Giuseppe Funaro
International Commercial Executive

Building businesses.Opening markets. Creating growth.

Barcelona · Europe · International

30+ years across business development, GTM, P&L leadership, market entry, strategic partnerships and cross-border trade. Most useful where something needs to be built, commercialised, expanded or put back on track.

Giuseppe Funaro
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Profile

International commercial leadership built over three decades

I have spent my career building businesses, opening markets and turning commercial opportunities into revenue across Europe and international markets.

I have led multi-layer commercial organisations of 20+ people across 20+ countries through Country Managers, local teams and HQ functions, held P&L responsibility above €200M, grown a telecom division from €70M to €220M, negotiated $30M+ commercial agreements and built businesses from the ground up, including an international PPE operation that generated close to €10M in revenue during COVID.

My experience spans telecommunications, technology, international trade, procurement, commodities and new ventures. More recently, I led the repositioning of a legacy trade-intelligence platform towards an AI-native product and commercial model.

I am at my best where something needs to be built, fixed, commercialised or taken into a new market.

Based in Barcelona and working internationally across Spain, Italy, the UK and wider European markets.

"I am at my best where something needs to be built, fixed, commercialised or taken into a new market."
Giuseppe Funaro
Career with
Indis / DEC
BIMCom
Mercury Communications
Cable & Wireless
TNT
Telegroup
Dynegy / iAXIS
Alpha Telecom
Tele2 / CCC
Euphony
Sitges Media Factory
BlueMar Ferries
1402 Celsius
ADAMftd / ICTTM
Impact

The numbers behind the career

€200M+
Consolidated P&L responsibility
€220M
European division growth (from €70M)
$30M+
Long-term commercial agreements negotiated
20+
Countries led through Country Managers & HQ teams
Career

Experience

Jan 2020 - Present
Managing Director · Executive Mandates & International Ventures
1402 Celsius Ltd · London, United Kingdom & Plovdiv, Bulgaria
  • Built Blue Glove during COVID, developing direct international PPE manufacturing relationships including INTCO and generating close to €10M in revenue.
  • Developed cross-border commodity trading in sunflower oil, maize, soybean, sunflower meal and animal-feed products, including recurring shipments of approximately 50-200 tonnes every two weeks.
  • Through the Capitalimprese network, developed an international procurement channel with Austrian insulation manufacturer Swisspor, supporting multi-million-euro procurement relationships and high-volume weekly deliveries into Italy.
  • Delivered senior executive and commercial mandates across technology and international trade, covering GTM, market entry, partnerships, procurement, commercial strategy and business transformation.
Nov 2025 - Sep 2026
Chief Executive Officer
ADAMftd / ICTTM · Contract executive mandate via 1402 Celsius Ltd
  • Led the turnaround and repositioning of a legacy global trade-intelligence platform towards an AI-native proposition.
  • Defined product direction around user workflows, decision support and actionable intelligence, alongside commercial positioning, pricing and go-to-market priorities.
  • Worked across product, engineering, commercial and operational teams and developed international partnership opportunities.
Jan 2016 - Mar 2017
Director of Commercial Sales, Marketing & Public Affairs
BlueMar Ferries · Barcelona · Independent executive mandate
  • Led the commercial, marketing and public-affairs launch of a new maritime transport business in Spain.
  • More than 5,000 passengers were carried during the first week of operations.
  • Acted as a principal public representative with government, regulatory and national media stakeholders.
2012 - 2014
Founder & Publisher
Sitges Media Factory · Sitges, Spain
  • Created a premium annual magazine focused on Sitges, lifestyle and high-end tourism, printing and distributing 10,000+ copies per edition through hotels, restaurants, municipal locations and visitor-facing businesses.
  • Built a reader and commercial contact base numbering in the thousands and managed advertising sales, editorial production, print, distribution and local partnerships.
  • Produced interviews with figures including Andy Fletcher of Depeche Mode, 500cc Motorcycle World Champion Wayne Gardner and golfer Ángel Gallardo, alongside photographic and editorial coverage of the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival.
2009 - 2012
Founder & Managing Director · Precious Metals & Jewellery Retail
Catalonia, Spain · Sitges · Vilanova i la Geltrú · Vilafranca del Penedès
  • Built and operated a three-store precious-metals and jewellery retail business, growing turnover to close to €1M.
  • Managed six employees across the three locations.
  • Led purchasing, pricing, sales and day-to-day retail operations across gold, jewellery, diamonds and other precious items.
Jun 2007 - Dec 2008
Chief Commercial Officer
Euphony Benelux · London · 18 European markets
  • Held commercial P&L responsibility across 18 European markets, with a consolidated commercial P&L exceeding €200M.
  • Led a multi-layer organisation of 20+ people through Country Managers, local sales and marketing teams and HQ commercial functions.
2003 - May 2007
Chief Commercial Officer · Prepaid Services Division
Tele2 / Calling Card Company (CCC) · Europe & United States
  • Led the combined prepaid business following Tele2's acquisition of Alpha Telecom and scaled divisional revenue from approximately €70M to €220M.
  • Led 15 Country Managers across Europe and the United States, supported by HQ commercial and product teams within a multi-layer organisation of 20+ people.
  • Built specialist distribution serving international and ethnic consumer markets through independent retail and phone-shop networks.
  • When Tele2 later classified the division as non-core, worked with the management team on an attempted MBO, including business valuation and transaction discussions; the MBO did not proceed and the business was subsequently sold to another buyer.
2002 - Feb 2003
Business Development Director
Alpha Telecom · United Kingdom / Madeira, Portugal
  • Joined during a growth and strategic-development phase ahead of the company's acquisition by Tele2.
  • Worked on business development across a residential low-cost international telephony proposition serving multicultural consumer markets.
  • Following Tele2's acquisition in 2003, moved into commercial leadership of the combined prepaid business.
1998 - 2002
VP Sales & Marketing · Managing Director, Italy
Dynegy Europe / iAXIS Ltd · London & Milan
  • Joined iAXIS, an early-stage European fibre-network startup, before its acquisition by Dynegy.
  • Negotiated $30M+ in long-term customer agreements and $15M+ in fibre-optic infrastructure investment.
  • Led Italian market entry for gas and electricity trading across commercial, regulatory and operational workstreams.
1989 - 1998
Early Career · Enterprise Technology, Maritime Messaging & International Telecommunications
Italy & United Kingdom · Indis · BIMCom · Mercury Communications · Cable & Wireless Europe · TNT UK · Telegroup Italia
  • Started in commercial sales at Indis S.p.A., a Digital Equipment Corporation OEM, selling enterprise management software and systems running on DEC VAX and MicroVAX platforms.
  • Relocated to the UK and moved through maritime messaging, product and business-development roles at BIMCom, Mercury Communications, Cable & Wireless Europe and TNT UK.
  • As Country Manager of Telegroup Italia, built and led a national commercial operation reaching approximately $100M in sales through a network of around 1,000 agents.
Strengths

Areas of expertise

International Business Development

Opening new markets, building pipeline and converting relationships into sustainable international business.

International Sales & Export

Building routes to market and growing export revenue across multiple countries and industries.

Market Entry

Launching operations and commercial activity in new countries, from strategy through to execution.

Strategic Partnerships

Identifying and developing partners and alliances that create sustainable commercial value across markets.

Channel & Distributor Development

Recruiting, developing and managing distributor and channel networks across international markets.

Complex B2B Negotiation

Structuring and negotiating long-term commercial agreements with corporate, government and institutional counterparts.

Languages
ItalianMother tongue
EnglishFluent
SpanishFluent
Current ventures

Commercial experience applied to new businesses and products

Alongside executive and advisory work, I continue to build and test new ventures. AI is one of the tools I use, but the underlying work is the same: identify a real problem, build a commercial response, put it in front of users and learn quickly.

International Trade

Ponte Trade

An exploration of how AI can help companies identify cross-border opportunities, investigate market signals and move from discovery into structured commercial conversations.

Why it matters: directly connects AI-enabled execution with three decades of international business experience.

Visit Ponte Trade ↗
Property · Decision Intelligence

ClassMA

A platform exploring how specialised AI agents can support SME property developers in finding opportunities, assessing evidence, exposing uncertainty and preparing stronger development decisions.

Core idea: complex professional workflows can be made more accessible without pretending uncertainty does not exist.

Wellbeing · Rapid Experimentation

Hereandnow

A breathing and focus application built as a compact experiment in turning a simple product idea into a working digital experience quickly through AI-assisted development.

What it demonstrates: the shrinking distance between an idea, a prototype and something people can actually use.

Reflections

Looking back on business, leadership and reinvention

Focus

Where I can add value

I am exploring international commercial roles where hands-on experience in business development, sales and partnerships can convert directly into pipeline, revenue and market share.

International Business Development

Opening new markets, creating pipeline, developing major accounts and converting opportunities into sustainable business.

International Sales & Export

Building commercial routes to market, developing distributors and channels, negotiating complex B2B agreements and growing international revenue.

Strategic Partnerships

Identifying and developing partners, alliances and senior commercial relationships across different markets and cultures.

Commercial Leadership

Bringing senior commercial judgement to sales execution, pricing, market strategy, country performance and cross-functional delivery.

Let’s talk about growth, markets and commercial leadership

I am open to international commercial leadership, business development, GTM, partnerships, market-entry and cross-border opportunities where experience and commercial judgement can create measurable growth. Based in Barcelona and available internationally.

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