Henry William Chesbrough, an economist of international prestige and the first scholar in the world to promote the paradigm of "Open Innovation", a revolutionary concept that is transforming the world of management, is to be confirmed as an adjunct professor at Luiss for the next three years.

With the presence of Professor Chesbrough – born in 1956 and current Faculty Director of the Garwood Center for Corporate Innovation at Berkeley - University of California - Luiss consolidates its position as a center of excellence in Open Innovation (OI) at both a national and international level, giving a great degree of continuity to educational pathways and highly relevant applied research.

The Henry Chesbrough professorship will once again be funded by the Maire Tecnimont Group, an international engineering and technology player with strong Italian roots, as part of the strategic partnership on the themes of “Open Innovation and Sustainability”, which was already successfully launched in 2019 and has now been renewed for the next 8 years.

In this way, the academic and industrial worlds will continue their collaboration in support of the evolution of business organizations in our country, with particular attention to sustainability and the dissemination and promotion of models and best practices of open innovation between companies and startups. In fact, the OI phenomenon represents a new approach according to which companies should not only use internal resources but also external technological tools and expertise, through the ongoing communication and collaboration with all stakeholders. 

The agreement between Luiss and Maire Tecnimont has been strongly supported by the Rector of the University Andrea Prencipe and the founder and Chairman of the industrial giant, Fabrizio Di Amato.

We are convinced that the paradigm of open innovation should not be limited to being a mere topic of study, but should be considered as a mindset and an organizational principle, serving as a means to build dynamic ecosystems where universities, together with companies and startups as incubators and accelerators, as well as institutions and public administrations, can activate new synergies for the growth and development of our country” said Rector Andrea Prencipe.

Maire Tecnimont Chairman Fabrizio Di Amato commented: “We are excited to renew our collaboration with Luiss University. We firmly believe in collaborations with Italian and international universities: combining the skills of academia and industry allows us to revolutionize business development through the promotion of innovative ideas backed by technology. For us, this alliance is a source of pride and motivation to contribute to the research and industrial application of new technological solutions, as well as to the training of tomorrow's professionals. Innovation is fundamental for both the promotion and the development of new processes and products, and therefore, today, it plays a key role in industrializing the technologies that support the energy transition, in Italy and worldwide”. 

The chair of Prof. Chesbrough – who has recently published the book “Il futuro della Open Innovation” (“The Future of Open Innovation”) published by Luiss University Press - reinforces the focus of Luiss University on innovation and consolidates the process of Faculty internationalization: 44% of the new professors are foreigners and last December the University opened a call to recruit 19 additional professors from abroad, including 16 junior researchers.

Maire Tecnimont S.p.A.
Maire Tecnimont S.p.A., a company listed on the Milan Stock Exchange, heads an international industrial group that is a leader in the transformation of natural resources (plant engineering in downstream oil & gas, with technological and execution expertise). Through its subsidiary NextChem, it operates in the field of green chemistry and the technologies to support the energy transition. Maire Tecnimont Group operates in about 45 countries, through approximately 50 operative companies and about 9,100 people. For more information: www.mairetecnimont.com.


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