From theory to practice: EthosEnergy’s Giuseppe Gennaro on getting started in the industry

Giuseppe began his professional career at our Turin facility in Italy. At that time, he was a Repair Engineer for TurboCare, which became part of EthosEnergy. After four years, however, he moved to a prominent multinational company in the Oil & Gas sector, where he worked as a Gas Turbine Airfoils Lead Engineer. This experience allowed him to develop a keen focus to details and acquire highly specialized technical skills.

After a while he received a call from his former boss. Would he like to come back as our Lead Gas Turbine Engineer?

Giuseppe didn’t need long to think about it.

“I was more than glad to receive that call. I was coming back home.”

Twelve years later, we sat down with Giuseppe to find out more about his career journey, his background, and why he felt it was a no-brainer to end his brief hiatus away from us.

Coming back home

Giuseppe is quick to clarify he had a great time working with his previous Company. This wasn’t a case of him leaving a bad experience behind. Far from it.

But like any OEM company, thousands of people were working there.

“I was a number within those 4,000 people working in Florence.”

Here in Turin, however, Giuseppe has had the chance to meet and personally connect with Executive Management, including our CEO Ana Amicarella.

“I can talk with them. They know who I am, they know who everyone is. There is no distance between the very high level of management and a standard employee. This is something you can never find in much bigger companies.”

Not only has he met them, but he’s performed for them with his rock band, The Beethos – every member of which, save for their singer, works for EthosEnergy.

And for Giuseppe, that relaxed culture is not the only thing that makes EthosEnergy stand out.

Holistic understanding

At larger companies, people might gain expertise in specific or niche areas. But they might not gain the experience to recognize the more intricate features of combustion hardware or rotating components.

For instance, they may not get the opportunity to gain hands-on experience of how a gas turbine is made. How many components it has. What their roles are and how they behave. What base materials are used. Why they were selected for that specific purpose. And what techniques we can use to assess for an indication of damage during operation.

“So, joining EthosEnergy is amazing, because everybody can learn in depth how a gas turbine works.”

That’s what Giuseppe tells students on open days or interns joining to write their final theses.

There’s something else he tells them.

Joining EthosEnergy is like joining a gym

Giuseppe was a young graduate himself when he joined our Turin facility.

“Because I am an aerospace engineer, joining the energy industry was like joining a new world for me. But I realized immediately that this world was amazing.”

Why?

Because he had the opportunity to see the theory he learned during his studies being applied in reality.

“So one of the things I tell them is, here it’s like a gym where you get to take everything you studied and learn how leading-edge technologies are applied on the inspection and repair of component parts.”

You get to learn how everything works.

“This is a value that young graduates can develop only by putting their hands on real components. By seeing with their own eyes.”

Getting his hands dirty

What was perhaps unusual about Giuseppe as a student was his fervent desire to gain hands-on experience.

He studied aerospace engineering at the University of Palermo, graduating cum laude (110/110). But before he finished his studies, he was itching to move into something more practical.

“At a certain point during my last year at university I said, OK, this is a great learning path, but I need to have more. The theory is fine, but I need to get my hands dirty.”

He took it upon himself to find an opportunity. He applied and was accepted for a 10-month internship at the ENEA Casaccia Research Center in Rome. There he undertook his final degree project, looking at the fatigue resistance of materials applied in a magnetic fusion reactor.

“I felt if I had to develop my thesis only theoretically within the university, I was going to die.”

Where did Giuseppe pick up his appreciation for the practical?

From his father.

Giuseppe grew up in Petralia Sottana, a hilltop town in the heart of the Madonie Mountains in Sicily. Every summer from the age of 13 he would work for a month in his father’s truck repair shop.

He still has a passion for mechanical things and will service his car himself. But he thanks his father for encouraging him to take a different path.

“He would tell me, ‘You’re not able to do this.’ And he pushed me to study engineering. I need to say thank you to my father for this.”

A family affair

Education runs in the family: Giuseppe’s mother worked in a school, his sister is a teacher in Milan, and his wife teaches science and math.

No wonder then that Giuseppe has never stopped studying. He has taken numerous courses since he graduated. And he has now returned to university to study for an Executive MBA from the SAA School of Management at the University of Turin.

He’s grateful to EthosEnergy for supporting him. But he also wants to say thank you to his wife, eight-year-old daughter, and six-year-old son. Because while he’s busy studying every weekend, they’re not getting to spend as much time as they’d like with their dad – riding their bikes around or singing while he plays the guitar.

To make up for it, Giuseppe has a plan.

“To gain more credit from them, I’m taking everybody to Barcelona in July and Disneyland Paris in August.”

When it comes to family, he already knows how lucky he is to have what he has.