Luca
Barabino
President
““Who doesn’t have a communication or marketing expert within his family or circle of friends? It’s like the coach of the national soccer team: everyone feels like being him.
Communicating, nowadays, is a job for highly skilled professionals: the job suffers from performance intangibleness and from non-recognition by an official register.
The good communicator, instead, interprets current customs and traditions in order to anticipate the future; he reads trends and social phenomena, creates new trends and placements.
He/she studies and develops communication plans that are strategic for companies and brands, with an impact on its revenues, financial performance, reputation and social value.” (L. Barabino)
In 1985, and before then, Luca Barabino is a guy from Genoa with several passions. In the ‘70s, he is among the first and most vibrant Italian founders of private radios, giving birth to two of the first Italian “free radios”. His interests extend to the social aspects of life and politics. Above all, he studies architecture, at the time the only way to become a “visual” designer, thus the only way to “draw” the image of companies. In those years, he is asked to join the world of Young Investors of Confindustria. Here, he gets to know the business world, the value of entrepreneurship, the relationships between companies and markets, the culture of the product, the value of brands and the perception of companies by their stakeholders and their territories. His desire of “doing business” stems exactly from the intersection of all of these passions. So, in 1985, after a knowledge-oriented trip in Anglo-Saxon countries, meeting firms active in the communication field, he founded – first in the basement of his house and then in a little shop in Genoa’s center – a communication business that, in the pioneering world of “Public Relations”, he ambitiously defined as management consulting. Here’s how Barabino & Partners was born. Luca Barabino combines his strong entrepreneurial spirit with his youthful ambition of designing logos and corporate identities, and creates the cycling man holding a tree: the symbol Barabino & Partners. In a world of Italian and multinational firms already present on the large consumption market, he decided to position Barabino & Partners as the first Italian company working in corporate, economic/financial communication and issue management. Eventually – following the adoption of an internationalization strategy – Barabino & Partners has become the communicator of “Made in Italy”: brand, products, excellence and extraordinary stories of Italian entrepreneurship. Over a thirty-year span, B&P has grown internationally: it expanded in Italy from Genoa to Milan and Rome, then abroad with a first branch in Belgium (Brussels) to perform lobbying activities, followed by offices in Germany, UK and USA. Recently, a new office was opened in Brasil as well. A differentiating prerogative has definitely been the professional growth along with an internal growth that involved – over time – 17 partners. Others will follow. Team building, a sense of belonging, team spirit, empowerment, simple entrepreneurial vision (with a touch of idealism), responsible growth, respect for the social component, values, and inclination to innovation are all part of his core entrepreneurial values. Over time, Mr. Barabino built -thanks to the valuable contribution of his “journey’s companions”- a valuable firm with ethical values, recognized professional skills and international outlook. A company with a clear vision, abiding by the rules of the market: ethics and accuracy, loyalty and professional integrity, motivation and passion. And, of course, expertise and innovation. Perhaps also for these reasons, Barabino & Partners, besides being among the “Best Places to work for” in Italy for several years, according to a Mergermarket/Financial Times research (last one available, 2014), it is the first Italian company in the field, the 5th in Europe and the 8th in the world, the only Italian one that competes at the international level.
Soccer is another one of Luca Barbino passions: this passion has not only been linked through Barabino & Partners, but is also a personal commitment of his. For nine years Barabino & Partners has been the official sponsor of the Genoa CFC Soccer School, the youth sector of Genoa Cfc 1893, which is also the oldest soccer club in Italy. Through this long journey together, more than 1,500 teenager, coaches, managers and along with their families, have all made this School an avant-garde model and an example of excellence in the national soccer scene along with the launch of the “Progetto La Cantera” (registered trademark for Italy). In no time, it has quickly started from being a sponsor to becoming a motivator and “manager” (for pure passion). Since 2011, Barabino has personally invested in the renovation of the second most important multi-sports facility in Genoa – the Sciorba Stadium. His help has redeveloped the facilities that have been neglected for 25 years because of the damage of floods and bad weather. Today, Sciorba is the driving force of many sporting and non-sporting activities and disciplines, involving 23 sports clubs and over 7,000 young athletes.