Palm Beach (Florida) – Cesare Sassi is a inspiring example of successful Italian entrepreneurship in the United States. Born in Milan, he grew up in Italy and has been living in Florida since 1992. He received a unique recognition from the US: The American government contacted him to give him a permanent residency based on his brilliance.
“When I was working for IBM, I invented a routine to calculate the square root in a very fast way, only using addition and subtraction, without division and multiplication,” Mr. Sassi told us. “IBM bought and patented my method, applying it to every operating system. This was the main reason I got a green card very quickly, for ‘extraordinary intellective abilities’”.
After a degree in mathematics and physics from the Università di Pavia (Italy), Mr. Sassi got a certificate of Advanced Financial Management from IMEDE in Lausanne (Switzerland).
His career took off right away. From IBM’s and Honeywell’s system administrator, he became CEO and CFO of British Petroleum and CEO of Alivar (Pavesi, Bertolli, De Rica, Pai,…), administrator of Autogrill company, president of Molini Pastifici Ticino and vice president of Cartiere Pigna.
Presently, Mr. Sassi is Sasco Financial’s president and he manages a few subsidiary companies.
“Just like many Italian boys, I had always dreamed of the American world, but only when I turned 50 was I able to move to the US,” recalled the Italian entrepreneur, who’s extremely proud of his origins.
“I am convinced Italians are a great people, even if they don’t always have great political leaders,” he stated.
Sassi has a great relationship with the Italians and Italian-Americans living in the United States. In America he filled multiple roles. He has been president and founder of the Organizzazione per la diffusione della lingua italiana, which helped bringing the Italian language in many Florida schools; he has been president and coordinator of the USA Comites (committees of Italians abroad) and also American Biographical Institute’s man of the year. Mr. Sassi is a honorary member of the Senate of the European Academy for economic and cultural relationships. His advice to Italian businessmen who want to make it in the United States is “get ready for a hard, extremely competitive life, but with unique opportunities”.