Paolo Barberis

Paolo Barberis, founder of Dada, studied Architecture in Italy and Germany.

After graduating, he specialized in Interface Design at the Domus Academy in Milan.

In 1994, at the age of 27 and together with some university classmates from Florence, he created Dada, an Internet Company whose acronym means Design Architecture Digital Analog.

Paolo grows the company with the same visionary spirit that still characterizes him today, succeeding in grasping the needs of the Net user of those years and anticipating many of the scenarios and new digital potential of the new millennium.

In 1999 he created superEva (www.superEva.it), the "mythical" site of the Italian Net, sensing the enormous potential of the web community concept.

In 2000 he is one of the youngest ever presidents of a listed company and takes Dada public through an IPO on the Milan Stock Exchange on June 29.

In 2000 he received the Fiorino d'Oro from the city of Florence and the Gonfalone d'Argento from the region of Tuscany in 2007; the Torrino d'oro is from 2017.

In '98 he is among the founders of the Italian section of IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) and in '99 of the Italian Chapter of ISOC (Internet Society).

Between innovation, planning, pragmatism, speed, team spirit and above all strong passion, Paolo has led Dada to be one of the leading companies with offices in Florence, Milan, Bergamo, New York, Barcelona, Paris, London, Worcester, Beijing, Rio de Janeiro and a team of over 800 people mostly under 35.

He was part of the task force of the Ministry of Economic Development, on Startup in 2012.

A founding member of Italia Startup (an association established in 2012 to boost Italian innovative entrepreneurship), in 2012 he founded the Nana Bianca accelerator with Alessandro Sordi and Jacopo Marello.

He has served as innovation adviser to Prime Minister Matteo Renzi since September 2014, then to President Paolo Gentiloni until the change of government in May 2018. He has also been part of the Digital Transformation Team at the Prime Minister's Office since September 2016.

He is an Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

In 2019, he is chosen as Special Advisor for Digital Transition by the Mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)