Giuseppe Crippa
Giuseppe Crippa (Robbiate, 5 May 1935) is an Italian entrepreneur, since 2022 he is among the richest men in Italy according to Forbes.
He is the founder of the technology company Technoprobe, of which he was CEO until 2017. He is listed by Forbes as one of the richest people in Italy with an estimated net worth of 4.1 billion euros.
Biography
Born in Robbiate in 1935, he grew up in Robbiate, province of Lecco, during World War II.[1]
He attended a technical institute in Bergamo and in the 1950s obtained his first job at the engineering firm Breda.
In 1960, at age 25, he entered the world of microchips when he began working for the semiconductor company SGS.[2]
In 1962 SGS sent him to the Silicon Valley to study and bring to Italy semiconductor technology developed by Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore at Fairchild Semiconductor in Mountain View, establishing industrial production of NPN transistors.
In 1963 he returned to Italy and began managing a new department with a staff of about a dozen collaborators, launching production of the first silicon transistors. This was the first production line in Italy and also in Europe.
In subsequent years he held various roles in the company: from production manager to process manager, eventually becoming global quality manager.
In 1989, with the help of his son Cristiano, he decided to start a small business producing probes for the Probe card market, the boards used to test chips. At that time, probe cards were only made in the United States and were relatively low quality, requiring frequent repairs after use.
By 1993 a large part of his home in Merate served as a workshop: the garage, attic, and basement were occupied. Crippa hired the first two employees. His wife Mariarosa also helped with administrative tasks.[3]
In 1995, at age 60, Crippa received a severance offer to retire from STMicroelectronics.[2] Instead of retiring, he decided to invest the severance and formally founded Technoprobe S.r.l., the first Italian company dedicated to manufacturing and selling probe cards.[4][5]
In 1996, using his severance funds, he moved out of his home workshop into an 800 m² facility in Cernusco Lombardone with about ten employees. He remained CEO of the company until 2017.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when Italy launched its vaccination campaign, the company donated its space and paid staff to set up a vaccination hub in Technoprobe’s facilities, administering 160 000 doses in six months.[6]
On 15 February 2022 the company launched on the Euronext Growth Milan exchange, debuting up 12 % with a valuation of €3.5 billion, and its shares were suspended due to excessive gains. Following the IPO, at age 87 in 2022 he became a billionaire.[7]
Personal life
Giuseppe Crippa is married to Mariarosa Lavelli. They have three children: Cristiano, Roberto, and Monica.[1]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Giuseppe Crippa (founder of Technoprobe Spa): in the ’60s I saw Silicon Valley born in Mountain View. Now I want to grow a lush forest next to our company – Merate Online
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs named:0 - ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedforbes.it - ↑ The story of Crippa, the retiree who founded Technoprobe – Milano Finanza
- ↑ Technoprobe: Brianza-made microelectronics conquers the world – Radio 24
- ↑ Last day of Technoprobe vaccination hub – Technoprobe
- ↑ “I am an 87-year-old billionaire. I discovered it from the Forbes list, money means nothing to me” – Corriere della Sera