My father advised me to study accounting, as it is a profession that offers a multitude of opportunities to build a successful career in whatever industry one likes anywhere in the world. The first half of my 10 years’ work experience was dedicated to audit. I then moved to transaction services where I consolidated my career in more senior roles. I have worked across many diverse businesses and industries, from yacht construction and jewellery manufacturing to farming, forensics road infrastructure and the aerospace industry.
I stepped out of my comfort zone on many occasions. At 33, I have lived in four countries and I speak five languages. Each move was hard, but I appreciate how I grew by facing up to these challenges.
What I enjoy most about my work is dealing with a rich diversity of business cases
Challenges in Italy include its bureaucracy and slow administrative processes, as well as high taxation rates and weak state control over fiscal evasion. There is also regional disparity between the south and the north, with a concentration of human and finance capital around developed cities, which renders business more difficult in other regions.
Another growing issue is the net outflow of high-skilled professionals, with serious implications for the country’s economy and innovation capacity. However, Italy is attracting human capital thanks to the reduced taxation for certain categories of professionals from the EU that move to Italy. Companies also benefit from government grants and tax credits for investment in new technologies, and from green energy incentives, which will provide opportunities for businesses to become more competitive.
Most Italian companies are SMEs and I see opportunities in the dynamic M&A market. M&As allow companies to access the capital and strategic expertise of investment funds or larger organisations, restructure their businesses and grow beyond their often family-owned company size.
I work on about 10 financial due diligence projects a year, and each of these is usually from a different industry with each company having its own peculiarities. What I enjoy most about my work is dealing with a rich diversity of business cases, learning something new from each project, and presenting a 360-degree picture of the trading performance and financial position of the business in a clear and concise report.
This is my favourite mantra: ‘Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart.’
There is a risk that AI might get out of human control and understanding
I think it’s hard to assess whether AI will have a positive or negative impact on audit. On one hand, AI may well significantly improve the processing of records and spotting errors and even fraud. However, as AI systems grow in complexity and dimension, there is a risk that it might get out of human control and understanding.
If I had law-making powers I would make medical care an exclusively public service to ensure fair access for everyone. In Italy the system overpays private hospitals to treat citizens under the public insurance policy, as existing laws have encouraged the growth of the private sector, so now public hospitals aren’t competitive and lack personnel. This led to high inequalities between those with and without private health insurance. A public policy patient can wait three-to-12 months to get an appointment, regardless of the urgency of their case, but this wait is just days for a private patient.
If I wasn’t in accounting, I would have liked to be an engineer in the space industry.
In my spare time, I love trekking the beautiful mountains of Italy, especially in the Dolomites and the Trentino region. I am also attending an arts academy once a week, where I am enjoying a renaissance drawing course.
