“For me it is a historic day, a lucky day”. Marino Golinelli never ceases to amaze: the latest news, announced yesterday, is the renunciation of the presidency of the Foundation that bears his name and which, for almost 30 years, the philanthropist has been feeding with ideas and money to offer young people the tools fit to face the future. Golinelli passes the baton to his deputy and right-hand man Andrea Zanotti, professor of canon law at the Alma Mater, a man of great and audacious visions. What is surprising in this gesture is not so much the fact that a 95-year-old gentleman can feel tired of holding an operational position, but that behind this choice there is once again a feeling of generosity and social responsibility. Nothing prevented the creator and financier of a great creature from continuing to sit in the highest chair until the end of his days. The point is that Golinelli takes a "sideways" step, as his collaborators who wanted him to be honorary president say, to leave room for young people, because the time is ripe for a new chapter.
One brick after another, Golinelli has built a large educational, cultural, legal and technical building in these 28 years. “The only Anglo-Saxon philanthropic foundation in Italy”, as he likes to repeat. In recent months this building has become even taller, a tower, in the city of towers, Bologna, to look further afield, where space and time merge: in fact, the Opificio has been inaugurated, a citadel of knowledge and learning, where space for all the activities of the Foundation; Opus 2065 came to life, a bet to project young people into a sustainable world over the next 50 years; Trust 2065 was born, which guarantees the allocation of a further 30 million donated by Golinelli to his projects. At this point the philanthropist has metaphorically crossed a finish line.
“I am a lucky man – he reiterates – because I look to the future”. Let us briefly recall that his "luck" begins in San Felice sul Panaro, in the province of Modena, where at 17 he understands how important science is. In the Faculty of Pharmacy, in the laboratories of the University of Bologna, where he graduated, he learns, finds stimuli and part of the answers he seeks. After a few years he invents Alfa Biochimici, which then becomes Alfa Wassermann, finally Alfasigma, a big Italian pharmaceutical company with a turnover of 900 million. The Foundation arrives when the entrepreneur has concluded a cycle and feels the need to "give part of what I had back to society". Today this gesture is still a good example for everyone. End of the story? Fortunately no. “I am a curious man – adds Golinelli – and as long as it will be possible I will contribute again with my ideas. A foundation, like a company, lives and thrives when it has a strategic vision and an ethic that accompanies this vision; when it has the right economic support; when it is well governed. Today the Golinelli Foundation finds itself in this condition. It will continue on its path, without a deadline and when our start-ups begin to produce income, we will have further resources to invest for the future of young people". Next to Zanotti on the board of directors sit the vice president Filippo Cavazzuti, Luca De Biase, Stefano Golinelli jr, Emilio Ferarri. A streamlined decision-making centre, for a body that has great ambitions. Antonio Danieli is in charge of the structure.
“It is a non-traumatic handover - underlines Zanotti - but in full harmony and affection, because ours is a partnership based on esteem and a great human relationship. Marino cannot resign himself, he renounces, like a Pope, but remains Pope Emeritus and will contribute his ideas to our future. From an institutional point of view, however, we are at an important turning point. Until recently, the Foundation stood in support of the public, in a relationship of subsidiarity. Today it is no longer enough. We have understood that there is a deeper, structural problem in the education of young people, because the world moves too fast for our university programs. You have to think differently. The Foundation is a hare and can take shots that the public camera cannot afford. Science doesn't invent by experimenting, it invents new things by imagining other worlds. And we want to do this. Moving forward, also looking back, for example to Bologna in the 1200s which knew how to combine science and poetry. Universities must not chase places in the rankings, they must be more ambitious. Italy cannot compete with countries that have billions of inhabitants, it must compete with its best weapons, technique and imagination”.
On the fertile ground of these ideas, the Foundation's agreements with other subjects mature: for example the one with IIT, Expert System and Nova (Sole 24 ore) for the Discovery24 project, which also obtained a loan of 530 thousand euros from Google and the Dni fund ; those with the Miur, with the University of Bologna and other universities, and the agreements that will come or are in the process of being finalized. In short, the car is running, has fuel and a course. Golinelli has given up the driving seat, perhaps he just wants to enjoy the panorama of a world that he has tried to make better.
Click here to read the interview conducted by director Franco Locatelli with Marino Golinelli.
