Born in Venice, Franco graduated at the Faculty of Chemistry. After ten years in Pharmaceutical Industries as chemical engineer, Franco moved to Information Technology business.

In 1997 Franco founded MHT, an ERP & CRM global system integration company he directed until 2017. Now he is supporting digital and economic transformation in evolving organisations.

Franco is now involved in BIM [Building Information Management] in a DBA Group SpA project, supporting the digitalization of Infrastructure Lifecycle Management and taking part in global development and improvement of OpenBIM interoperability data Standard (IFC) with BSI.

Franco’s achievements in digital transformation include:

• Since 1997 Franco was heavenly involved in global initiatives with Confindustria, in Italy and Serbia, and other ecosystems aimed to develop, defend and diffuse human culture and business through digital, according to a post-digital approach, i.e.  The state of being in which you assume the digital instead of marveling at it (F.Speirs).
• As CEO of a primary global Microsoft partner, member of the Global Management Board of a global ICT a company based in Hong Kong, and through founding, developing and managing international branches, Fracno developed a wide experience on IT technology global providing.
• In 2018 Franco designed and put in motion with Confindustria Serbia the DIGINDEC initiative, to bridge the Republic of Serbia and Italy in a win-win initiative to boost digital transformation in both countries.
• Franco has been involved in many digital transformation projects in highly regulated environments (construction, pharma, aerospace, healthcare, etc.). Thus, he has deeply studied the impacts of regulatory compliance and international laws on digital evolution.
• This allowed him to develop a huge experience about the pros and the cons of digitalization issues related to social and business environments, and of the impacts of law and regulatory requirements

Franco’s business attitude and personal interests in his own words:

”My global business made me work in many countries, but Belgrade has been the place where I founded my most successful international initiative in 2011, now named Engineering Balkan. But the best achievement of my Serbian experience has been to know and love this country and its people.”

”I’m a skier and a hiker and I love mountain wilderness, but the most I like to connect with people all around the world, and I’m keen on everything can help global cooperation and good relations, especially in Europe I consider our common country.”

How did INAT spirit / Innovation attitude spirit help you in your personal life or professional career?

Digital has been the innovative media I used to share my attitude to achieve more from our time, our business, our life.

My business and cultural proposition has been focused on interaction and integration of digital, humans and organisations in a global world. In doing this I’ve been perseverant enough to go live in 100% of digital transformation projects I managed with my team, rebel enough to overwhelm people was saying we can’t do it, I had the endurance to run a group of sometime wild race horses I called my company for 20 years and I got stamina enough to continue in innovative adventures with new companies in new businesses.

Michelle E. Messina is CEO of the global direction and strategy consulting firm, Explora International LLC based in Silicon Valley, California. Explora International trains startups, mentors, and angel networks using the best practices of Silicon Valley in master classes and bootcamps. She has worked in more than 65 countries around the world and functions as a strategic advisor to international governments on their startup innovation ecosystems. Michelle co-authored the best-selling book “Decoding Silicon Valley:  The Insider’s Guide” and is Chair of the Impact Hub Belgrade and an advisor to their Venture Grow fund.

Uri is consulting companies who want to add AI capabilities to their services\products. Uri has worked with consulting companies and organizations and helps them to choose and implement the best AI solution for their needs. In addition, Uri has founded the biggest AI community in Israel called “Machine and Deep Learning Israel”. The community has more than 13,000 members who are the leading AI talents in Israel.

Uri also loves to share his knowledge and give lectures and workshops which talks about many different aspects of AI.

When did you show your INAT spirit / Innovation attitude spirit in your personal life or professional career? 

I wanted to prove that AI can create new tools and be used for many cool things and that’s why I created AutoHash – an app that gives your the best hashtags to any photo. In the beginning, none thought that people will use it or that the AI is strong enough to understand the content of the photo but I showed them otherwise! AutoHash because a great success with almost half a million photos analyzed each month! And the best part is that AutoHash is growing organical without spending 1$ in marketing. In that moment I knew I should alway listen to myself and trust my insticts.