Luca Gualco

Luca Gualco (born May 11, 1971 in Genova) is a former professional athlete and entrepreneur. He played Water Polo for the Italian youth national team and for the club team Pro Recco as a center defender from 1995 to 2003. He won the LEN Champions League with Pro Recco both as a player and a member of the board, in 2003 and 2010, respectively. His style of playing is said to be very similar to that of Franco Lavoratori, his coach and mentor.

In the early 2000s, Gualco envisioned a new way to sell cars based on flexible use instead of buying or leasing. In 2005, he started Ferrari Financial Services that was later acquired by Fiat Chrysler. The company reached half a billion revenues in 2010.[1]

In 2012, he graduated from Stanford with an MBA. Later that year he joined Uber and led the effort to launch International Markets.[2]

In 2014, Gualco was hired to lead Global Expansion, Sales, Experience, Community and Operations as EVP at WeWork.[3] In 2 years, he helped to profitably scale the company from 5,000 to almost 100,000 members around the globe in more than 90 locations.

In 2016, Luca co-founded The Because Market, a direct-to-consumer company selling personal hygiene products aimed at older adults.[4][5]