MARCO FIORENTINO

Marco Fiorentino was born in Milan in December 1964. He lived in the United States for a long time, where he also studied, travelled and worked for several years.
In 1986, he graduated from Princeton University with honours, with a major in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a minor in Public and Foreign Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University.
During his studies, he founded and directed the "Princeton Computer Agency", the first university student agency in the US to distribute Microsoft products to students and faculty as an alternative to normal university channels. Fiorentino was a consultant for Booz, Allen & Hamilton from 1986 to 1989, first in New York and later in Milan, where he advised clients on the development of new markets in a "Bell Telephone Company".
In 1990, he worked for Citibank/Citinvest (LBO Group), where he was in charge of the strategy and financial stability of an important international company in the mechanical sector.
Fiorentino obtained an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1991, the same year that he returned to Italy as a shareholder and Managing Director of COMM2000 Spa. He then managed the company's introduction into the corporate Internet services sector, and brought it to be Italy's second largest independent provider in that sector.
In 2000, after nine years of continuous growth and positive results, Fiorentino sold COMM2000 to the NASDAQ listed company KPNQwest NV - except for the business unit managing the FreeFAX service - which instead went to MESSAGENET Srl, a company created specifically for the division of the business units. He remained as Managing Director of COMM2000, renamed KPNQwest Italia, where he led a comprehensive plan for growth and investment in fibre optics and a Data Center, according to the parent company's plans.
In April 2003, Marco Fiorentino repurchased KPNQwest Italia and the Milano Caldera Data Center from KPNQwest NV, after it filed for bankruptcy. He quickly turned the company's financial situation around to close the 2003 balance sheets with positive results.
In 2004, the company was renamed COMM2000, and it collects all of the activities that are managed by Fiorentino under one name. This company also includes COMMStrategy and Autobynet, co-founded by Marco Fiorentino, in addition to KPNQWest Italia and Messagenet.
Marco Fiorentino has also contributed to initiatives for the general benefit of the whole Italian Internet community. In 1999, he was heavily involved in the foundation of MIX Srl, the company that manages the main Italian Internet NAP. He is the president of AIIP, the Italian Internet Service Provider Association, and is a co-founder of VOIPEX (Italian VoIP operators syndicate).