FTxBocconi Challenge 2021 is Ready to Kick Off
In a scenario upturned by the pandemic during the year that has passed since the first edition, 150 young talents from all over the world are ready to compete in the FTxBocconi Talent Challenge 2021. In order to face today's new challenges, the competition, organised by Bocconi University and the Financial Times, will ask participants to challenge themselves in redesigning the world of business and society with innovative ideas. The competition will take place online from February 6-13 with live broadcasts from Bocconi in Milan and the FT office in London.
The 150 students and young professionals (selected from 2,000 applications) will compete in teams, devising solutions for four challenges that will be launched in the areas of Policy, Entrepreneurship, Finance and Marketing - with the indication to leverage on human capital, sustainability, diversity and inclusion in designing their innovative ideas for new strategies and business models. During the Challenge, participants will also be involved in a series of masterclasses and talks with professors, guest speakers, FT journalists and Bocconi alumni.
Among the guests, Mario Monti, President of Bocconi, will open with a speech while three Bocconi alumni, Cristina Scocchia, CEO of KIKO, Elena Lavezzi, Head of Southern Europe at Revolut, and Simona Maellare, Global Co-Head Alternative Capital at UBS, will discuss new leadership and how to leverage human capital in companies. Diego Piacentini, senior advisor at KKR and former Senior Vice President at Amazon, will talk about digitalisation and the future of work, and Davide Serra, CEO of Algebris Investments, about ESG finance. Federico Marchetti, Chairman of YOOX Net-a-Porter, will talk with Bocconi Rector Gianmario Verona about how innovation supports sustainability, while Alisee de Tonnac, co-Founder Seedstars and Bocconi alumna, will discuss entrepreneurship.
There will be 42 guests in all, plus 15 mentors, all students and alumni of the SDA Bocconi MBA, who will help the teams during the challenge.
Among the challengers will be Savannah Stander, South African, a fashion student in London, who is "passionate about sustainability, specifically in fashion business", and Joshua Paul, from India, a computer sciences student in Paris, interested in "the intersection of business and technology." Alex Papadopoulos, from Greece, an engineering student, is doing a placement with McLaren F1 Racing while Giovanni Sinibaldi is a Masters student at Bocconi. Scarlett Park, from Korea, who is passionate about green energy, is doing an internship at UNIDO while Jun Bin Ho, from Vietnam, is passionate about "startups and new entrepreneurial ecosystems". Alexander Berger, Austrian, is working at the OECD while Gülfem Cevheribucak, from Turkey, a recent graduate in international relations, hopes the Challenge will "develop my knowledge of digitalisation and I look forward to working with such a diverse group and with talents from all over the world".
The members of the finalist teams will then have the opportunity to develop their idea by participating in the 2021 call of Bocconi for Innovation (B4i), the University's accelerator.