Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the central topics of the Italian Presidency of the G7 2024. As AI becomes increasingly integral to our daily lives, its influence on the workplace and broader society cannot be overstated. This workshop is designed to explore the multifaceted impact of AI on the current and future landscape of work, the emergent skills required to thrive in an AI-driven economy, the ethical considerations inherent in AI development and application, and the critical role of policymaking in shaping a future where AI contributes positively to societal goals.
This event is organised by YAS and Microsoft, in collaboration with EY, illimity and Bayer.
CFO, Microsoft Italy
Government Affairs Director, Microsoft
Partner – Alliances & Ecosystems Leader at EY Europe West
CIO illimity
Head of Quality, Organization and Innovation, Bayer
President, Young Ambassadors Society
The project is part of the Young Leaders Programme, a Youth Mobility project led by Young Ambassadors Society and co-funded by the European Union via Erasmus+ (Project N. KA154-YOU-85C6B10F). It equips young leaders with the knowledge, skills, and networks needed to drive sustainable change while bridging the gap between institutions and youth.
The views expressed are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA); neither the EU nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
Welcome and Introduction
Greetings from
Vincenzo Esposito
CEO, Microsoft Italy
Greetings from
Alberta Pelino
President, YAS
Francesca Bitondo
Government Affairs Director, Microsoft
Andrea Paliani
Partner – Alliances & Ecosystems Leader at EY Europe West
Filipe Teixeira
CIO illimity
Paolo Zanzi
Head of Quality, Organization and Innovation, Bayer
Lucrezia Lanza
Y7 Chair of the track Innovation & AI
The youth participants will present their policy proposals
Feedback on the policy proposals and Q&A
Coffee Break
Microsoft Copilot presentation
Microsoft Technology Center visit
Conclusions
Larisa Iakovleva
CFO, Microsoft Italy
Coffee & Networking
About the Young Ambassadors Society (YAS)
YAS was founded in 2011 with the goal of empowering young people, offering them opportunities to make an impact and join official global policy making processes.
Together with a global network of international associations, YAS is one of the founding members of the Y20 and Y7, the official youth engagement groups of the G20 and G7 Summits. Since their foundation, YAS has been responsible for these engagement groups for Italy in collaboration with the Italian Presidency and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. On the occasion of the G7 Italy in 2024, YAS is Chair of the Y7 Italy, in collaboration with the G7 Italian Presidency.
About Youth 7 (Y7)
In 2024, Italy is hosting the G7. The Youth 7 (Y7) is the official youth engagement group of the G7 and it is the platform that allows young people to share their ideas and policy proposals with the Heads of State and Government of the G7 countries.
Y7 2024 is a hub of innovative policies and a year-long process that engages hundreds of young people from around the world with a single goal: to take concrete steps towards building a more sustainable and inclusive world.
From 3 April 2023, Vincenzo Esposito is the CEO of Microsoft Italy. Esposito leads the Italian subsidiary with an ecosystem of more than 14,000 partners with the aim of accelerating the digital transformation of Italian public and private organizations and promoting sustainable growth in the country.
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During his first months in the role, Vincenzo Esposito launched the first Microsoft cloud region in Italy, providing local organizations access to scalable, available, and resilient cloud services and confirming its commitment to promoting digital transformation and sustainable innovation in the country.
In Microsoft Italia, Vincenzo Esposito is also promoting the value of Artificial Intelligence solutions. Together with the Microsoft Partner network, he’s launching a national programme to support businesses, the academic and research world, and the Public Administration to identify strategic innovation scenarios in the field of AI, support their rapid implementation, and guarantee the training of students and workers, creating the necessary skills, taking in consideration also the ethical aspects.
Vincenzo Esposito has been with Microsoft for 10 years after a 3-year experience in Central & Eastern Europe where he led the Global Partner Solutions team, the ecosystem of partners in the Region. During his career at Microsoft Italy he led the team that followed innovation for the Small and Medium Enterprises market and subsequently the Division dedicated to digital transformation projects on the large companies of the country, thus gaining a 360-degree knowledge of the Microsoft ecosystem.
Prior to joining Microsoft, Vincenzo Esposito spent 11 years at Dell leading important business areas in Italy and Europe in positions such as EMEA End-User-Computing Director, EMEA Strategic Alliances Director, Sales Director Small & Medium Business South Europe and Country Manager of Dell Italy. Previously, he worked at Canon’s European headquarters in Amsterdam and at Unisys in various Marketing and Sales positions. Vincenzo Esposito holds a degree in Political Science from LUISS University in Rome and an MBA from Henley Business School in UK.
Larisa Iakovleva is currently CFO of Microsoft Italy, bringing experience from previous roles at Microsoft and Nokia. She has more than 10 years of experience in finance top management roles in TLC industry (vendors and mobile operators), FMCG in different locations like Russia, EMEA Region and more than 19 years of experience in Finance. She holds an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) in Business Administration and Management, from IE Business School.
During her career, she has gained extensive expertise in government affairs in tech companies such as Meta, AWS and previous experience in Microsoft itself, covering several countries in Southern Europe. She also had different roles at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including the Italian Embassy in Paris and in the Italian Presidency of the European Union, at UNESCO in Paris.
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She worked in the French diplomatic environment, particularly at the Crisis Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at the French Embassy in Italy. She also enriched her experience with research work at the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) in Rome. A graduate in International and Diplomatic Sciences, she holds a master’s degree from Sciences Po in Paris and, most recently, a master’s degree at LUISS Business School, in Open Innovation and Intellectual Property.
The career of Andrea Paliani has been characterised by transformative, innovative and entrepreneurial leadership, always focusing on the development and sponsorship of talents and diversity, equity and inclusion topics.
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He held many leadership roles at EY: he is currently a member of the EY Leadership team at Italy and Europe and leads the Alliances and Ecosystem enablement function at EY Europe with the goal of driving the business strategy with the leading global technology companies.
He is a member of the Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion steering group and the Global Equity Task Force.
He was formerly Managing Partner of the Consulting Business at EY Mediterranean Region and Managing Partner Industries and Clients for all the lines of business at EY Mediterranean region.
And before that, he led the Telco, Media and Entertainment Industry at Continental Western Europe and he was Global and Emeia Power & Utilities industry Leader
34 years of business experience in the two Industrial sectors: Telecom (Italtel – 10 years) and Lifesciences (Bayer – 24 years) with growing responsibilities from technical, to executive roles. Main roles of last years: Heat of Quality, Organization and Innovation for the Bayer Group in Italy, South-Western Europe Country Cluster Quality Head, Europe 3 Country Cluster Quality Head (9 Countries, 19 markets).
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Main professional expertise, consolidated through growing experiences: project management, digital transformation, innovation management, organization management, quality management, operational excellence, executive communication, strategic planning.
Since 2016, adjunct Professor at University of Milan (UNIMI) for the following courses: Project Management of Innovation: Development of New Products and Services (2016-2019), Strategies and Tools for Industry 4.0 (from 2019).
Il presente progetto è stato realizzato con il contributo del Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale.