Valerio Zingarelli

Valerio Zingarelli was the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Babelgum. He took up the position in July 2007, taking over from former CEO and co-founder Erik Lumer. Previously Zingarelli was an independent board member of FASTWEB, the second largest Italian fixed line TelCo.[1]

Zingarelli has lengthy experience in the telecommunications sector and according to an article in Italian newspaper La Repubblica he was "one of the first Italian managers to take on notable roles with major foreign multinational firms" ("è stato uno dei primi manager italiani ad assumere posizioni di rilievo in grandi multinazionali estere")[2]

From 2002 to 2005 Zingarelli was Global Director of Networks and Service Platforms at mobile phone operator Vodafone Italy (formerly Omnitel), in charge of managing all the Group's technology activities and strategy, including customer terminals. Prior to this he was Chief Technology Officer at Omnitel, having been appointed in 1994. While at Omnitel, Zingarelli was responsible for building the company's GSM network from scratch; it is now considered a benchmark in the industry ("è l´uomo che ha realizzato la rete Gsm di Omnitel in Italia, considerata un benchmark").[2]

Before joining Omnitel, Zingarelli worked for Alenia, Italy's main aerospace company, based in Turin. There he was in charge of radio communications for both civil and military systems. [3]

Earlier in his career, from January 1980 Zingarelli worked at CSELT (Centro Studi E Laboratori Telecomunicazioni), Telecom Italia's research centre in Turin. There in worked in the Radio Transmission Division, where he managed activities on both fixed and mobile radio transmission. In this role he worked on some major studies that led to the following systems being developed:

• Pan-European digital mobile radio system (GSM) in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands;
• Italian and European terrestrial microwave radio-relay systems;
• First Italian domestic digital satellite system ITALSAT 1;

He graduated in Electronic Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy, in 1978.

Since 1991 Zingarelli has been an aggregate Professor at the Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy, where he held courses on Electronic Communications and Digital Transmission.[4]