Pierluigi Zappacosta

Pierluigi Zappacosta (born Chieti, Italy, on July 2, 1950) is Chairman of Faro Ventures, Italy,^[1] and has co-founded, directed, and/or served on Boards for a number of prestigious companies.

In 1981, he co-founded Logitech^[2] (Nasdaq: LOGI) together with Daniel Borel and Giacomo Marini, which went on to become the world's largest manufacturer of computer mice and other personal interface products.^[3] Zappacosta served at Logitech for sixteen years, first as President and CEO and later as Vice-Chairman.^[4] He was instrumental in taking the company public in Switzerland in 1988 and on NASDAQ in 1997, raising over $60 million. By the time Mr. Zappacosta left in 1998, sales of Logitech had risen to over $400 million per year.

Zappacosta is also a Venture Partner with Noventi,^[5] and served as CEO at Sierra Sciences.,^[6] and Chairman at Digital Persona, Inc., a company dedicated to mass market solutions for identification based on biometrics.^[7] He also sits on the Board of Trustees of the Reason Foundation^[8] and of the Bruno Leoni Institute.

He received his bachelor's degree (laurea in Electrical Engineering) from the University of Rome in Italy, graduating cum laude. He earned his master's degree in Computer Science from Stanford in 1978.^[9]

References

Private equity and venture capital investors Investment strategy Buyout Venture Growth Mezzanine Secondaries History History of private equity and venture capital Early history of private equity Private equity in the 1980s Private equity in the 1990s Private equity in the 2000s Investor types Private equity investors Venture capitalists Corporate raiders