6 questions for Riccardo Pizzino, our 2021 OYW Representative

Meet Riccardo Pizzino, this year's One Young World representative. 

Introduce yourself!

My name is Riccardo and I was the One Young World (OYW) Candidate this year. Based in Geneva, I am a tri-lingual young professional, with over 4 years of full-time working experience and a strong work ethic. I’m currently part of the Financial Advisory Team at Deloitte Switzerland, focusing on Transaction Services for Romandie and Switzerland-based clients, ranging from PE funds to corporate finance, in the context of acquisitions, divestment's, refinancing, carve-out and IPOs.

At Deloitte, I’m also part of Deloitte CARE programme, which supports refugees who are seeking a job or aiming at launching their company in Switzerland to become productive members of Swiss society.

Academically, I hold a Triple Master degree from ESCP (Europe Business Schoo)l, City University of London and University of Turin, cum Laude and with a Special Mention on my Master Thesis. I further complemented my skill-set with two summer schools, the first in Advanced Corporate Finance at London School of Economics (LSE) and the second in M&A at Utrecht University.

The One Young World summit is aimed at young leaders who aim to inspire global change. Can you explain a bit more about what it is all about?
The annual One Young World summit brings together young leaders engaged in social impact activities across the globe, allowing them to be counselled by influential political, business and humanitarian leaders.
Every year, it’s composed of four transformative days of speeches, panels, networking sessions and workshops, which are designed to inspire positive change in all attendees so we can leave ready to make an impact.
The summit allows us to reflect together on current global issues, i.e. United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. This year, the summit was held virtually.

What was one thing that you were most looking forward to about being a OYW Representative?

I was mainly looking forward to joining workshops and networking sessions to meet other young professionals and expand my network in order to leverage on each other’s experiences, resulting in accelerating social impact across borders and time zones.

Furthermore, I was keen on attending panels hosted by key speakers, in order to reflect on current social topics throughout the summit. This includes issues such as climate change, social development or equal opportunities and education.

What does being a OYW Representative mean to you? In which ways does it give you an opportunity to make an impact in the world?

I genuinely feel honoured and privileged to be a OYW Representative as it represents an unparalleled opportunity to be part of a global and highly diverse community, which is not only aware of today’s global challenges, but also eager to contribute, innovate and shape the future.

In addition, being an OYW Representative allowed me to broaden my purpose and learn beyond the issues that most recently impacted me.

What was one thing from the event that had the most impact on you? How will you use your experience at the summit to truly make a change?

I always believe that small actions drive change and the OYW summit further emphasized the fact that it’s the combination of multiple small acts moving the dial.

But, OYW Summit was more than simply an urgent call for action. Though the increasing urgency to act, and to do it as one global community, was one of the key takeaways from the summit, I could really understand that the cost of no action at all is often more expensive than getting up and doing something.

As big changes are the result of many decisions, some often unconventional, I found I was impacted by all the young leaders like myself who felt actioned to build new bridges among us and pave new roads to go towards new directions.

Now that the event is over, how do you plan on taking what you’ve learned to make a greater impact at Deloitte?

The summit provided me with a unique combination of ideas, tools and network on which I will surely leverage the chance to enhance the impact we make every day here at Deloitte.

As I’m back from the summit, my aim is to create synergies within our community to accelerate social impact within Deloitte Switzerland in an inclusively sustainable and efficient way. I’m also highly confident that I’ll be joined and supported by my colleagues across the globe. I’m really looking forward to making an impact that truly matters.