Silvio Scaglia

Silvio Scaglia (born 14 October 1958) is a Swiss-born media and technological entrepreneur.

Scaglia is the founder of Fastweb, an Italian telecommunications company.

He also founded Freedom Holding (formerly Pacific Global Management Group), a holding company that controls the Elite World Group.

Scaglia was born on 14 October 1958, in Lucerne, Switzerland.

He studied at the Polytechnic University of Turin, which he graduated from in 1983 with a degree cum laude in electronic engineering.

After graduation, Scaglia began working at Aeritalia Spazio, where for a time he worked on the Tethered satellite project in partnership with NASA and Martin Marietta, an American aerospace company.

Following his position at Aeritalia Spazio, Scaglia worked for Andersen Consulting as a programmer and then project manager for three years.

In 1986, Scaglia joined McKinsey & Company, a worldwide management consulting firm, where he worked for automotive industry clients in Germany and Italy.

Scaglia also served as a consultant for Italian motor vehicle manufacturer Piaggio & C. SpA.

During the early 1990s, Scaglia became general manager for Piaggio's Spanish subsidiary, working alongside Italian industrialist Giovanni Alberto Agnelli.

He was later appointed Senior Vice President at Piaggio, where he led the relaunch of the business outside Europe and re-established the company’s presence in China, India and Latin America under the leadership of Agnelli.

In 1995, Scaglia joined Omnitel, now Vodafone Italy, as CEO, where he led the start-up of the company after they had received the second mobile telephone licence in 1994.

Scaglia served as CEO of Omnitel until 1999.

During his time at Omnitel, Scaglia understood that the technology was now ready to create a fully integrated IP telecommunications network.

In July 1999, Scaglia launched along with financier Francesco Micheli and other executives.

It was founded with the intention of developing a fully IP, triple-play, fibre-optic network in Italy.

became the first operator in the world to use full IP technology and bring fibre-optic networks to both business and residential clients, and launched home telecommunication services.

In March 2000, e.Biscom went public on the Italian New Market Stock Exchange to expand and finance their fibre-optic network in major Italian cities.

The IPO of was the second most successful in Italian history.

The company reached a valuation of over 10 billion euros and raised 1.6 billion euros which were fully invested to develop Fastweb’s network nationwide.

In January 2001, Scaglia was featured on the cover of Forbes Magazine, in recognition of Fastweb's contribution to telecommunications technology.

In 2003, Scaglia was named on the Time Magazine list of most influential innovators in the new technology.

He was the only Italian to appear on the “tech survivors” list, a list of fifteen innovation gurus who weathered the boom of the new economy.

In 2004, announced a merger with Fastweb.

The merger was finalized by the end of April 2004.

took on Fastweb's name, and focused on its core business, creating broadband telecommunications on the Italian landline network.

By 2006, Fastweb was Italy's leading alternative broadband telecommunications provider, with over one million customers and an annual revenue of €1.26 billion.

Fastweb was the first company in the world to develop a network entirely based on Internet Protocol (IP) – a system that moves digitalized telephonic communications through routers rather than through traditional telephone exchange allowing voice, broadband data and video to share the same network.

It was also the first company in the world to develop a public network using fibre optics for retail consumers.

On 12 March 2007, Swisscom, the Swiss telecommunications provider, offered 5.7 billion Euros to acquire Fastweb.

On 10 April 2007, Scaglia, Fastweb's majority shareholder, sold his shares in the company, equivalent to 18.7% of the company's share capital, to Swisscom.

Scaglia remained at the company as an administrator of the Board of Directors before leaving on 19 June 2007.

On 5 March 2007, Scaglia founded Babelgum, an interactive television platform offering free, high definition video content on demand.

He described it as “a kind of professional alternative to YouTube.” The company aimed to combine the “immersive viewing experience” and visual quality of traditional television with the features made possible by the internet.

On 1 September 2007, Babelgum launched the Babelgum Online Film Festival, the first global online film festival dedicated to independent film.

Viewers voted for the shortlists while a professional jury, chaired by Spike Lee, selected the winners.

Lee said the platform was an innovative format for young filmmakers to showcase their talents.

In 2011, Scaglia acquired Elite World, SA, the largest international network of model management agencies and world’s first talent media network.

In 2012, after interrupted activity due to Scaglia's legal issues, Babelgum went into liquidation and the platform was shuttered.

In 2020, he founded SHS management, an AI-powered asset management company.