Outgoing Leonardo boss touts ‘Michelangelo Dome,’ cyber tack as key achievements

ROME — Outgoing Leonardo CEO Roberto Cingolani has given a candid final press conference in which he warned his successor not to tinker with his strategies and said the three-year mandate handed him by the Italian government had not been long enough.After overseeing rapid growth at the state-controlled firm following his appointment in 2023, Cingolani was released last month when the Italian government decided not to give him a second three-year mandate, surprising industry experts.Instead the top job was given to Lorenzo Mariani, a former co-general manager at Leonardo and effectively Cingolani’s former number two, who moved a year ago to run MBDA’s Italian operation.In an online press briefing on Wednesday “to say goodbye” to journalists, Cingolani recalled how Leonardo had added 20,000 staff and grown its share price from 10 to 64 euros on his watch.Growth at the firm had been “unprecedented”, he said.On Wednesday, Leonardo reported a 33% year-on-year rise in first-quarter core earnings.Cingolani, 64, said the firm’s industrial plan was “rolling”, adding, “The strategy is built, capitalized and contracted. The job now is execution not strategy. Deviation from the plan could be detrimental to the success of Leonardo in the future.”As an example of a new product roll-out, Cingolani cited the Michelangelo Dome, an air-defense system designed with open architecture to allow partner countries to link existing assets and make them interoperable.The system will be tested in Ukraine against drone attacks in November, he announced.Cingolani defended his “bullets and bytes” strategy which focused on turning Leonardo “from a defense company to a global security company” specializing in cyber, energy and infrastructure security.Some experts have suggested that Cingolani fell out of favor in government circles because he was seen as not prioritizing the mass production of munitions and hardware needed as war rages on Europe’s border.Cingolani however took pride in his focus o