The new Tlc engines. Chat with Benedetto Levi, CEO of Iliad Italy

Market, investments, opportunities and taboos. With expansion in sight: “Italy is open to innovation. Now we need to get out of the comfort zone, take risks, face something different”

Italy is not a country for innovators, too conservative, too proud of its mythical past like Sicily according to the prince of Salina. Benedict Levi, CEO of iliad, does not agree and warns against clichés or easy literary suggestions. “Italy is open to innovation and I’m not just talking about culture, art, history, but the present, technological excellence from the pharmaceutical to the automotive or the district model. Therefore, pay attention to how we are perceived, because we are one of the most innovative countries in the world”. To hear it from a young top manager, at the helm of one of the youngest players on the European telecommunications scene, one almost believes it. Born in Turin in 1988, with a degree in logistics engineering from the Polytechnic, a master’s degree in Paris, experience in London, in 2013 he founded a startup that sells accessories for smartphones, because “creating something from scratch has always fascinated me”, he confesses with ill-concealed pride. Then he launches on the Italian market Trainlines (railway tickets online), a company in which Xavier Niel, founder of iliad and almost sole shareholder, is a shareholder.