As a trilingual guest lecturer, Roberto has worked and lived in the United States, France and Italy and is a graduate of Bocconi University in Milan with a major in economics.

With over 26 years of global experience in the branding, licensing and real estate development of unique projects, Roberto Ruzzante’s entrepreneurial and leadership roles and experiences were honed with leading companies across Europe, of which many he founded. Roberto has generated, collaborated, and facilitated partnerships, negotiations and licensing programs in the luxury and consumer goods, real estate and hospitality, city branding, new technology and medical innovations industries, including Brunschwig & Fils, Haviland, Donna Karan, Pantofola d’Oro, Pantone Universe, Porsche Design, Mila Schon, Guy Laroche, Anne Geddes, the City of Venice among many others.

He was previously General Manager of an international joint venture in the corporate services industry. He gained strong industrial experience in managerial positions at major European textiles groups where he worked with brands and licenses such as Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent, as well as Frette, the leading luxury home-textile company. During his career, Mr. Ruzzante has had the opportunity to manage projects and licensed products with global consumer brands such as Walt Disney, Barbie, among others.

An adept of brand extension strategies, Roberto’s understanding of value creation across industries spearheaded the development of the “Pantone Universe”, an expanding line of colorful, design-driven products to touch and tempt consumers, including hospitality with the highly successful Pantone Hotel, a concept showcasing the color of emotion with distinctive hues on each guest floor. Roberto was the brainchild of Porsche Design Tower in Miami, a $560 million residential skyscraper in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, designed by Porsche Design Studio. At 641 feet (195 m) with 60 stories, it is one of the tallest buildings in Sunny Isles Beach. It is unique for its inclusion of a robotic parking garage, having 284 parking spaces for 132 units allowing unit owners to park two or four cars right outside their unit.

Roberto Ruzzante, Olivier Lapidus and Jean-Paul Cassia developed a similar interest and in 2018 decided to collaborate with the intent of expanding Roberto’s brand extension experiences to also include branded design consultancies, a field +Cassia specializes in.

With several exciting automotive brands in sight, the collaboration is poised to develop unique real estate opportunities ahead.