When Giuseppe Martino, Project Manager Team Leader at Axians Italia, joined VINCI Energies, he rediscovered the pleasure of working in an international environment. This rugby fan also strives to cultivate teamwork and entrepreneurial spirit.
The international dimension has always been central to Giuseppe Martino’s professional choices. He has been Project Manager Team Leader at Axians Italia since 2021, working in the public sector and transport in the south-central region (Florence, Rome, Naples, Bari and Palermo). His career began at the German company Siemens and continued with a number of international IT groups. “Working in a multicultural environment with international customers has always been a driver for me,” he says.
And in April 2020, when VINCI Energies acquired Brand ID, the Italian firm specialising in digital transformation where he had worked for six years, Giuseppe Martino saw an opportunity to reconnect with the international scene.
He recalls that “At the end of two years of integration into VINCI Energies, where we had to take on board a new environment and new organisation, and align our business activities with those of the group, in 2023 we officially became a single, unified structure under the Axians brand. While I was at Brand ID, the company grew from 10 people when I started to around 60. At Axians, there are more than 350 of us. Change is important – you need to centralise processes, implement shared methods and embrace multiculturalism – but I love all that!”
Teamwork and entrepreneurial spirit
On joining VINCI Energies, Giuseppe Martino particularly appreciated the emphasis on teamwork and entrepreneurial spirit, which had been core elements of the Brand ID model. “We manage our activities and our teams as though we were a small business, and of course with the attention to financial targets, but always keeping a close eye on our partnerships, especially with our customers,” he says.
“Working in a multicultural environment with international customers has always been a driver for me”
Leading a team of eight project managers, the 50-year-old team leader is working through recruitment policies to promote parity and offer improved working conditions. “It’s a responsibility, but one that is extremely gratifying, especially when we’re successful, on large and small projects alike.”
Innovation is key
One of these successes particularly defines Giuseppe Martino and his team: the transformation of a conventional public transport line in Scotland into an autonomous system. For this project, Axians Italia designed an innovative solution based on a metal waveguide.
“The challenge is to modernise all the communication systems of a live site in an extremely limited space comprising two narrow tunnels with sections passing beneath a river, with all the implied risks of water leaking in,” he explains. Data communication system specialist Brand ID, now Axians, has been working on the project since 2016. The project is due for completion in 2025.
For Giuseppe Martino, “Working on a new technology like the one we are deploying on this site is exciting! Thanks to a 5 GHz wireless communication system, it can transmit signalling data with no need for conventional antennas.” Axians is responsible for every phase of the project from design through to testing and commissioning, along with the assembly of telecoms cabinets in Italy.
Other projects close to his heart include the creation of a physical security network used by the Italian government to issue official documents (6 data centres, 500 cameras, 1300 sensors and 15 Petabyte of data for 1 year video recording archiving) and the installation of a system to optimise energy efficiency at a data centre in Sicily.
Giuseppe Martino is keen to take on even more responsibility in the future – “Why not heading up a business unit, remaining in the technical sector?” he asks. “Team” is more than just a word to this rugby fan, who will be closely following the Azzurri’s fortunes at the World Cup in France this September and October.
11/13/2023
