Ciprogest Srl is a multimillion euro privately held Italian corporation that owns one of the largest the citrus conversion plant ever built.
Although the citrus transformation operations started in 1957, the current facility ,is a state of the art plan re-built in 1999, when the facility was acquired and expanded by Parmalat. Later on this state of the art plant was acquired by CiproGest International.
Ownership
The three primary partners today are : Giuseppe Mascarella, Fabio Borsellino and Alessandro Rampolla. The ar all Sicilian-born engineers with solid experience working for American multinationals
O'Biolla includes also a selection of over 3000 Sicilian farmers as partners. These are the most experienced growers of the Blood oranges in Sicily. People whose families have been perfecting growing Blood Oranges for centuries.
Our Vision:
Make the most impactful nutrients out of Italian citrus available to any consumer in the world that can benefit from them. Objectives:
Raise international awareness of Italian citrus products (juice and byproducts) to proudly activate the local community economy of Sicily
Successful launch of new profitable healthy products
Build a collaborative environment that brings the best ideas and talent from around the world and apply it to Italian citrus
This business initiative will provide many social and environmental benefits as well:
Global Health: Bringing more easily consumable, healthy, organic food to market can positively impact the health of customers, including reducing obesity, cancer and immune system diseases.
Environmental, Global Pollution Contribution: For every dollar you spend on our products, a portion goes to the more than 2,000 families of farmers in Sicily that we work with. We believe in redistributing part of the profits to them, as family-based farms face stiff competition from multinational farming models or ‘sweat shop’ cultivation in developing countries. Furthermore, when Sicilian produce goes unsold, tons of oranges are destroyed in the country, creating an environmental problem in the nearby ocean from uncontrolled bacteria fermentation.
Global Emigration Trends: Sicily is a “Zone 1” priority in the European Union for unemployment, and is one of the areas where people still emigrate for better economic opportunity. This initiative provides economic strength for the people and the Sicilian region.
The President: Giuseppe Mascarella
Giuseppe Mascarella, president of O’Biolla, is leading the conversion of a $28 million mature technology juicing plant (formerly owend by Parmalat), into a larger innovative biotech company specializing in “nutraceuticals.” He has built a highly recognized international Scientific Advisory Board to design a new line of functional products, and they are already filing patents based on their scientific research.
Before coming to O’Biolla, Giuseppe was a senior business and marketing manager at the Microsoft Corporation, where he was part of the marketing launch team for four versions of flagship product Microsoft Office, the most successful product in the history of software. He firmly believes he can replicate that success with the launch of the new O'Biolla product
Guiseppe has demonstrated his leadership ability in several far-reaching transformation initiatives:
As Senior Marketing Manager, he redefined the value perception of the Microsoft Collaboration Technology Platform in large organizations
As worldwide Group Manager for Microsoft TSC (Technology Strategy Consulting) team, he designed and launched a new consulting service line worldwide
As Vice President of the Sophia Antipolis business Angel Association
Leveraged a multiyear collaboration with MIT CISR to develop a Collaborative IT Governance Framework
Mascarella holds a Master of Science in Engineering Management from the State University of Palermo and a post-graduate business management degree from the American Management Association. He also attended classes at MIT Sloan business school.
CEO: Fabio Borsellino
Fabio Borsellino holds a Bocconi MBA and a Master in Electircal Engineering. He has worked as Strategy Consulting Manager for few a leading American Corporations for 14 years.
Executive Consultant: Alessandro Rampolla
Alessandro Rampolla, Master in Production Engineering, has been production plant manager for a large multinational consumer company and later on led the Human Resources division.