On March 2, the Campari Venue space at the Grace Building in New York hosted a special meeting of the Bocconi community. Alumni, supporters and authorities gathered for an event that has not only represented international networking, but a tribute to Leonardo Del Vecchio’s vision. To tell it, it was the voice of Nicoletta Zampillo Del Vecchio, President of the Foundation to him titolata, who guards the values and the philanthropic spirit by translating them into projects capable of generating social value. The initiative, organized by Bocconi Alumni Community together with Friends of Bocconi University, focused on education excellence for all as a tool to break down social barriers. A commitment that for the Leonardo Del Vecchio Foundation is not only a mission, but a moral duty rooted in the personal history of the founder of Luxottica
Mariafrancesca Carli (President of Friends of Bocconi), Francesca Coloni (Chapter Leader of the Alumni in New York) and Erika Zancan (Director, Alumni & Fundraising of Bocconi University).
The event, moderated by journalists Mario Calvo Platero and Maria Silvia Sacchi, has seen as protagonist Nicoletta Zampillo Del Vecchio who guides the Foundation with the aim to give continuity to the values of the founder of Luxottica. Under his presidency, the body has strengthened its role through solid partnerships with academic institutions and targeted interventions in the health and social field. “Leonardo always believed in young people and their potential,” he explained during the interview. “We are determined to support today’s talents by breaking down every economic barrier to study for them in the belief that this will bring them tomorrow to draw a meritocratic and more just society”.
At the heart of the debate the theme of “restitution”, a principle which the Foundation has transformed into concrete investments on education with the aim of democratizing access to a high-level training.
To give a face to these opportunities was Riccardo Cornaggia, a student at the third year of BIEF (Bachelor in Economics and Finance). Cornaggia, currently engaged in a semester of exchange at Princeton University, told how the Foundation’s support was fundamental for an academic journey that led him from the Milan bank to one of the most prestigious institutions of the Ivy League.
The initiative has confirmed how the model of the Leonardo Del Vecchio Foundation points to generate a lasting impact. It is not only a matter of honoring a memory, but of building a system where business success returns to civil society in the form of education, scientific research and inclusion, with the aim of leaving a lasting sign in the social fabric building real opportunities.
In addition to the symbols, there are concrete data. The Leonardo Del Vecchio Students Award fund guarantees a minimum of ten students each year the opportunity to start their journey in Bocconi, covering costs that otherwise families could not afford.
But what binds the Bocconi University to the figure of Leonardo Del Vecchio also goes beyond, so much so that for the first time since its foundation, last May 22, on the day of the birth of the entrepreneur, has named it one of the most iconic buildings of the campus: that of Piazza Sraffa 13, renamed Leonardo Del Vecchio Building, to symbolize the impact of the Knight in the world of enterprise and formation, and to remember – as underlined the revernant.
The event ended with a Q&A session, leaving the New York audience the image of a philanthropy that is not limited to celebrating the past, but which uses the resources of the present to build the ruling class of the future.
Through concrete support for merit and education, Leonardo Del Vecchio’s life is not only a memory of an unprecedented entrepreneurial success, but as a convinced belief in the people on which the Foundation will continue to invest in order to generate social value and mobility for generations to come.
L’articolo Leonardo Del Vecchio’s “give back” in New York: the philanthropy as a social mobility engine comes from IlNewyorkese.
