Fassi Gru announced on 10 June 2025 that Victor Gottardi has been appointed chief executive officer of the company. The decision comes at a pivotal moment for the group, which in 2024 exceeded 500 million euros in revenue for the first time, marking an all-time record since its founding in 1965. Gottardi takes over from Giovanni Fassi, who remains chairman of the group, 70 percent of which is controlled by the investment fund Investindustrial.
Victor Gottardi earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Padua in 1995, providing a solid technical foundation for a career that would lead him to take on roles of increasing responsibility within the Italian manufacturing industry. After completing his university studies, he began his professional experience in the family business, which operated in technical-engineering consultancy for insurance companies. His education was later enriched by international experience and specialisation in industrial hydraulics and complex mechanical systems.
Gottardi’s managerial career began with the position of sales and marketing manager at Bucher Industries, a Swiss multinational specialising in technologies for agriculture, urban cleaning and hydraulics. In this role, he developed strategic skills in the commercial and marketing fields, gaining experience in managing international markets and marketing technologically advanced products.
In 2010, Gottardi was appointed Italian CEO of Montanhydraulik, a company specialising in hydraulic components for industrial and mobile applications. In this position, he took on operational and strategic management of the company’s activities in Italy, contributing to the consolidation of the German group’s presence in the Italian market. His time at Montanhydraulik allowed Gottardi to deepen his knowledge of the hydraulics sector and to develop specific expertise in managing technologies for industrial applications.
In 2015, he reached a key professional milestone with his appointment as CEO and president of Walvoil, a company within the Interpump Group specialising in the production of hydraulic valves and mechatronic systems. Gottardi’s managerial skills were further recognised when he was appointed to the board of directors of Interpump Group in April 2020, a position he held until July 2021. That same year, Victor Gottardi took on the role of global CEO and co-investor at Arag, a world leader in the innovation and development of precision control systems and smart fluid components for agricultural spraying.
