NIKE Forever: how Intesa Sanpaolo's Impact Investing Changed My Life

Note: this is a strictly personal post, representing my personal experience and perspective as a human being, and is not meant to represent the views of my current or past employers, business partner or legal entity. If you consider yourself an investor in ideas, businesses or people, I would love to hear your feedback.

A personal note on personal LinkedIn posts

As you'll see, this post has less to do with the international Precision Medicine market, and more to do with my personal experience as a human being. I have been quite hesitant to write these lines, on the topic of Social Impact Investing.

This article is not meant to be a "sob story": different individuals process the same circumstances in different ways, and what is easy or difficult for me might have been a much harsher or negligible situation for somebody else.

In a professional context, I personally believe there is a time and place for sharing personal challenges and difficult circumstances - especially as many organisations today are facing the struggle of integrating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion into consolidated, peculiar cultures. There is a specific topic that moved me to share this story here, on a professional social network: Social Mobility.

On DEI and Social Mobility

Social Mobility can be defined as "the movement of individuals, families, households or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society". The World Economic Forum tracks the Global Social Mobility Index through five dimensions:

1.Health

• Overall

2. Education

• Education access
• Education quality and equity
• Lifelong learning

3. Technology

• Technology access

4. Work

• Work opportunities
• Fair wage distribution
• Working conditions

5. Resilience & Institutions

• Social protection
• Inclusive institutions

These factors are used to measure and rank each country - where Italy, my home country, was ranked 34th out of 82. When we look at the definition of DEI, a report from McKinsey has useful definitions:

"Equity differs from equality in a subtle but important way. While equality assumes that all people should be treated the same, equity takes into consideration a person’s unique circumstances, adjusting treatment accordingly so that the end result is equal."

This reminded me of a professor's definition of "égalité'":

"to treat similar cases in a similar way, and different cases in different ways".

Bill quickly gets to the point: "there’s a real difference between equal and equitable. Suppose we said, ‘All interns are created equal. We pay them nothing.’ The people who can afford an entire summer without getting paid are likely already coming from a position of privilege."

By definition, mantras and critical thinking are orthogonal. I think it's not possible to have a meaningful conversation on Social Mobility without considering the circumstances of the individual - and it's only when personal circumstances are considered that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion can play an impactful role.

Some organisations have understood a long time ago how investing in social mobility can help society as a whole. This story is about two organisations - Centro Paolo Alberto Del Bue, an Italian charity, and Banca Intesasanpaolo, Italy's largest bank, which back in 2005 introduced student loans in Italy, for the very first time, with Intesabridge.

Nike, The Goddess of Victory

2023 is an important year for me. Not only I am celebrating my first anniversary at a company like Microsoft, as the organisation's first National Genomics Officer. 2023 also marks the 30th anniversary of my working life. "Genomics and Precision Medicine" has finally reached the 50% threshold.

The reality is that I would have never ventured into Precision Medicine, if somebody had not given me an opportunity. As a matter of fact, without a sponsor I would have never completed high school.

The beginning of my "career" has been quite peculiar. When I was a teenager, I had great expectations for my future. For example: going to university. I had been given a specific path to walk: learn, support and inherit the family business, following the example of my relatives. When I think about my teenage years, I recall a very specific memory.

I was 13, and I had just started high school. Sitting on an uncomfortable chair in a small room. I was told it was a very important conversation for my future, I was very excited to learn more!

In front of me sat a social worker, who advised me:

"Alessandro, you are a smart child and you are doing great at school, but this is not sustainable. You have to support your family, and it's time for you to leave school and focus on earning an income"

"earn an income to support your family" was not something I could discuss with my classmates. As a matter of fact, at the time whrn I received that guidance I had no one to talk to. The community I came from had specific expectations for my future. As any teenager, I wanted to be "like everybody else". At that time, that meant going to high school and "study like crazy". It just wasn't meant to be.

Sometimes miracles do happen. A relative heard about the preparations, and managed to connect us to a charity, Centro Paolo Alberto del Bue. Founded by Estella del Bue, this charity used to support talented adolescents from disadvantaged backgrounds throughout high school. Having 9/10 in written Latin and being weeks away from dropping out of high school, I was an ideal candidate.

Thanks to Gemma Cristiani's warm welcome, I had my first "sliding doors" moment: despite everything, Alessandro was going to stay in high school. My studies were funded by an anonymous family from Milano. I never met my anonymous benefactors, but at least I managed to send them a letter upon graduation. I hope they got some idea of how profound their impact was.

When somebody tells me "money is not everything", I always think about this. Those 1,300,000 Italian lira per year, less than 700 Euros, were everything. Now I could afford books, bus... and clothes. 10% of the budget was for Physical Education, and I was allowed to spend it for tracksuit and shoes. 27 years later, I still have the first tracksuit I ever bought: my "golden" Nike jacket. To be able to pay for my books and clothes gave me confidence and peace of mind, and allowed me to complete high school, starting from a situation where I saw no alternative but to give up.

This of course caused quite a stir: to go against the future others are choosing for you can be an unpopular move. At an early stage of my "career", this taught me an important lesson: even when everybody around you is telling you to give up, not everything is lost. A better options might always be available, as long as you are willing to stay true to your dreams.

Centro Paolo Alberto del Bue transformed many lives like mine. Unfortunately, a few years ago this charity closed its doors, but its impact lives through the dozens of disadvantaged adolescents who could aspire to a better future thanks to Gemma, Estella and their sponsors.

But this is not the full story. It turns out that if you want a career in Precision Medicine or Big Tech, high school is not enough. Soon enough, I realised that money alone was not going to cut it.

University: (A)bandon, (R)ethink, (I)gnore?

By the end of high school I had already worked most summers since I was 11: from typewriting, to inventorying, to private teaching, anything that could bring some cash. My high school studentship had limited that distraction.

As I was applying for university, reality hit me hard. The bottom rate for public university was relatively affordable, at 480 Euros. Still, I could not really afford to study. I was interested in studying Biomedical Engineering, but that course required in-person attendance... and I had to be at work.

In November 2001 I started studying Biotechnologies: it was an interesting alternative to Engineering, and, most importantly, it did not require attendance.

In my mind, my studies were my top priority. In the real world, when I ranked my priorities, studying came 6th. Health, clothes, bills, food, transport came first. I had to prioritise earning an income - any income - over everything else.

Bottom-up Networking: Social Capital is Capital

In January 2002, I "left" university. I would never attend lectures again for the remainder of my Bachelor's degree. This is very important, and it's also why I mentioned this is not meant to be a "sob story": in my situation, others would have found the right part time job, or maybe just a lucrative summer job, to balance studies and income.

I simply did not have the means, knowledge or connections to find a sustainable alternative. I could not even imagine an alternative: the jobs and possibilities I imagined derived from the people and situations I knew, and I could not even imagine -as others did - that I could have found a job as translator, project manager or auditor. I know about the world I came from. As I would learn in retrospective, social capital was by far the first "funding" I was missing.

Those disadvantages go beyond money: the lack of funds comes with a lack of time for cultural or leisure activities: work came before concerts, trips or any time spent with friends. No capital meant no social capital.

Those years were made even harder by a new Italian law, "Legge Biagi": for the first time, Italian companies had been given the means to promote temporary work and zero hour contracts. In this new reality, chasing a stable source of income had completely deprioritised my studies.

By the time I approached completion of my Bachelor's degree, another shock: temporary contracts had propagated to skilled jobs. As I looked for a full time role in Chemistry, a "normal" contract had become an unrealistic prospect.

I decided to try again. This time, with a Master's Degree in Bioinformatics. I had little hope things would have been different. I had found a "lucrative" and "regular" job as a phone interviewer, from 6pm until 9:30pm, every evening. It had to be every evening: if you said "no" even once, it was over.

Despite the challenge, this job gave me the opportunity to start attending lectures regularly for the first time. Still, the dream of prioritising my studies was once again unattainable. After more than a decade, I was running out of steam.

Impact Investing: How Intesa Sanpaolo Changed My Life

After a decade of trying everything I could, I had finally started doubting my education had any meaning. Then another "miracle" happened.

In 2005, for the very first time, the Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo introduced student loans in Italy. I was part of the very first group of students who joined the programme. The screenshot above is from the F.A.Q. of the Intesabridge application form. At the bottom, you can read:

"What would a bank fund my education?"

"Because Banca Intesa appreciates education as the key mean to enhance human capital, as a fundamental contribution to the country's growth. Because tomorrow you'll be a good client, but we already believe in you today".

A door opened - a door I didn't know existed. For the first time in my life, I could focus uniquely on my studies. Instead of doing a three months internship with an internal project, I dedicated myself to a 18 months internship at the IFOM-IEO campus, an international centre of excellence.

It turns out the grit and dedication I had given to maintaining my studies were fertile soil for a career in research: every time I heard complaints about working on weekends, I smiled. Even when I got to the point of working evening and weekends, I felt like on holiday. Despite working for free, I was benefitting from absorbing all the knowledge and learning I could from this new environment.

It was a privilege to be part of an institution like IFOM-IEO, and it was a privilege to spend my time conducting scientific research. No phones, no cheeseburgers, no toilets, no trays: just research. If you recall the McKinsey quote from before,

"The people who can afford an entire summer without getting paid are likely already coming from a position of privilege."

Impact Investing had allowed that privilege, the privilege of working full time as a researcher, prioritising my passion over my circumstances, and opening up a career I wouldn't dare dream of.

When we look back at the World Economic Forum's metrics, Intesa Sanpaolo had an impact across the spectrum:

1. Health: I no longer needed to postpone checks and treatments;

2. Education: I had full access to my university and its resources;

3. Technology: I could buy my first laptop, allowing me to study and complete assignments while commuting, the gift of time;

4. Work: financial stability meant I could consider job opportunties (e.g. PhD offers) from a position of serenity, as opposed to urgency. Financial safety also meant I could approach work with a very different perspective;

5. Resilience & Institutions: even without institutional support, Intesabridge provided self-sufficiency.

Without Intesabridge I would have never done a PhD, joined Illumina, DNAnexus, AWS or Microsoft. I would have never travelled the world, settling down in the UK, working Amazon Omics or supporting organisations of the caliber of Our Future Health UK . Without Banca Intesa Sanpaolo's Social Impact Investing, the Alessandro I am today would simply not exist.

So, Why are You Writing This?

I wrote this story for two reasons.

First, I think it's important to give publicly credit and visibility to all those who support Social Impact Investing programmes. Especially for a bank, the ROI is not obvious (disclaimer: today I am not a customer from Intesa Sanpaolo, just a grateful fan). I am trying to do my part to make sure the impact of such efforts can be propagated: from coaching students to joining organisations like Migrant Leaders , I want to make sure these topics get the right level of visibility.

Second, getting to 30 years of "career" marks an important time for reflection. I have been fighting for my education for a very long time, and it's fair to say it paid off; still, it's important to remind myself of how lucky I have been to even finish high school, and how much of my fortune depended on finding people and institutions which believed in me and chose to support me, independently from my background.

And this is key: if you are in a position to support Social Impact Investing, it's very likely you are willing to help people with a very different background, culture and perspective. And in today's society, this is something that deserves even more recognition and support. Your direct contribution to others' lives matters more than any post.

My Linkedin profile reads

"Growth through inclusion: training and coaching should be available to each team member to help them develop and contribute further, independently from the starting point."

I wish for a society where we can all do our part to make social mobility a reality for each disadvantaged individual, independently from their starting point.

Each of us has a different story. This was mine - if any of this resonates with you, do reach out. And if you know of a charity like Centro Paolo Alberto del Bue, I'd love to find a way to contribute: social mobility is far too important to give it up.

Yours,

Alessandro Riccombeni MBA, Ph. D.