Maurizio Donelli
Maranello has employees who hail from various countries and several continents, whose talent adds immensely to the value of the Ferrari brand
Men and women have come from afar to work at Maranello. Some have been here over 20 years, others instead have not been here very long at all. But it is precisely this profusion of roles, experience, and brains from around the world that adds value to the brand.
Daniel De Melo Baleki is from São Paulo, Brazil and he is the R&D Project Leader at Ferrari. ”We put our emotions into our work. That’s what makes the difference to other places.” He and his family live in Modena, where they feel at home. “Compared to my previous experience, in England, what strikes me here is the emotional involvement with which the projects are developed,” he enthuses.
It's a point reiterated by Isaac Joaquin Sanchez Gomez, F1 Chassis Innovation and Special Projects: “It’s true, here you work for the history, not just for the company”. The Madrileno arrived in 2015. He adds. “And when something doesn’t work out we discuss it together, sometimes strenuously. But I like the fact that the people always say what they think.”
Xavier Marcos Padros, from Barcelona, has the same enthusiasm. An F1 Race Engineer (during races his voice is heard on TV giving instructions to Charles Leclerc) he says, “Entering here for the first time was unforgettable. And when you travel around the world you understand how much all this means: wherever you are, people stop you, they ask you questions.” It is the same dream that Head of Product Communications, Joanne Marshall, had when she was a young girl in Devon, England.
“I arrived in Italy in 1988 aged 25, escaping a career in banking to follow my heart. I was already a car enthusiast and felt that Ferrari was part of my destiny. I really felt it.” She arrived in the year 2000. “I thought I would meet Enzo Ferrari. Instead we only just managed to overlap: I arrived in March and he passed away that August.” Her French husband, Johann Lemercier, joined Ferrari in 2011 and is now overseeing the design of one-off projects. Lemercier adds, “I have been lucky. I met a woman as passionate as I am. In my area, of design, there is a sensitivity and a common intent that is over and above the normal.” Says Joanne: “We have bought a house in the nearby hills, along route C, one of the routes on which the cars coming out of the factory are tested. We look out of the window and see them streaking past. What could be better than that?”
Reno De Paoli, from Canada, joined Ferrari in 2008 and arrived in Maranello from Tokyo last year. “Adapting hasn’t been easy for my family, coming from an environment such as Japan, but now we are really happy,” says the Head of Operational Marketing. “Every day is a pursuit of excellence, and it pushes you never to rest on your laurels.” Wenbin Ma, from Shanghai, joined in 2012 and is now Sales and After-Sales Area Manager for Southern Europe and Africa. An Engineering graduate from the Politecnico of Turin, he says, “I love it to bits being here. Thanks to my role I travel a lot and I realise how much Ferrari is loved in every corner of the globe.”
Raoul Jean Edouard Dautry returned to Ferrari last year after a five-year parenthesis in his native France, and is now Engine Project Manager for GT cars. Recalling his first stint in 2007, he says, “My wife and I took the opportunity to get to know Italy well, its history and its culture. At the time I fell in love with the flexibility and the capacity to invent, which characterises this country. It is part of a mentality and a history that goes a long way back, and which will take this wonderful brand much further still into the future.”