She was the first woman to join the Management Board of Lamborghini, but also the first to have led the Motor Valley, the USA and China in a single team, which would soon give birth to the Silk electric car megafactory Faw. However, an incurable disease killed her at the age of 54.
His latest creation was Silk Faw, and it is the brand that spread the news of his untimely death. “We were fortunate to have experienced his passion, optimism and automotive expertise, which will always be a part of the company well into the future. Silk Sports Car Company sends its deepest condolences and extends its warmest love to his family at this painful time.”
This is how Katia Bassi goes, until a few hours ago at the wheel of a team of champions, such as Walter De Silva, vice president with responsibility for design, Roberto Fedeli, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer and Amedeo Felisa executive vice president (until a few months ago). All ready to spend themselves on a project in which Made in Italy would win over buyers with performance and design shots, in the electric challenge of the new decade. Playground, unique in the world: the Motor Valley.
A life of challenges
After all, ambition was in Bassi’s blood. He loved sportsmanship. She looked the competition in the face, and was not afraid of challenges, not even those in men’s circles: from the Nbi, to football, to the automotive sector, she developed a 360-degree international profile, without losing the humanity that always brought her close to people’s needs. Graduated in Political Science at the University of Milan and in Law in Pavia, specializing in Digital Marketing and Analytics at MIT in Boston, over the years she has cultivated a solid background in the automotive world, from Ferrari to Aston Martin, where she was Vice President of Aston Martin Lagonda and Managing Director of AM Brands. She then arrived at Automobili Lamborghini: in 2017 she became Chief Marketing Officer, first member of the Management Board, globally responsible for the strategic direction of the Brand, Marketing and Global Luxury Partnerships of the House of Sant’Agata Bolognese. A path that has also seen her as a protagonist of the FAB, the Female Advisory Board, a project that for the first time has seen supercars divest themselves of clichés.
FAB: a change of perspective
At a time when the Urus reached the price list, Lamborghini set up this introspective format in which from Singapore to New York, from Milan to Tokyo, from London to Hong Kong, female entrepreneurs, university professors, great economists, enlightened startuppers were invited to participate and art collectors, including people without cars or those arriving in shiny competitor cars. Objective: to get to know what is hidden behind the “high performance” female universe. “It is not the gender but the profession that guides the purchasing processes – Bassi stated at the time. In FAB there are only women, but with power. They are able to invest their capital in different ways: we are interested in knowing what they want when they approach a car of our caliber”. One of Bassi’s last great challenges has been changing the perception of the company: “no gender”.