Dubai: When Italian expat Piero Ricotti, 64, was a young boy back in native Piedmont village, northwest of Italy, he remembers how one particular stamp from Ajman, that someone had given him, caught his fancy.
“I did not know anything about this place, so I went to the Atlas and found out it was part of the United Arab Emirates,” he recalled. “But I never imagined at the time that I would one day move to this country.”
Ricotti’s first encounter with the UAE was in 1994 when he came to Dubai as a representative of the telecom company he worked with in Italy. “I came here in connection with a tender and when my company won the bid, it was a pivotal moment for me. I began to visit the UAE often thereafter, and eventually moved here in late 1995.”
Happy to make the shift with his wife and daughter, Ricotti travelled widely within the UAE – 149 sites to be precise – in connection with his work.
“My wife, a clinical psychologist, also got busy as she got recruited by a Dubai-based airline where she continued to work for the next 20 years. Our daughter, who did her schooling here and her higher studies in New York and London, made it a point to come back to the UAE where she is now associated with an art gallery,” he shared.
An electronic engineer by qualification, Ricotti continued to work for the firm that brought him here until 2018 when he decided to go on his own. “In many way, the seeds of the entrepreneur in me were sown much earlier as I always tried to run my employer’s operations to the best of my ability, trying to solve problems on my own without knocking on the shareholders’ doors,” he said.
His entrepreneurial venture Tecnosistemi Solutions is an SME that provides services and solutions to the telecom industry. “We find niches where complexities can be simplified and addressed,” he said.
Active in the Italian expat circles, Ricotti also came on board the Italian Chamber of Commerce to the UAE where he has served as the chair. “When I first landed here, there were hardly around 300 Italians in the UAE. Today, the number is touching 18,000, with the Italian workforce having a strong presence in oil and gas, EPC contracting and a range of products.”
Ricotti, who is also the managing director of DURR, a global electronic and engineering firm, talks at length about one of its niche services – automation of tunnels – which commuters tend to take for granted. “There’s so much happening behind the scenes that is not visible to those moving in and out of tunnels, but that is the idea – to ensure a smooth and hassle-free flow of traffic,” he said.
Leaning towards learning
Despite the highly technical nature of his work, Ricotti is an essentially philosophical man. A voracious reader, he let on that his leaning towards learning was revealed even when he was a toddler.
“In my village, when a child turns one, there is a custom in which parents keep three things – a piece of bread, a currency note and a book – in front of the child. And there is a belief that the child’s destiny is broadly indicated by what he or she reaches out for. In my case, I happened to reach out for the book,” he narrated.
Of all the measures of success, Ricotti considers humility as the biggest draw. “The best things in life are invisible, understated. Consumerism beyond a point makes little sense. True success is about being kind and able to give back,” he reasoned.
Extremely thankful to the UAE, he said the country and its culture enables people to nurture their values. “We all know that the UAE is a role model when it comes to planning and executing projects; it has exemplary vision and knows how to realise this vision. It allows you to grow intellectually and that is why I feel very connected here,” he pointed out.
Outside his passion for work and reading, Ricotti said the mountain boy in him also likes going on hikes and even cycling. “At the end of the day, it’s all about doing the best you can and finding your equilibrium,” he concluded.
