Leaders in Finance: Mauro Piccinini, CFO Prima Assicurazioni

On December 11, 2024, the MCF class met Mauro Piccinini, the Chief Financial Officer of Prima Assicurazioni, a company leader in the online insurance sector.

With a career spanning across technical roles, strategy consulting, and Finance leadership, Mr. Piccinini shared his journey and insights on value creation, career development, and the role of Finance in modern organizations.

He began by tracing the Latin etymology of “Finance,” highlighting its dual meaning: setting targets (“finis”) and defining boundaries (“fines”). This duality informed his structured approach to leadership at Prima since 2018, where he built the Finance office from scratch, encompassing corporate finance, value generation through business partnering, financial reporting, and actuarial analytics.

A pivotal theme of the talk was the transition from technical expertise to managerial roles. Mr. Piccinini emphasized the challenges experts face outside their comfort zones, describing “intellectual laziness” as a barrier to career advancement. Being labeled as “too technical” can be both a compliment or an insult, depending on the context. When Mr. Piccinini made the daring step from technical expert to generalist in strategy consulting, he learned to approach things with a fresh mindset, structured framework. Eventually, he became an expert in just a few weeks.

Prima’s value generation strategy was outlined as a three-step approach: ensuring measurable results through Total Shareholder Return (TSR), mapping strategic key performance indicators (KPIs), and aligning company-wide operations to these drivers. He underscored the importance of resilience and execution focus, citing Prima’s adaptive pricing strategies during COVID-19 as a testament to agility and strategic foresight.

Mr. Piccinini concluded by addressing the dynamics of working with Private Equity owners, emphasizing the need to balance different shareholder expectations - due to different investments horizons - with long-term growth. His key advice for aspiring professionals was to remain strong in content, ambitious, and adaptive to challenges.

These insights resonated deeply with the audience, offering a compelling narrative of how technical depth and strategic acumen can drive impactful leadership in Finance. His story serves as an inspiration for those aiming to navigate the complexities of modern financial roles, while delivering sustainable value.

SDA Bocconi School of Management