Advisors
Senior directors, professionals and entrepreneurs with active roles in multinational and local leading companies
Project Manager
In-house management team assigned to client’s business and projects
Andrea Zaffin
email: andrea.zaffin@proriented.com
Andrea has spent more than 20 years working in establishing, developing and restructuring businesses in the Middle East and African markets.
He is currently the Region Director for Middle East, India and Africa at Safilo Group, a leader in eyewear market segment and one of the largest manufacturers of sunglasses and optical frames in the world.
Andrea was the former General Manager of Luxottica Middle East & Africa.
Under his leadership from 2000 to 2016, the Middle East became one of the top wholesale markets for Luxottica globally thanks to an innovative approach combined with a solid business development and strong local partnerships.
His initiatives have completely changed the business model in the regional industry moving from a traditional distribution to a modern approach with direct management of key accounts and development of a franchising model.
Andrea started his career in the Middle East & North Africa in 1996 as the Export Area Manager for Bisazza Spa.
He joined the Luxottica Group in 1999 as Middle East Area Manager moving to Dubai in February 2000 to establish the first Luxottica subsidiary in the Middle East and took the position of General Manager Luxottica Gulf Countries & Iran.
In 2009 he became General Manager Luxottica Middle East & North Africa expanding his responsibility to the Levant, Pakistan and Maghreb regions.
In 2011 Andrea was appointed General Manager Luxottica Middle East & Africa becoming the first executive in Luxottica to manage the wholesale business for the entire Middle East & Africa region.
Over the years Andrea developed a strong knowledge of the territory as well as a deep understanding of the local culture and customs making him one of the most experienced Italian senior executive in the Middle East.
Andrea was Vice President of the Italian Business Group in Dubai in the early years of its formation, helping to develop initiatives to support Italian business in the area. He holds a master degree in Business Administration from the Ca' Foscari University in Venice.
Martino Picotti
email: martino.picotti@proriented.com
Martino is an accomplished professional with 20+ years of international experience in Automotive during which he covered various leadership roles in Sales, Marketing, Aftersales (Parts & Service), Operations, Supply Chain at Automotive manufacturers (OEMs).
He was the former Middle East regional operations manager for Honda Motor, sales and marketing Director in General Motors Middle East and Head of Maserati at Al Tayer Motors, exclusive importer and retailer of Ferrari, Maserati, Jaguar, Land Rover, Ford and Lincoln across the UAE.
Martino has a deep knowledge of the Middle East region, having lived in Dubai since 2001 and having traveled extensively in each market forming a solid understanding of the different market dynamics and customer behaviors.
He is a passionate, dynamic and result-driven leader with proven ability in strategic and business planning, developing and implementing effective strategies overcoming changing market conditions, driving market share and profitability growth.
Martino is an active member of AMENA Automotive Association, the Largest Independent Automotive Association in MENA Region.
He holds a post-graduate degree in Business Management & Marketing from the University of Economy & Commerce of Verona, Italy. He also has got an Accounting & Tax Advisor Certification from the University of Bari, Italy.
Davide Paoli
email: legal@proriented.com
Davide is an Italian corporate IP lawyer with a 10+ year work in the Middle East.
After qualifying as an Intellectual Property and Corporate M&A attorney with major Italian law firms in Rome, Milan and Turin, he moved to the Middle East (Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey and finally GCC) where he specialized in cross-border deals between Europe and the Region.
After a 5 years collaboration with a primary Lebanese law firm based in Beirut, Davide was the founder and managing partner of Eptalex Law firm (Abu Dhabi – Dubai – Beirut – Milano), and in 2013 became the managing director of the firm’s offices in Dubai.
Starting 2016, Davide joined one of the biggest and most renowned regional law firms, Dubai office, continuing to offer his in-depth knowledge of IP/IT, Corporate and Transactional law across the Region to his portfolio of European clients.
His work has focused primarily on the automotive, aviation, energy and luxury, fashion-retail industries, enabling European clients to structure their deals from the Maghreb to India.
Davide is fluent in Italian, English, German and French, with a good knowledge of Arabic (spoken and written).
Davide lectures at the Ca’ Foscari University, is a speaker at the International Bar Association (Arab Regional Forum), the International Trademark Association, has been training colleagues in Intellectual Property at Dubai Legal Affairs Department and is often invited to speak at international conferences and seminars focusing on the economic and legal business environment of the Gulf-Middle East.
Davide holds a Master Degree in Law from “Libera Università degli Studi Sociali” (LUISS Guido Carli) in Rome, his Msat (LLM equivalent) degree in International Intellectual Property from the University of Oxford, and his Executive MBA from Suliman S. Olayan Business School (American University of Beirut), among others.
Guido de Nadai
email: food@proriented.com
Guido is currently General Manager of Unifrutti based in Dubai and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Unifrutti Group; in this role the procurement of fresh produce for Middle Eastern countries as well as supervising distribution, operations & cost management.
With more than 20 years of experience as the executive director of Unifrutti Group he has developed an extensive knowledge and competence in the food industry (particularly fresh products category) and he is one of the most regarded professional in the food business in the region.
His know-how and passion is the result of a unique professional path covering all aspects of the business such as logistics (particularly sea transportation from multiples countries in South America, Africa and Europe to Middle East), operations (Italy and UK), management of farms (South Africa), production, procurement and distribution (Middle East).
Guido has got a Master Degree in Business Economics, at the Ca’ Foscari University in Venice.
Alessandro Palombo
Alessandro Palombo is a tech entrepreneur with a legal background, CEO and founder of Jur, and several tech initiatives. He is also an advisor for public and private entities such as Oxford University, Astana InternationalFinancial Center, San Marino Innovation, and Proriented.
Highlights:
- first LawTech IEO. Jur oversubscribed 500% of the request. Duration: 25 minutes.
- In 2019 Jur launched the first smart legal contract worldwide in the history, embedding a dispute resolution system, with which two parties realized a sale of a car of 10.000€ in a utility token.
- Working on and validating a different method for dApps called “Lean dApp Model”, implying a switch from static tokenomics to adaptable token planning.
Alessandro and his initiatives have been featured in a number of publications: CNBC, Forbes, Hackernoon, Nasdaq, Distributed, Coinspeaker, Newsbtc.
Alessandro passed the bar in July 2013. He holds a Ph.D. in Administrative Law (Sapienza University of Rome) and an International Master in Global Regulation of Markets (Sapienza and Lateranensis Universities - Rome). He graduated from university in 2010 at 22 years (Sapienza), one year in advance.
Luigi Landoni
Luigi is a former manager of Intesa Sanpaolo Bank. He worked 37 years for banks and branches of
Intesa Group of which 33 years internationally as manager of Corporate Finance Departments and
as Branch General Manager in different countries.
He worked from 1988 in Luxembourg, Brussel, Barcelona, Tokyo, Shanghai and from January 2008
until June 2013 in Dubai as first General Manager and after appointed as Head of Business of the
Intesa Sanpaolo Branch Dubai HUB with the responsibility of corporate finance business development in the MENA region.
In the 14 years of activity in the GCC, Luigi built a large number of relationships with Italian
Corporates operating in the GCC area as well as with top local corporates for the development of
their trade and corporate finance activity.
Luigi is presently Vice-President of the Italian Business Council of Dubai and the Deputy Delegate of
Accademia della Cucina Italiana in the UAE.
Luigi has a degree in Business Administration from Universita’ Luigi Bocconi – Milan.
In 2002 he received the appointment of the President of the Republic of Italy as “Ufficiale al merito
della Repubblica Italiana”
Adall Tayeb
Adall is currently the Director of The Business Adviser. Head Office in Australia, and the Head of Sales for the second-largest Software and Hardware resellers in the ANZ. With over twenty-seven years of experience in Retail, Wholesale, Import, Export, Resale, Distribution & Manufacturing, working in the Automotive, Energy Storage and Technology Solution space.
Adall built an international experience working in North & South America, ANZ & EMEA and in various functions such as Sales, Marketing, Management, Coaching, Training, Aftersales, Technical, Consulting, Logistics, HRM, CRM & CSM, managing over thirty global Brands (i.e. Autodesk, Bluebeam, Adobe, ClearEdge3D, iConstruct, Enscape, coolOrange, FARO, Leica, HP, Lenovo, Dell, Microsoft, V-Ray, Panzura, BMW, Mini, Mercedes Benz, Tesla, Chrysler JEEP Dodge, Honda, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Renault, Mazda, Hyundai, Kia, Suzuki, VW, Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac, and Opel).
Adall has played an instrumental role in building many businesses and startups (i.e. opened and managed the first Tesla showroom in the MEA).
Working in diverse cultures gave Adall an advantage to better manage the business efficiently, focusing on providing a holistic customer-centric approach.
Sales experience in various industry verticals from Private, SMB, Enterprise, Fleet and Government; serving many industries within the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, MFG, Media, Entertainment, Education, Defense & Mining sectors.
Moreover, experience in Channel Sales Management, Training and Consulting within the Technology & Retail space. In introducing and selling SaaS through online and remote presence and tailor-made sales playbooks to address the sales methodology in selling Software, Hardware and Services.
Passionate about fostering an innovative workplace culture to embrace and adopt change and keep innovating to stay competitive.
Adall motto is: “we need to learn from the past, live in the present and work toward the future. Celebrate our failures and successes and have fun throughout the journey”.
