«The University of Udine is deeply saddened by the passing of Gianpietro Benedetti, an essential point of reference for the industrial history of Friuli and the region». Thus the rector Roberto Pinton expressed the condolences of the Friulian academic community.
In 2006 the University awarded Benedetti an honorary degree in Management Engineering for his contribution “to technological innovation, for his constant drive for applied research, for the original ideas brought as a technical designer, for the numerous inventions and related patents and for their high organizational skills”.
«With our University – underlines the rector – he has had very close and continuous collaborative relationships over the last twenty years, also due to his particular attention to the preparation of young people, who he considered true bearers of innovation, to be included in the corporate reality. He firmly believed in collaboration between industry and universities.
The entrepreneur Gianpietro Benedetti has died, he was 81 years old
April 28, 2024
An example for all is the “Danieli Automation Digi&Met” which, in 2020, was the first laboratory established at the Uniud Lab Village, the University’s technological innovation hub. Even in that case his push and stimulus were decisive.
«Benedetti – explains Pinton – was a rare example of a concrete and visionary entrepreneur at the same time. For his ability to read future scenarios, for his international projection and for his drive for the continuous improvement of the Danieli group, also making use of the results of the research in which he strongly believed.
It is also for this reason that under his leadership the Danieli group has become a world leader in the design and construction of steel plants and a Friulian pride in the world. A point of reference for the regional, national and international production system. An example on a personal and professional level that we will miss.”
Relations with the University of Udine
On 11 April 2006, in the Castle of Udine, Gianpietro Benedetti received an honorary degree in Management Engineering. His doctoral lecture was titled “Business Development, Stability and Contraction. The different strategic options”. The recognition had been proposed by the then Faculty of Engineering. The laudatio was given by Elso Kuljanic, professor of mechanical technology.
In his speech Benedetti explained the process of further internationalization of Danieli to better control the expanding markets. «A strategy of change and metamorphosis – he defined it – based on two determining factors which belong, like responsibility, to the qualities of management».
The first factor aims to «stimulate and maintain constant dissatisfaction within the company with the results achieved, to trigger at all levels the tension for the improvement of the company and its work». The second factor dedicated to «maintaining and reviving that profound characteristic, “that chromosome” which is a qualifying part of Danieli’s DNA and that “gene” which will decide its destiny: the spirit of innovation, the passion and the courage to face the risk technological, the intellectual anxiety of conceiving the new and the optimism of overcoming borders”.
A pioneer of relations between universities and businesses, Benedetti, at the helm of the Danieli Group, had established a usual relationship with the Friulian University which had resulted in numerous activities. In particular, in collaboration in the organization of the master’s degrees in “Project management and systems engineering” and in “Metallurgical engineering”.
The experience of internships and company internships for students and new graduates and educational visits to the Danieli di Buttrio and Abs di Cargnacco factories was very rich. As president of Confindustria Udine he was among the proponents of the Executive Master in Business Administration – Emba, a highly specialized course in the organized economic-management field.
In 2013, to officially sanction the collaboration between the University of Udine and Danieli, Benedetti signed a framework agreement to strengthen the partnership in training, research, in particular in industrial innovation.
Gianpietro Benedetti also wanted the establishment, in collaboration with the University, of the “Danieli & C. Officine Meccaniche spa” degree award, to encourage post-graduate specialist training in engineering. A competition in favor of the most deserving master’s graduates in mechanical, management and electronic engineering.
In 2015, as president of the “Higher Technical Institute (Its) new technologies for made in Italy” Foundation of Udine, he signed a pilot project at a national level with the University with the sharing of the local business system. The initiative established a path that for the first time linked high technical education, university scientific-technological training and the world of work to encourage qualified youth employment.
In February 2020 the Uniud Lab Village was kicked off by the Danieli Automation Digi&Met laboratory. It was the first laboratory of the applied research center of the Friulian University which sees collaboration between academic research and businesses.
Benedetti’s most recent collaboration with the University of Udine dates back to October 2023. Danieli, Abs, Fondazione Friuli and the Association of graduates in management engineering (Alig) have created a partnership to support a high-level project with scholarships training at St. John’s University in New York intended for the best engineering management students.
