Contact Name: Prof. Antonio Morandi
Contact Phone: + 39 051 209 3508
About the speaker
Carlalberto was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Electro Power Systems (EPS) in October 2013, with the mission to manage the Chapter 11 of what, at that time, was a research centre and spin-off of the Polytechnic University of Turin.
In May 2014, after having spearheaded the financial restructuring of the research centre and done his due diligence regarding the technology developed since 2005, he surprisingly decided to release a new business plan founding a new start-up addressing the energy markets. Less than one year later, in April 2015, he led the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of the company, listing EPS on the Paris stock exchange with a market capitalisation of €55 million. He started to build the company’s industrial footprint from scratch.
Eight months later, in December 2015, he launched a capital increase and funded the acquisition of a spin-off of the Polytechnic University of Milan to complete the company’s technological portfolio. Meanwhile, EPS deployed an installed base of 67 MWh, becoming one of the largest players worldwide for microgrids and utility-scale storage systems. Two years later, in January 2018, ENGIE, the French energy company and largest independent power producer of the world, took control of the company by acquiring a majority stake and launched a tender offer worth over 100% of the capital of EPS for an enterprise value of €108 million.
Prior to the EPS venture, Carlalberto was an entrepreneur and investor, focused mainly in the Hi-Tech and Digital sectors, with a strong expertise in start-ups, growing-stage companies and turnarounds. He was Operating Partner at 360 Capital Partners, one of the largest venture capital firms in Europe, with responsibilities for the development of the cleantech and digital portfolio companies of the fund. Before joining 360 Capital Partners, he was a co-founder of Blackshape Aircraft. Acquired by an investment group that specialises in space, aerospace and electronics, the company developed the highest-performing ultra-light aircraft in the world. He also co-founded Restopolis, now TheFork, a TripAdvisor company and a leading online restaurant reservation platform in Europe with almost 14 million monthly visits.
He holds an MBA from the Bocconi School of Management, with merit in Financial Risk Management (2012). He graduated as JD cum laude from Université Paris V (2005) and cum laude and worthy of publication in his master’s degree with the University of Turin (2006). He specialised in Israel at the University of Haifa (2005) and in New York at the European School of Economics (2007), after which he spent four years at Linklaters between London and Milan specialising in structured finance.
Carlalberto is a regular lecturer and visiting professor at leading European polytechnic universities and business schools. He enjoys trail running, skiing and mountaineering, but his main passion is his family, which he ‘co-founded’ with his wife Claudia and with two recent additions to the team in 2015 and 2016: Tommaso and Edoardo.