People on the Move: Giacomo Cappellari, Chief Commercial Officer & Board Equity Partner, PQE Group
March 26, 2024
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Giacomo Cappellari joined PQE Group in 2006 and has been rising steadily ever since. Recently appointed Chief Commercial Officer following his previous position as Vice President, Global Sales, he is a busy man who spends much of his time traveling around the world. After successfully managing the development of PQE Group’s Asia Pacific and South Asia affiliates, he currently places much of his focus on the company’s growth in the US. We spoke with Giacomo to learn more about him, PQE Group, and his role and goals for the company.
You joined PQE Group in 2006, so you clearly have a great deal of history with, and knowledge about, PQE Group, having evolved with the company from an administrative position all the way to Chief Commercial Officer and a member of the PQE Group’s Board of Directors. Can you share a little about your background and how you came to join PQE Group?
Like many of my colleagues, I am Italian and live in Italy. Before joining PQE Group, I was in “Liceo Clásico” (gymnasium, or in the US, university) – studying the humanities, philosophy and Greek classics — before I changed my major, and my journey, to learn more about economics, in which I earned two degrees (the second while I was with PQE). Following my studies for my first economics degree, my mother, who is a professor, invited me to support one of her colleagues who ran a summer camp in England for teens under 18 years of age. I did this for three years, working as a counselor and team leader, helping my mom’s colleague, and improving my English! In 2006, following my third and final summer at the camp, I returned home to Italy and when I arrived at the airport, neither of my parents were there to pick me up. I was incredibly fortunate to meet a woman who was at the airport to collect her sons, who were also flying back to Italy, and she offered me a ride. That woman was Gilda D’Incerti, the CEO and Founder of PQE Group! By the time we arrived at my home, she had offered me a job with PQE Group!
You’ve been with PQE Group for a long time! What has your evolution with the company been like, and how has it helped support the company’s growth?
My first position with PQE Group was in administration, checking expenses and reviewing and analyzing the company’s cash flow. This was very much aligned with my economic training; in fact, my second thesis in economics was on management control rules applied to a small company and for my case study, I utilized my experience with PQE Group to illustrate the experience I had running management and control on both macro (the company) and micro (individual projects) levels.
I moved from administration to sales, starting in Italy and then progressing to other countries in Europe, including Turkey, Hungary, the Czech Republic and others in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Europe. In 2015, I was asked to manage PQE Group’s expansion into Asia Pacific and South Asia – China, Japan, and India – where we opened subsidiaries and created sales initiatives in each country. I like to believe I was a pioneer for PQE Group by introducing PQE Group to potential and new customers on the other side of the world, participating in large events, such as CPHI, which is held in those countries, and bridging the cultural gap that naturally occurs for people living in Asia and Europe.
I was in Japan when, in 2019, Gilda called me to announce a reorganization of the sales department; Stefano Carganico was appointed the new head of sales. Because I had become very familiar with the various PQE Group markets and PQE Group’s business development and sales points of view, and based on the solid results I had accomplished, I proposed that I work closely with Stefano to build upon the many ideas I had based on my experiences in Asia. At the time, we had two large pharmaceutical company clients, and I had in mind initiatives to approach more large corporations on a global level. The top 200 large pharmaceutical corporations create a vast market, and I recognized that if we could add to our portfolio of large companies – first 10, then another 20, and so on, PQE Group could grow exponentially. I had in mind to assign each large corporate client a PQE Group corporate leader, who would act as a “master of the orchestra” — he or she would deal with all of the salespeople assigned to the project based on the distribution of the client’s facilities, would work in person with corporate stakeholders, and would stay on top of PQE Group’s objectives, activities, and efforts. For companies with multiple locations, we could also provide standardized support and cost-effectiveness and could utilize case studies that we collected on company projects that could be used for improvement in other facilities. PQE Group’s corporate campaign is aimed at building relationships with global stakeholders – high-level key decision makers that act in global functions – using both top-down and bottom-up approaches to build these relationships using local consultants who speak the local language, are familiar with local facilities, the local culture, etc. We also started evaluating new tools that are more connected with AI and at the same time, I began creating a business intelligence document for the corporate campaign, analyzing investments and news that is coming from the market, including greenfield site expansions, the acquisition of new facilities, and integrations or separations to help identify prospective new clients who could benefit from PQE Group’s solutions and support. And while this corporate campaign is a non-stop, never-ending journey, I am happy to say that we now have 75 large corporate clients.
You were recently appointed Chief Commercial Officer, after being Vice President of Sales for some time! Congratulations on your successful growth with PQE Group. What are you doing to help the ever-evolving business development and sales departments’ growth initiatives?
PQE Group has a large sales force, and we simultaneously manage business development activities. My team is spending a lot of time in the US, which is my current focus for growth, helping our US sales force improve their capabilities using software platforms we have added to the company’s toolkit and offering more guidance to the team. I believe that the hardest thing for a leader is to provide good lessons to his or her employees, which are not only related to an employee’s job but also provide examples on how to work hard and how to accomplish what they want from their lives in order to ensure satisfaction. At the end of the day, sales representatives are asked to sell but it’s so important that they also feel satisfied, that they progressively, continuously learn capabilities that they can, in turn, teach to others – these are also aspects of the improvement that I, and my team, are working on around the world, and right now, particularly in the US, as we bring on new salespeople and expand our footprint in this huge country.
What differentiates PQE Group from other life science consulting firms? What excites you most about PQE Group?
The fact that we are a global life sciences consulting company and that there are only a few of us that are concentrated specifically on this sector is a definite differentiation. Also, the fact that Gilda has invested so much time and money in developing PQE Group’s network of affiliates is quite unique. As a result of this global network, which provides local support that is backed by a large corporate entity, large corporations can obtain what they need – standardization, amortization, cost-effectiveness – from one vendor, and I would say that none of our primary competitors have these kinds of capabilities. We are also very flexible, we are always identifying new, innovative ideas that can help our clients, and we are always developing important tools to improve our performance, which in turn improves our clients’ performance. I’m motivated by the incredible growth PQE Group has experienced, and even more excited to see the company continue its remarkable journey in the future.
Can you tell us a little about yourself? Who is Giacomo when you are not at work?
I’m a father and I have two lovely young “creatures” – the oldest is a boy who is seven years old; his name is Tommaso. Right now, he is in elementary school and plays football and keeps me very busy on weekends, when I work on teaching him to read and write. Then there is my blonde-haired, blue-eyed, two-and-a-half-year-old princess whose name is Luce, which translates in English to light – and she does indeed bring light into our home! As you can imagine, I work many hours at the office and I travel a lot but when I am not away, I spend my time at home with my family — my wife Benedetta and our two children.
I love adventures, which help my enthusiasm for living and dreaming, and this summer, I plan to spend a few months in the US. This will impact my family as well – they are coming with me! Benedetta and I are very excited about this journey, which for me is aimed at staying more in touch with my sales colleagues in the US, traveling to different states with them, and having time to brainstorm with our US sales force. I want to be able to assist these local salespeople more closely and get to know each of them better with in-person, face-to-face meetings. As for my family, they will have this outstanding opportunity to spend the summer in a new and different place. One of the things I love about PQE Group is that it provides its employees with uncommon experiences, and of course, travel provides some of the best! Having my family see new places, people, and cultures – and of course, the US history in Washington, DC, the Nation’s Capital – is very important to me for my children, especially; I did not have these opportunities when I was young and I believe it will be fun, and very educational, for them. We’re very excited and will arrive in the Washington, DC area in June – I hope to meet some of you while I’m in the US this summer!
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