Vittoria Tires & Wheels powered by Directa Graphene Plus (Graphene Europe 2015)

 

Born in the Netherlands in 1943, Rudie Campagne joined in 1963 the Royal Dutch Navy for his officer's training for the Dutch Marine Corps. He graduated in 1970 with a degree in law from the University of Amsterdam. He worked for international companies: Philips Consumer Electronics as junior manager in Holland and Singapore, 1970-77; French Thomson Consumer Electronics in the Singapore and in Paris HQ as Product and Commercial Director, 1978-1982. Appointed in 1983 Managing Director of the Audio Product Division at Thomson in Paris, he transferred the HQ and R&D to Singapore, managing or controlling manufacturing operations in various Asian countries.

In 1988 he started his career as entrepreneur by joining an international company in Singapore having its holding in Hong Kong. Later he turned this company into a globalized group called Vittoria Industries Ltd. that's still based in Hong Kong.

Giulio Cesareo was born in Milan in 1955. He is one of the founder of Directa Plus. From 1986 to 2004 he worked in the carbon and graphite field for Union Carbide, UCAR and Graftech, reaching the positions of the President and CEO of the Italian company and Vice President and General Manager of the Advanced Carbon and Graphite business unit. He lived and managed business units in six locations including USA, France and Italy.

Giulio Cesareo was awarded a degree in mechanical engineering from the Polytechnic University of Milan, an MBA and an Executive MBA from Bocconi University of Milan and attended Strategic and Financial Management Programs at the Stanford University (USA).

Since 1953 Vittoria Industries Ltd. has built highly reputable partnerships within in the cycling industry and created a unique brand image. Today's Vittoria Industries Ltd. is the world's leading manufacturer of premium bicycle tires for road and MTB, with an annual production of more than 7 million tires and 900.000 famous tubulars and cotton tires employing around 1500 persons. Vittoria's factory in Thailand called Lion Tyres also develops and produces tires for many prestigious tire brands in the world. Its research & development center develops the best racing tires for all levels, especially the unique Corsa Series cotton tires. Running its own production facilities in Thailand, and providing global sales and marketing network from North America (Boston) to Asia Pacific (Thailand, Taiwan), and in Europe (Italy, Netherlands and Germany). Vittoria extended this year its product portfolio with a full range of high performance wheels for race and MTB sport bicycles.

Directa Plus, founded in 2005, is a technology company whose goal is to develop, market and use innovative processes for nanomaterial generation. Production plant and research laboratories are located in Italy, within the ComoNExT Science Park, and in Germany. Directa Plus has developed and patented a scalable and environmentally friendly process for the production of large volumes of pristine graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs). On June 2014, Directa Plus opened the largest European Pristine GNPs production plant (according to available data) called "Graphene Factory", based on a patented and granted technology and with a production capacity of 30 tonnes/year.