Carlo Salandi is 27 years old and has a vision of the economy that was formed by his studies and by numerous international experiences, thanks to which he got a job as a supervisor at the European Central Bank.
In 2011, he got a degree in Management from LUISS and in International Management from Fudan University, thanks to a Double Degree. He then began working as an intern at the Frankfurt organization three years ago, after an experience in financial consulting. "I left a permanent contract in a top consulting firm for an internship at the ECB. A decision that most people would consider crazy, but which turned out to be the most important decision of my life."
Since beginning university, Carlo has had a strong desire to work in an institution with a key role in the international financial world, such as the Central Bank. "Our generation finds itself studying during the worst financial crisis of the last hundred years. This awareness has had an impact on my education and on that of my colleagues who, with respect to the past, have felt the need to better understand the economy, especially with regard to the central banking sector and sensitive issues such as the regulation, supervision and control of financial markets. Therefore, when I got the offer from the ECB, in spite of everything, I accepted it."
As a supervisor in the new single body for European banking supervision, the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), Carlo is responsible for protecting the security and the solidity of the banking systems of the countries of the EU. "There are five essential elements that a good supervisor must have: curiosity, skepticism, proactiveness, flexibility, and decisiveness. The fundamental glue, the lowest common denominator of these elements has to be the will to act. The supervisor must always have the will (and the power) to act quickly and effectively on the decision-making processes of the banks."
This drive requires a high level of responsibility and professionalism: qualities that Carlo feels he acquired from his international experiences. "Of the many things that I learned during the DDIM, the most fundamental were the importance of getting involved, of not being afraid of change, of accepting new challenges, of opening up to the world, of being flexible and of always raising the bar for my goals."
Day after day, working life at the European Central Bank is an exciting adventure leading to professional growth. "Work right now is a continuous challenge, considering that the growth rate in Europe is almost zero. This might seem trivial, but the fact that your colleagues come from the 28 countries that make up the European Union leads to a daily comparison with other nationalities and cultures. In this context, being Italian, French or German has to do with your way of relating to people, but at the same time it is less powerful than the sense that we are citizens of one state, one whose objective is the functioning and progress of the European Union."
To face this continuous challenge, Carlo says that the best training comes from the experiences you have at university. "LUISS taught me to move within an international context, to engage with the best students not only from European universities, but also American and Chinese ones, in line with an economy that these days doesn’t just regard Europe but the entire world."