical needs. The first product, Lymphit, controls the function of the lymphatic system in a simple, safe and economical way, even from home. Thus contributing to drastically reduce, in combination with a specific treatment, the development of lymphoedema, a serious side effect of certain cancer therapies, to which up to one million patients are at risk annually, in Europe alone.

Dicronis was the winning project of the MedTech Business 2017 Award, conferred during the MedTech Business Comprehensive Advanced Program on MedTech Entrepreneurship at USI (which took place from November 27 to December 1, 2017).
The start-up was also the winner of StartCup Ticino 2017, the competition that awards the most innovative and promising business ideas realized in Ticino – an initiative of the USI-SUPSI Start-Up Promotion Center (CP Start-Up).

Thanks to her project, Patrizia Marschalkova, CEO of Dicronis, won the full EMBA scholarship.
Dicronis was a project developed during her Master’s degree studies at ETH Zurich. This eventually led to the idea of converting research into a product for the early diagnosis of lymphedema, a complication of cancer therapies. In this way, patients can begin with therapies before the condition becomes irreversible.
She recently attended the MedTech Business program at USI, after which she also competed (and won) the StartCup Ticino 2017 competition.
The StartCup Ticino competition, thanks also to the so-called “accelerator” phase, gave her the opportunity to focus on the business aspects of a start-up company like Dicronis, for instance by creating a good business plan for investors. The combination of these two programs and the learnings acquired helped the colleagues and her at Dicronis to finalize a solid financial and development plan for her company.

Join us for the last opportunity to attend one of our EMBA courses!

This March’s module our EMBA students will start Business Law course.

Business Law

Through this course in business law, you will gain a general understanding of business law, together with a perception of its several implications in their future professional careers. You will also work to acquire a basic legal vocabulary.
The course will briefly consider theories of the firm and their role in the economy. It will cover basic principles of contracts, business organizations (notably partnerships and corporations), the incorporation of an enterprise and how the corporate structure works.
In light of the growing internationalization of modern markets and business relationships, the course will not be exclusively focused on one regulation: it will rather provide general legal principles applicable to various countries and systems.

THE LEGAL ENVIRONMENT OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS:

– Introduction to International Business
– International Law and the World’s Legal Systems
– Corporates and Partnerships
– Listed companies
– Bonds and shares

When

Thursday 8 March 10.00 – 18.00
Friday 9 March 8.30 – 18.00
Saturday 10 March 8.30 – 18.00

Avv. Ferdinando Bruno
Ferdinando Bruno is a Law graduate of University Federico II of Naples, where he subsequently also obtained a Master’s Degree in EC Law and Economy and a Ph.D. in Economic Law.

In addition, he holds an Excecutive MBA from Politecnico of Milan (MIP), a Master in Corporate and Investment Banking from University Bocconi, Italy, an International Practice Diploma in International Capital Markets and Loans and an International Practice Diploma in International Mergers and Acquisitions from the College of Law of England and Wales, London/International Bar Association (IBA), a postgraduate diploma in EC Competition Law from the King’s College of London and a LL.M. in International Business Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
He also got a certificate in international private and public law from the Hague Academy of International Law and a certificate in Banking and Finance from the London Guildhall University. He has more than 100 articles and research books to his credit.
In Italy, he has been an academic director, scientific adviser and teacher of the IPSOA Master in Law and Economics of Capital Markets, the IPSOA Master International, and Domestic Banking Law and of the IPSOA Master in Derivatives. Furthermore, he has been academic coordinator and teacher of the Executive Course in Corporate Restructuring, MIP – The Business School of Politecnico di Milano. He also taught at University Federico II of Naples, the European School of Economics (ESE), Milan, and the University of Brescia, Italy.

Space is limited, book now at: emba@usi.ch

A new way to impact the world market: Lyoness and Lyconet

When: 9 March 2018, 18:00
Where: Executive Center, Università della Svizzera italiana

What is Lyoness?

Since 2003, Lyoness has been the registered trademark name for a group of globally distributed structures, which originated in Austria.
Lyoness comprises at least seven corporations registered in Switzerland, nine corporations registered in Austria and approximately 42 additional national and regional corporations all around the globe.
“Lyconet” was introduced in 2014 as a new trademark name for the same group of corporations.

What is network marketing?

Network marketing is a marketing strategy for the sale of products or services where the revenue of the MLM company is derived from a non-salaried workforce selling the company’s products/services, while the earnings of the participants is derived from a structured commission system.

Paolo Bellotti

Paolo Bellotti is founding member of the company Tethasolutions IT Services Srl. He is working in the field of the system assistance / consulting, software development, web applications and websites for SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) in the Varese area.
In 2017 he was elected Italian National President,  representing JCI Italy in several states such as: Ireland (European President Meeting in Dublin), Switzerland (European Conference in Basel) and Holland (World Congress in Amsterdam). In 2018 he hold the international position as JCI Alumni Relations Commitee Member for Europe.

When: February 28, 5.30 PM

Where: Auditorium, Università della Svizzera italiana

Meeting with Don Thompson, author of the book “The $12 Million Stuffed Shark is a Freakonomics”
Discussion with Dario Jucker, Lawyer, and Luca Visconti, Marketing Professor at USI.

Why would a smart New York investment banker pay $12 million for the decaying, stuffed carcass of a shark? By what alchemy does Jackson Pollock’s drip painting No. 5, 1948 sell for $140 million?
Intriguing and entertaining, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark is a Freakonomics approach to the economics and psychology of the contemporary art world. Why were record prices achieved at auction for works by 131 contemporary artists in 2006 alone, with astonishing new heights reached in 2007?

Don Thompson explores the money, lust, and self-aggrandizement of the art world in an attempt to determine what makes a particular work valuable while others are ignored.
This book is the first to look at the economics and the marketing strategies that enable the modern art market to generate such astronomical prices. Drawing on interviews with past and present executives of auction houses and art dealerships, artists, and the buyers who move the market, Thompson launches the reader on a journey of discovery through the peculiar world of modern art. Surprising, passionate, gossipy, revelatory, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark reveals a great deal that even experienced auction purchasers do not know.

The event will be held in collaboration with AIF ( Associazione imprese Familiari)  and Università degli Studi Milano Bicocca.

The future is now

When : Thursday 22.02.18

Where : Palazzo dei Congressi, Lugano

Innovating means being proactive, creating opportunities not only for yourself, but for the whole region. It also means maintaining growth in a rapidly changing economy.

Canton Ticino wants to profile itself as a favourable region for entrepreneurship by offering a variety of sustainable measures: in doing so, it welcomes all types if entrepreneurs – existing companies, start-ups, and those wanting to work for themselves.

This is an initiative of the Financial and Economic Department in collaboration with the Regional Ente for the Development of the Lugano area.

Speakers will be Sabrina Romelli, Christian Vitta and Valesko Wild.

The firms that will participate are DAC System SA, Gigi’s Ranch andr Mikron SA.

EMBA will be present at this event, because we support local events and local companies. Come visit our stand!

EMBA: Regional focus, international reach.