"LR is a great place to work, whoever I call in the world, it feels like we already know each other, even if we’ve never spoken before"
Based: UAE
Role: Operations Manager, Middle East and Africa
Tenure at LR: 16 years 9 months
As a young boy growing up in Italy, Francesco was seduced by the glamour and thrill of a career as a jet pilot! It’s safe to say that now, as our Operations Manager in Middle East and Africa, his life took a slightly different turn, but he will happily state that the choices he’s made and the opportunities he’s been able to pursue, have been just as fulfilling and satisfying.
Francesco’s career has taken him and his wife - who he met onboard a cruise ship in Europe and children all over the world – from Palermo to the Netherlands to China, and now UAE. Having started as a cadet engineer literally scrubbing floors in engine room, at one point in the late 2000s, he was responsible for the largest LR team of port Surveyors in the world in Shanghai.
The sheer variety of opportunity in the marine sector has inspired his career path – on cargo ships, passenger ships or even Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior; and the support of the global community in which he is so proud to be a leader.
Francesco says “…LR is a great place to work, whoever I call in the world, it feels like we already know each other, even if we’ve never spoken before” and ascribes this to the meritocratic culture at LR, “… we all share the same vision and this means you can take your career anywhere that you want – our skills and ambitions are recognised and rewarded”.
Francesco himself experienced this supportive development strategy when he was approached with the offer to move to his latest role, in full, Operations Manager and Chairman of the DCE for Middle East and Africa in 2019. It gave him one of the most challenging periods of his life as he worked hard to keep his teams on the ground safe and fully operational in the most demanding of times.