Michele Mario Elia appointed as FIGI President

Gruppo FS Italiane CEO is the new President of the Board for the “FIGI” Facoltà Ingegneria Grandi Imprese (Engineering Faculty for Large Enterprises) Project

Rome, 23 June 2015

Gruppo FS Italiane CEO Michele Mario Elia is the new President of the Board for the “FIGI” Facoltà Ingegneria Grandi Imprese Project.

This appointment was confirmed in Rome at the annual meeting of the Board comprising the Dean of Civil and Industrial Engineering Faculty at La Sapienza University in Rome and top management from participating businesses Terna, Enel, Technip, Prometeo, D. Marchiori and ASM Terni SpA.

This appointment of Elia ensures a new impulse to the FIGI Project – a bridge between universities and large enterprises that aims to improve the quality of graduates in line with new needs on the employment market.

During his opening speech for the ceremony held in the Faculty Meeting Room and attended by Dean Prof. Fabrizio Vestroni, CEO Elia thanked the Board for his appointment and highlighted that, “The FIGI Project has created a strategic alliance between universities and businesses that should now be intensified further.”

This Project is an important occasion for enterprises and universities to meet and aims to show future engineers the world of business while allowing companies to intercept talented young people. – a fully-fledged best practice in communication between these two worlds, in which Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane play a leading role.

Cooperation between Gruppo FS Italiane and the University strongly focuses on:

ensuring that training becomes increasingly suited to the needs of businesses and development in the country, favouring integration between corporate and academic know how;
showing future engineers the world of enterprise and provide them orientation services from the very beginning of their educational itinerary to thereby make their entrance to the world of employment easier;
implement projects to encourage innovation and research programmes of interest to Group companies.

Over the years, this Group has improved collaboration with the FIGI Project, which began in 2006, encouraging exchanges of experience – above all in certain engineering fields of strategic interest to the business.

A number of initiatives are planned, including specialist workshops held by FS Italiane managers throughout graduate courses, technical tours of group facilities, meetings between students and top management, seminars to orient young people to create a good CV and develop the soft skills they need to face the challenge of a selection assessment, internships and support for dissertations, master degrees and research projects.

As Dean. Vestroni stressed, “Acceptance of this appointment by CEO Michele Mario Elia has strengthened the already intense and successful relations between universities and railway quintessence from Gruppo FS Italiane”.