Elserino Piol (photo Lapresse)
Elserino Piol, goodbye to the great old man of Italian information technology
The last great old man of Italian information technology is gone, Elserino Piol. Perhaps his name is not well known to young people but he represented a fundamental piece of the technological development of our country. Piol was born in the Belluno area, in that industrious and already somewhat oriental Veneto that likes to work and do it well and it doesn’t matter if it’s about wines or chips. We are at the beginning of the 30s of the last century and Elserino graduated as an electronic industrial expert, a qualification which at the time was equivalent – in the collective imagination – to dealing with science fiction or similar things.
Elserino Piol, from Olivetti to Omnitel
He began his career in Olivetti – Bull and initially dealt with punched card programming, the only way there was then to tell a computer what to do. The boy has stuff and knows his trade and so in 1959 we find him already commercial director of Olivetti and has not yet turned thirty. His mantra is “work and innovation”, elbow grease and determination to achieve goals.
In the 60s he weaves networks of knowledge and strategic vision and brings home the creation of Olivetti General Electric. His contacts with the USA at the Harvard Business School date back to that period. He returns to Olivetti and takes care of the Elea project and in 1965 we find him marketing director and just then the first computer in history, the Programma 101, is launched. The seventies see him take an interest in peripheral devices, such as printers but also the flourishing teletypewriter market.
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