Susan Carol Holland, 65, the president of Amplifon. The leading Italian company in the field of technological aids for hearing, which is worth ten billion on the stock market and which launched it in the elite of richest people in the worldaccording to the latest ranking drawn up by Forbes.
Susan Holland the daughter of Anna Maria Formigginiwho passed away in 2019, and of the founder Algernon Charles Holland who in Milan had started producing audiometers. A degree in psychology in England, at Keele University, then a diploma in speech therapy at the State University of Milan. a field that is somewhat related to hearing, he had said in a 2018 interview with Corriere della Sera. And for a while he practiced the profession that had fascinated her by working as a speech therapist at the Policlinico Hospital of Milan from 1982 to 1983. Then the call in the family business.
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The Foundation for the Most Fragile
The social implications of her entrepreneurial vision are reflected in the Amplifon Onlus foundation which she chaired, which aims at the social inclusion of the most vulnerable people. You recently launched the Ciao! Project. which aims to digitize RSAs (residences for the elderly, and today has reached one hundred RSAs with high quality video connection systems. All donated.
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Italian champion
Much thanks to Amplifon, the family business, which has grown to a capitalization of 9.4 billion in Piazza Affari. The entrepreneur owns 42.2% through the Ampliter safe. As if to say that approximately 4 billion of its total assets come from Amplifon and the value it has created. Of course, these are only theoretical figures committed to the group, strategic for the family and the estimate on the assets carried out by Forbes reflects the current valuation of the shares held by the entrepreneur. Ampliter 100% controlled by Amplifin which in turn belongs 100% to Susan Holland.
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External management
In 1988 the entrepreneur was appointed to the board of the hearing devices group, the largest in the industry globally. No one in the family has ever pushed me to join the company. But then my father got sick and my mother insisted that I be the link between the new external management and the property. What then the role of the shareholder. I worked hard and got passionate, she had pointed out. The operational leadership of the group has long been entrusted to external managers. First there was Franco Moscetti, then Enrico Vita who leads the group as CEO with 1,948.1 million turnover, up 29.5% at constant exchange rates compared to 2020 and 18.7% compared to the pre-pandemic year.
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Path
We have worked a lot on the digital revolution more than our competitors. We are closer to consumers, we understand their problems better and therefore we are faster. Then they recognize a path consistent with the arrival of managers, growth abroad, the landing on the stock market, which is necessary because there was no other way to finance growth since we have always reinvested the profits. it was a bit of a tough journey. My mother was scared, but I was young and I was pressing. You did us good to go public, you contributed to the growth of the company’s culture. Then came many acquisitions, some large and challenging. Over time the group has rebuilt the team with young and top-level managers hired by leading multinational companies who have raised the level of all those who work with them.
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The new generations
The youngest of her children lives and works in London, her daughter is a biotech researcher. The eldest son, Martino Cortese, already joined the board of Ampliter. He studied Economics and already has work experience. He became passionate about startups after a Masters at the IE Business School in Madrid and created his own in the digital world. The important thing that the children know the company – Holland said -. They don’t have to go in and be CEOs. They must first learn how to act as shareholders.
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