In this interview, we meet Pietro Palella, President of our Foundation, as he shares his insights on our mission, his motivations, and the 2025 projects aimed at bridging the digital divide and fostering digital inclusion.
Good morning, Pietro. Happy to have you with us. Can you start by describing your journey with ST and the ST Foundation?
My journey with ST began in 1976, and I’ve seen an amazing evolution until I became the Italian President and CEO from 2012 to 2016. Starting with Pasquale Pistorio – ST President and CEO in the period 1980-2005 – as he added a social mission to the company’s bold industrial mission. This included environmental sustainability and the impact on local territories. The Foundation was created by him 2001 to answer Kofi Annan’s call (then Secretary-General of the United Nations) to combat the digital divide, which was seen as a significant risk of marginalization. Finally, I became the ST Foundation President in 2021, and I am now in my second mandate.
Was the idea of the Foundation pioneering at the time?
Absolutely. The awareness of the social importance of companies was not well developed yet. Companies were very focused on their industrial mission, with little attention to social issues. Focusing on environmental sustainability and the digital divide was often misunderstood as a deviation from the main objective.
What motivated you to accept the Presidency of the Foundation?
There were two main motivations: corporate and personal. From a corporate perspective, I wanted to continue contributing to ST’s social mission even after leaving the company. Personally, I felt it was right to give back to the context that had given me so much.
How does the Foundation plan to address global challenges related to digital inclusion in the next five years?
One fundamental strategy is through partnerships. We believe in collaborating with entities that have converging motivations and goals to be more effective and explore new horizons. We are starting projects with organizations like Save the Children and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), with whom we have signed agreements.
Regarding artificial intelligence, we aim to raise awareness about its potential impacts, and, for this reason, our volunteers in Catania (Italy) are working on a new module on AI, which will soon be added to all our ICB courses.
Among the many success stories of digital education in 2024, which one do you love the most?
All stories have value, but two stand out. For the heart, the initiative in Catania with Futuro 21, with young people with Down syndrome learning digital skills, because it is incredibly emotional. For the mind, the long-term volunteering story of our Indian colleague Parul, who has been volunteering with us for twenty years and still has the enthusiasm to write coding courses.
What project are you most proud of that relates to your mandate?
The collaboration with ITU – the United Nations’ specialized agency for information and communications technology – is the most significant. It is a recognition of our credibility and a stimulus to open new horizons. One result of this cooperation was the deployment of our first basic computer course for visually impaired people, which was incredibly exciting.
What are the strategic objectives and challenges for 2025?
We have outlined operational plans in four main directions.
One is renewing the basic computer course to be compatible with Windows 11 and replacing PCs equipped with Windows 11. This won’t be easy, as we are talking about hundreds and hundreds of laptops available in our DU labs all over the world.
Another is extending the coding course globally. I mentioned Parul’s story as a volunteer in India. The course, which started in Asia Pacific thanks to Parul, is being extended to the rest of the world. This is a strategic step for us: teaching coding is not like teaching the use of Excel or Word; it is teaching computational thinking and how to tackle a problem. This requires new trainers with new skills.
The third is about the school dropout rate in Southern Italy, which is still very high. Our cooperation with Save the Children goes in this direction.
Lastly, is our commitment towards fragile populations, like the elderly and those imprisoned.
What about international projects?
We are reinforcing our relationships with organizations like UNICEF. ITU is an exception in its speed, and we intend to develop joint projects at the international level. We prefer to focus on doing well what we can do rather than expanding too many lines of action.
How do you measure your success?
We measure ourselves by the number of people we train, more than 120,000 people a year, and by the impact questionnaires on the ICB courses. With it we track both our impact and satisfaction through an Online Reporting System that provides real-time data on the effectiveness of our courses and trainers. In 2016, we did an impact evaluation study with the Catholic University of Milan (Italy) and identified KPIs that we have extended to all countries.