There is no development without history, taught by Filippo Callipo, guest of the Antonio Emanuele Augurusa Foundation for the third edition of Green Social Impact Manager, the free Higher Education course which, under the High Patronage of the European Parliament, brings together excellence in the entrepreneurial, managerial, institutional and academic fields in Filogaso (VV) to train young professionals from Italy and abroad on the issues of just transition.
Calabrian entrepreneur and politician known for being the owner and sole director of the Callipo group, active for over a hundred years in the production and marketing of tuna and other fish products, and for his personal fight against organized crime, Filippo Callipo brought to the students of Green SIM the experience of a family and a company – now in its fourth generation – which has made the reclamation of the origins and valorisation of Calabria a true “trademark”. In the halls of the Municipality of Filogaso, a lectio magistralis that managed to combine tradition and innovation in the wake of a territorial rooting that underlines the possibility for the young generations to “stay in Calabria and not limit themselves to producing in Calabria”. «Talking to young people is always useful, whether about sport, work, or institutional aspects. Today I am here precisely for this reason, because by telling about my company I wanted to make the kids of the Augurusa Foundation understand that even in Calabria you can do business, you can grow and generate profits, you can live well and make people live well” declared Filippo Callipo, placing the emphasis on what doing business means for the Callipo group. «It is important that our company allows 450 people, 450 families who can count on a decent salary and concrete elements of welfare, to live well. This year, for example, at the end of the year we closed a good balance sheet and gave away 1000 euros per employee.”
At the center of the intervention, therefore, is the value of dialogue with younger people and the desire to transmit values and good practices, before business plans. An approach that embodies the meaning of the Green Social Impact Manager path and reflects the dimension of the work of the Augurusa Foundation in the Calabrian area. «I really appreciate the commitment of the Augurusa Foundation towards young people and the choice to invest in future generations. The work of the Foundation is a commendable and meritorious work, a beautiful thing” underlined the entrepreneur, clarifying the reasons that led him to enthusiastically accept the invitation to teach. “I am here today precisely because we speak to young people, to whom we can make an important contribution and on whose lives we can still have an impact. We need to talk to young people now, before they make decisive decisions for their lives: to be a self-employed professional or an employed worker, to stay or not to stay. I truly dedicate this time with pleasure.” Filippo Callipo thus extended an invitation to the Green SIM students to visit his company in the next few weeks of the course and to take part in the history of a company that has made the history of a region, because – as Abdou, a student of the Foundation, commented in thanking the entrepreneur for the value that the company continues to generate in the land that welcomed him from Senegal ten years ago – “each of us has a potential that can truly develop in a community like that of Callipo”.