Leonardo has always been synonymous with evolution in the name of innovation, research and passion. This is the extreme synthesis of the first 70 years of the Company that accompanied the growth of Italy and its industry and then, thanks to increasingly advanced skills, led the Group to establish itself as a leader in the AD&S sector (Aerospace, Defense and Security) also on an international scale. Leonardo celebrated today, with an event dedicated to its stakeholders, its first 70 years, aware of its role as an engine of modernization, to direct technological development towards the frontiers of the third millennium.
Leonardo today represents an industrial and technological center of global importance. Thanks to the commercial successes achieved all over the world and the challenges it has faced from time to time, it is today the first Italian industrial group and among the top ten companies in the AD&S sector globally. A multicultural, cohesive and dynamic reality, made up of high professionalism, a significant industrial presence and a large commercial network, capable of responding to the security needs of the international community. Without forgetting an important element of its growth path: the drive to integrate Sustainability into all aspects of the business, to create long-term value and generate economic, social and environmental impacts for all stakeholders.
Strong of a consolidated industrial experience and of its strategic role for the country system, Leonardo is a leading player also in business culture. A mission that will be strengthened by the foundation of a foundation to foster dialogue with civil society, promote industrial and business culture in the reference territories, enhance cultural and museum heritage and disseminate studies and research.
"Leonardo's 70 years are the meeting point of history with innovation, of the legacy of the past with the driving force of the future", underlines Giovanni De Gennaro, President of Leonardo. "Through the foundation of the Foundation, moreover, the Company intends to enhance and share its precious heritage of knowledge and business culture. The Foundation will be a tool to spread the principle of technology at the service of the common good, under the sign of a new 'industrial humanism', looking to its past as a source of inspiration for building the future, for itself and for the territories in which it operates " .
"The anniversary that we celebrate today makes us proud, because we are aware of having inherited an extraordinary wealth of skills that represents a strategic asset for the country system", notes Alessandro Profumo, Leonardo's Managing Director. "All this was possible thanks to the commitment, passion and professionalism of the people who participated every day in the history of Leonardo. Over the decades, the Group has been able to consolidate its leading role in both domestic and international markets, identifying the path to long-term sustainable growth in high technology and innovation ".
To go back to the origins of Leonardo it is necessary to go back to 1948, when the "Mechanical Finance Company" was established and then abbreviated to "Finmeccanica". Since then, phases of change have followed, often in the wake of the main events in Italian and international history. Finmeccanica's brands have been standard bearers in the world of important industrial sectors, then merged into what is now recognized as a leading company in the sector. In more recent years, the transformation into One Company has sanctioned the start of a new phase: no longer a financial holding, but an integrated industrial reality, strongly oriented to high technology, focused on AD&S and which places innovation, sustainability and customers at the heart of the growth strategy. Since 2016, the change of name to Leonardo, in the name of Leonardo da Vinci's innovative genius, expresses the renewal process culminating in the new 2018-2022 Business Plan.
