Milan, 23 February 2024. Enrico Cereda has taken up the position of Senior Advisor for Italy at Klecha & Co., a pan-European merchant bank specialising in tech.
Enrico Cereda brings more than three decades of experience in the IT industry to the Klecha & Co. team, which led to his appointment as CEO and Chairman of IBM Italia. In these roles, held from 2016 to 2023, Enrico Cereda contributed to the promotion of technological innovation, guiding the company through periods of profound transformation related to the adoption of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing.
Enrico Cereda joined IBM in 1996, taking on roles of increasing responsibility after gaining international experience at IBM Corporation's headquarters in New York and later in the Madrid office. Before taking the helm of IBM Italy, he served as General Manager for Global Technology Services and previously as Vice President Systems and Technology Group at IBM Italy. Between 2017 and 2023 he was Vice President of Assolombarda and, in the last two years, with the delegation of Digital Transformation and Technological Innovation.
As Senior Advisor, Enrico Cereda will support Klecha & Co. in the process of consolidating the leadership role achieved by the investment bank in the tech sector, a sector in which it has finalised approximately 100 transactions in 14 years, assisting companies and investors, in particular private equity funds, in the definition of investment strategies and development plans. Strengthened by the new partnership, Klecha & Co. will continue its strategic and financial advisory activities with the main objective of contributing to the development of the European innovation ecosystem.
"We are excited about Enrico's appointment as Senior Advisor of Klecha &Co. We will work together on the development of the tech ecosystem with the aim of fostering a virtuous path of growth, not only of Italian players, but of European ones in general." - commented Stephane Klecha, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Klecha & Co. "Over the next few years, new winners and losers in tech will emerge: those who will play on the offensive will win, with the courage and vision needed to seize the new opportunities associated with the current phase of great change, not only on the technological front. Those who will remain at the window, without laying the foundations of their future development strategy, will lose. The year 2024 has opened with an acceleration of activities on several fronts, and we therefore welcome Enrico, with whom we look forward to starting to collaborate”.
Enrico Cereda, Senior Advisor Klecha & Co. said: "I am delighted to join the Klecha & Co. team, which has been able to combine high expertise in investment banking with a deep understanding of the tech sector and its specific dynamics at a European level. The IT services industry needs to consolidate into groups of significant size, with the scale and capability to compete globally, and I am convinced that my experience, combined with Klecha's capabilities, can accelerate this journey."
Enrico Cereda joins Klecha & Co.'s team of Senior Advisors, which in Italy includes Barbara Poggiali, Angel Investor and now President of Fondo Italiano di Investimento (FII) Sgr, a role she assumed after holding primary positions in large Italian groups, including Managing Director of Leonardo's cybersecurity division.
Klecha & Co.'s network of Senior Advisors also includes, in France, Vice Admiral Philippe Hello, formerly Head of Military and Civil Personnel at the French Ministry of Defence and Director of the French Naval School, and Vice Admiral Arnaud Coustillière, who was the first lead of the cyber forces of the French army. In Spain, Pilar Roch, who has more than 20 years of experience in multinationals in the technology and publishing sectors and in the management of Enterprise Technologies start-ups, was recently appointed as Senior Advisor and is now a member of Fond-ICO Global's Investment Committee.
Klecha & Co.
Klecha & Co. is an independent pan-European investment bank specialising in tech, including software, IT services, hardware and IoT. Founded in Milan in 2009, Klecha & Co. complements its Italian headquarters with offices in London, Paris, Madrid and New York. During its 14 years of activity, it has realised about 100 M&A and capital raising transactions in the tech sector, offering its clients a highly specialised assistance: Klecha & Co. combines its experience in the field of mergers and acquisitions with a deep knowledge of the dynamics of the tech sector, a unique business model that allows it to support companies in every phase of the transactions, from the definition of their development strategy to the post-M&A integration.