Fabrizio Di Amato unveils Le Graal, a new vision for Italian luxury hospitality

Italian hospitality has traditionally been defined by a single address: a historic palazzo, a lakeside grand hotel, a hideaway passed along by word of mouth. Entrepreneur Fabrizio Di Amato is taking a different approach with Le Graal, a brand he describes not as a hotel group but as an interconnected universe spanning multiple cities and experiences. Rather than launching one flagship property, he is building a network in which guests can move fluidly between locations, carrying the same sense of belonging wherever they go. In his own words: “Le Graal represents a new chapter of a broader vision I am developing through my family office aimed at elevating and reinterpreting the excellence of Made in Italy. I want to move beyond traditional definitions of hospitality and create places where culture, aesthetics, and human connection come together in a natural way”.

Fabrizio Di Amato’s first openings: Cortina and Rome

This marks Fabrizio Di Amato’s first step into the hospitality world. Best known as the Rome-born founder of the engineering group Maire, he is launching Le Graal across three locations, with the Dolomites and the Italian capital coming first: a five-star property in Cortina d’Ampezzo, followed by a private members’ club in Rome. A third destination on Lake Garda will follow in 2028. The Cortina property sits inside a heritage building dating to the 1920s, originally built in an Austrian style, located within walking distance of both the town and its ski lifts. Architect Achille Salvagni, taking on his first hotel commission, has shaped 30 rooms (13 of them suites) each looking out onto the Dolomites. Rather than leaning on typical mountain-lodge aesthetics, the spaces combine brushed-oak Versailles parquet, white dolomitic stone, marble in red, green and grey tones, and layered stucco finishes. Unlike many seasonal alpine properties, this one stays open all year, encouraging visitors in summer for hiking as much as in winter for skiing. Rome will see something the city has not had before: a private members’ club of this kind, set inside Palazzo Medici Clarelli on Via Giulia. The space will include 11 guest rooms and suites alongside two restaurants, a lounge built around a cloister, an American-style bar, a hidden speakeasy, a cigar room, a wine cellar, a gym and dedicated treatment rooms. For Fabrizio Di Amato, who already belongs to London clubs 5 Hertford Street and Oswald’s, the project carries personal weight: “I came to appreciate the British model, one rooted in community, cultural exchange, and a quiet, discerning sense of sophistication, and I wanted to reinterpret that spirit for my own city, but through a more contemporary lens”. Membership here won’t be organized around status, profession or title, instead, it’s meant to bring together people who share similar tastes and curiosity, fostering connections that feel genuine rather than staged.

Fabrizio Di Amato’s vision for Lake Garda and beyond

The third chapter of Fabrizio Di Amato’s project takes shape on Lake Garda, where a Palladian-style villa will become a wellness-focused retreat. Treatments offered there will revolve around three themes, restoring energy, supporting long-term health, and managing stress, designed in dialogue with the building’s architecture, its natural surroundings and the food culture of the region. According to Claudio Ceccherelli, Le Graal’s director of operations and a veteran of properties including Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme, Hôtel Martinez Cannes, Park Hyatt Milan and Villa d’Este, Fabrizio Di Amato’s ambition isn’t limited to attractive interiors, it’s about a feeling that stays constant across every property: guests should sense they belong to something, not simply that they are being looked after. Fabrizio Di Amato’s broader holdings stretch even further than these three addresses. He also owns Esperia Aviation, which operates luxury helicopters, and Tenuta San Filippo, a Montalcino estate producing Brunello wine, both of which are expected to eventually feed into tailored experiences for Le Graal’s guests. As Ceccherelli sums it up, the project rests on distinctly Italian values: craftsmanship, respect for cultural heritage, and the careful restoration of historic buildings. In his view, Italy never needed to be reinvented, just rediscovered.

Fabrizio Di Amato: MAIRE’s ten-year plan for energy transition

Fabrizio Di Amato unveils MAIRE’s ten-year plan to strengthen its role in the energy transition, targeting over 10 billion euros in revenues by 2033 and 1 billion euros EBITDA, supported by major investments and a renewed organizational model.

Fabrizio Di Amato on MAIRE’s ten-year plan for energy transition

MAIRE put in motion a new strategy aimed at strengthening its position within the energy transition. With a ten-year plan, the Group led by Fabrizio Di Amato responds to an energy scenario that requires huge investments and the search for solutions to decarbonise both new and existing plants. According to its Founder and Chairman, the company has all the means to deploy the most flexible solutions. “In order to anticipate the epochal changes affecting the energy transition – he says – it was necessary to prepare a ten-year plan that envisages revenues of more than 10 billion to 2033, an EBITDA of one billion, against more than one billion in investments to be made over the plan period, and net cash of 1.6 billion”. The plan implementation relies on the two “legs” of MAIRE’s new organisational model: one being the Tecnimont Integrated E&Solutions business unit and the other being the Technology Solutions business unit, reporting to NEXTCHEM. The former will be called upon to cope with the growth in the quantity and size of energy projects thanks to its execution capabilities, the latter will have to leverage its expertise in process engineering to incorporate its proprietary technologies, supporting customers with end-to-end solutions in the fertilisers, hydrogen, chemicals, circular fuels and polymers sectors, which are all crucial in the decarbonising process.

Fabrizio Di Amato: a reorganization that will ensure the increase of operational efficiency

“We have focused on a divisional model – Fabrizio Di Amato points out – with two distinct brands (Tecnimont and NEXTCHEM) to differentiate two worlds that are different in terms of processes and skills, but which then work side by side in the execution of projects because the technology business unit is complementary to the other. In addition, the reorganisation has allowed us to have a greater focus on projects and to implement many of the things we do, while also managing to attract many more young people who have a very high sensitivity to the energy transition, as demonstrated by the more than 2,000 interviews we are conducting in schools with our Foundation”. The reorganisation has hence given new impetus to the Group so far and has been followed by the further reorganization of the subsidiary NEXTCHEM, which is now divided into three business lines: sustainable fertilisers, low carbon energy vectors and circular solutions. The new structure will have to ensure “the increase of operational efficiency, the expansion of reference markets and the acceleration of the development of sustainable and scalable technologies”. According to Fabrizio Di Amato, no option should be neglected in the development of new solutions, hydrogen included. MAIRE is, in fact, inclined to drive forward on multiple fronts: from the production of hydrogen from renewable resources to circular hydrogen deriving from waste.

Fabrizio Di Amato wins Italian Quality Award for industrial excellence

On National Made in Italy Day, Fabrizio Di Amato, President and Founder of MAIRE, was awarded the prestigious Italian Quality Award by the Leonardo Committee. This award celebrates the manager's exceptional contribution to strengthening Italy's global reputation as a centre of industrial excellence, innovation and sustainability.

Fabrizio Di Amato: “This award is an important milestone for our group”

Under Fabrizio Di Amato’s leadership, MAIRE has emerged as a leading player in industrial engineering and energy transition. The company’s success lies in its ability to provide cutting-edge infrastructure solutions while prioritizing sustainability and technological advancement. The Italian Quality Award not only acknowledges MAIRE’s engineering achievements, but also highlights its forward-looking business model, one that balances global competitiveness with environmental responsibility. The manager emphasized the collective effort behind this recognition, dedicating the award to the entire MAIRE team: “This recognition is an important milestone for our group. I dedicate it ideally to all the people of MAIRE who, with commitment and dedication, contribute every day to our mission. Innovating, growing and supporting the value of Made in Italy remains our priority”. Fabrizio Di Amato’s statement reflects a core value of the company’s corporate philosophy: progress driven by people, united by a shared vision of sustainable industrial development. The Italian Quality Award, presented by the Leonardo Committee, stands among the most prestigious honours in the country’s business landscape. With over 160 influential members (including entrepreneurs, artists, scientists, and intellectuals), the Committee is dedicated to promoting Italian creativity, ingenuity, and production worldwide. The award ceremony took place in the evocative setting of Villa Madama during the official National Day of Made in Italy. It was attended by prominent Italian authorities including Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, Enterprise Minister Adolfo Urso, Confindustria President Emanuele Orsini, ICE Chairman Matteo Zoppas, and Leonardo Committee Chairman Sergio Dompé.

Leadership and vision: Fabrizio Di Amato’s career path

Fabrizio Di Amato, born in 1963, is one of Italy’s most prominent industrial entrepreneurs, known for his visionary leadership in engineering and energy transition. After studying Political Science at the University of Rome La Sapienza, he launched his first business at just 19 years old. From 1983 onwards, he made a series of strategic acquisitions that laid the foundations for what would become the Maire Tecnimont Group. A major turning point came in 2004 with the acquisition of Fiat Engineering, enabling the group to expand into energy, civil infrastructure, and international markets. The following year, the purchase of Tecnimont from Edison strengthened the group’s position in oil & gas and petrochemicals. Maire Tecnimont was listed on the Milan Stock Exchange in 2007, the same year it acquired Tecnimont Private Limited in India. Subsequent acquisitions of Dutch firm Stamicarbon and Italy’s KT-Kinetics Technology further strengthened the group’s technological leadership worldwide. In 2018, Fabrizio Di Amato launched NEXTCHEM, focusing on green chemistry and the energy transition. In addition to his entrepreneurial activities, he has played a key role in promoting Italian engineering, founding Federprogetti in 2008 and serving as President of ANIMP and Vice President of Assolombarda. Knighted as Cavaliere del Lavoro in 2016, he was also awarded an honorary degree in Chemical Engineering from the Politecnico of Milan in 2018. That same year, he founded the Evolve Foundation to preserve and promote Italy’s industrial heritage.