Marco Saltalamacchia, former President and CEO of BMW Italy, talks about the evolution of modern retail strategies in luxury and brand-driven goods, customer relationships, financial services and the automotive industry.

PROFILE:

Marco Saltalamacchia graduated in Statistical and Economic Sciences and had the first work experience in market research at A.C. Nielsen. He graduated from SDA Bocconi with an MBA in 1986. He worked at Merloni appliances and Standa in the marketing field. In 1991 he started a ten-year experience at Renault in Italy, Germany and France. He covered different roles in sales and marketing, among which the one of Director of the world development strategy of commercial networks. Back in Italy, he’s appointed as Manager of the Fleet Division and Used Vehicles at Fiat. From 2002 he is employed at BMW as President and CEO of the Italian branch (that will grow in four years from 46.000 to 90.000 car sales). In 2005 he is awarded the “Top Manager of the year” award from the Interauto News magazine. At the end of 2006 he’s Senior Vice President for the European Region at Munich’s BMW Headquarters, taking BMW to the European leadership. In 2007 he has been nominated from the President of the Italian Republic, G. Napolitano, “Official of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic”. Since 2010 he works as a management consultant and entrepreneur.