The indiscretion had been circulating for some time, all that was missing was the official announcement that arrived a few hours ago. Fabio Maria Damatothe general manager of Tbs Crew Agency, a management and communications company Chiara Ferragni, leaves the agency and says goodbye to the influencer definitively. The rift between Damato and the digital entrepreneur opened last December following the Balocco case but, although there was already talk of his departure from the management of Tbs Crew, the official farewell had not yet taken place. However, a joint official statement published a short while ago by the companies Fenice and TBS Crew put the word out end to the ten-year collaboration. The company’s words, however, did not please Damato who replied harshly on Instagram: “My exit was an autonomous and voluntary choice and not, as disclosed by the company, that the change is part of a corporate renewal“.
The official press release
“Starting from 16 June 2024, Fabio Maria Damato will cease from the role of general manager and advisor of both companies to pursue other professional opportunities. The change is part of a process of corporate renewal“, we read in the press note issued by Chiara Ferragni’s companies. The statement arrives with incredible timing given the latest statements released by the influencer, who in the last few hours on Instagram thanked his followers for the support he received and confessed that he is in a moment of great energy and positive change in this new part of his life : “I’ve really gone through a lot, as you already know, but now I feel like the real me is back and it’s really the best feeling in the world.”.
Fabio Maria Damato, from rise to decline
For almost eight years Fabio Maria Damato, an Apulian graduate in business economics at Bocconi, played a key role in the management of Chiara Ferragni’s corporate empire. The digital entrepreneur considered it her own right arm, the most trusted man in his circle of collaborators. With him she had signed millionaire contracts and had established high-level international collaborations up until the last Sanremo festival, done alongside each other. With the outbreak of Pandoro Gate and the beginning of the legal troubles, Chiara Ferragni’s confidence collapsed, especially when her ex-husband Fedez made her understand that Damato was to blame for the decline of her brand. But the manager remained firmly in place of her. “I’m just an employee of the company, I work for Mrs. Ferragni. That’s all“, Damato said two months ago, distancing himself from journalists who asked him to account for the Balocco case. But it was only a matter of time.
Who takes Damato’s place
When Chiara Ferragni decided to put her mother Marina Di Guardo at the head of her holding to try to relaunch the brand and clean up its companies, it had already been understood that the woman would oust Damato, officially taking his place. And so it was. At the beginning of June Marina Di Guardo formally assumed the role of general manager of Sisterhood, a holding company that also manages Fenice and Tbs Crew, and Fabio Maria Damato’s fate was already written.
Damato’s denial: “They didn’t fire me”
Immediately after the release of the press release, Fabio Maria Damato published a series of Instagram stories, in which he thanked those who worked alongside him in Chiara Ferragni’s companies. In the long run message entrusted to social media, however, the manager wanted to forcefully deny having been shown the door by the digital entrepreneur: “Last February after careful and inevitable reflections, I decided to resign (so no, I was not fired) from the companies with which I shared an incredible professional path”. Damato reiterated that he had given “all of himself” nthe role of general manager and to have worked with “honesty and correctness“. Then he removed a few pebbles from his shoe: “They asked me to stay until June, despite the communication operations put in place from 17 December 2023 onwards they did not see my involvement.”
On the Pandoro Gate issue he then clarified: “None of the emails published were mine. I remain saddened by how this affair has overshadowed my hard work. I leave exhausted by the violence that we have all suffered, especially Chiara Ferragni who I have always respected as a Boss and as a person and for whom the honesty, dedication and affection that I have dedicated no one will ever be able to question.”
In his long message Fabio Maria Damato also wanted to clarify that he did not receive any lmillionaire liquidation additional, as revealed by some sites in recent days, and that he would have worked free of charge as a member of two boards of directors in the last months of his mandate: “Obsession about my supposedly incredible earnings. Unfortunately (for me) not only are the figures circulated about my salary as an employee far from reality”:
