Interview with Andrea Pietrini, Chairman of YourGroup and Director of the Scientific Committee of Fondazione Fimelato ETS.

1. Dr. Pietrini, you are the Director of the Scientific Committee of Fondazione Fimelato ETS. What goals has the Foundation set for its first year of activity? And what is the role of the Scientific Committee?

The Scientific Committee was recently established, in parallel with the launch of the Foundation. For this first year, the main goal is to lay solid foundations, contributing ideas and visions that will help shape future lines of action. Our role is to support the Foundation with suggestions and creative proposals that will help spread our values within the business community and society as a whole.

If the Club, from which everything originated, has spent these past years raising awareness around certain topics, the Foundation represents its natural evolution: a step that gives form and continuity to the journey begun.

I accepted this role because I was among the first Ambassadors of the project and had the privilege of witnessing its birth, growth, and development. And for many years, I’ve been promoting these ideas: today, having the opportunity to do so alongside a group of motivated people who share the same vision is a great honor for me.

The first year is always the most delicate: the Committee is bringing together the skills and experiences of people who, although familiar with each other, are collaborating for the first time. We are engaging in dialogue, building a shared vision born from the exchange between different worlds. We’ll be working on new initiatives and will also welcome contributions from the Club’s Ambassadors, in a continuous flow of ideas and inspiration. We've been operational for a few months, and together with my colleagues, we’re still “getting into gear.” One of our goals is also to expand the Committee itself: the more voices we involve, the more representative and inclusive we become. Over time, I am confident it will become a key reference point, capable of attracting the brightest minds and most active energies in our network.

2. Given your extensive professional and entrepreneurial experience, what do you believe is the role of kindness in today’s work and business world? Have we "arrived," or is there still work to be done?

There is still much work to be done. I’ve been speaking about kindness for many years and I acknowledge that progress has been made, thanks in part to the efforts of the Club and now the Foundation. But the current international landscape presents us with new challenges, with dynamics — including political and economic — that risk taking us backwards, toward models we thought we had moved beyond.

This is why, now more than ever, awareness is needed: we have an important responsibility to promote and defend values that are at risk of being undermined. After a period in which there seemed to be a positive trend in kindness, inclusivity, and sustainability, today we sense a slowdown. But for this very reason, we must persist and move forward. The Foundation, in this regard, plays a central role: not only through its concrete actions, but also through the values it represents and promotes.

3. Kindness also means the strength of relationships and human connection — a positive exchange of skills, mutual respect, and growth. As a networking expert, do you believe this can be the key to personal improvement and doing business in a “kind” way?

Absolutely. I’ve always been a strong advocate of networking as an authentic and generous exchange between people. A true networker is someone who acts with generosity and kindness, without expecting anything in return. It’s not a transactional give-and-take; it’s about choosing to be of service to others because you can make a difference. And in time, the positivity you put out into the world comes back — often multiplied.

Kindness and networking are closely linked: both foster trust, more transparent relationships, behavioral integrity, and greater seriousness in the way business is done.