Pierluigi Zappacosta - entrepreneur

Electronics engineer who co-founded Logitech

Pierluigi Zappacosta was CEO at
Logitech for 16 years

The electronics engineer and entrepreneur Pierluigi Zappacosta, who co-founded the computer peripherals giant Logitech, was born in the historic city of Chieti in the Abruzzo region on this day in 1950.

Zappacosta studied electronic engineering at Rome’s La Sapienza University and computer science at Stanford University in California. He teamed up with fellow Stanford graduate Daniel Borel and another young Italian, Giacomo Marini, to launch Logitech as a start-up company in Switzerland in 1981.

Marini already had experience in the burgeoning computer business, having worked for Olivetti and IBM.

Logitech began as a software and consultancy business but went on to specialise in computer peripherals, in particular the computer mouse. They were the first company to manufacture the mouse on a commercial scale, refined it by replacing wheels with optical sensors and infrared tracking, and eventually became the biggest mouse producer in the world.

Although the mouse as a device had existed since the 1960s, invented by Douglas Engelbart at the Stanford Research Institute, Logitech developed the first wireless version.

Zappacosta was Logitech’s president and CEO for 16 years, later serving as vice-chairman. He took Logitech public in Switzerland (1988) and on the NASDAQ (1997), raising over $60 million.  By the time he left the company in 1998, Logitech’s annual sales exceeded $400 million.

Born and brought up in the historic centre of Chieti, about 18km (11 miles) inland from the Adriatic coastal resort of Pescara, Zappacosta attended the Liceo Classico Giambattista Vico on Corso Marrucino in Chieti.

He enrolled at the University of Rome, known since the 17th century as La Sapienza - literally, The Wisdom - to study electronic engineering. At the time of his graduation, he felt he might be best suited to a career as an academic.

Logitech became the world's biggest
producer of the computer mouse

He was persuaded to take a different direction after his girlfriend, Enrica, another Abruzzese who would later become his wife, enrolled at the University of Pisa to study computer science. Not wishing to be apart, he moved with her to Pisa. When she began working, post-graduation, for the Consiglio Nazionale di Richerce (National Research Council), based in Pisa, he took a job with a local computer software company.

But that was only the start. The CNR was closely linked with IBM, the American technology company, who were inviting applications for scholarships to work in the United States. Enrica applied and was successful. Pierluigi was persuaded to go with her and, as she took up a position in Palo Alto, California, he enrolled for an MSc in computer science at nearby Stanford University.

Although Logitech began life in Switzerland, and still has its global headquarters in Lausanne, its client base as the business expanded was increasingly in America, winning a major contract with Hewlett Packard in 1984. The company’s operational headquarters is in San José, California. 

Pierluigi and Enrica eventually settled in California. They have three children, Francesco, Marco and Maria Cristina. Marco, like his father, is a technology entrepreneur. He is co-founder and CEO of Thumbtack, an online home services marketplace.

Since leaving Logitech, Pierluigi has enjoyed continued business success in America. He and Enrica co-founded DigitalPersona, specialising in biometric identification systems. He was CEO of Sierra Sciences, a biotech company focused on anti‑aging research, and is chairman of Faro Ventures, an investment fund active in Italy and the US.

The Delverde pasta factory in Fara San Martino,
which Zappacosta saved from bankruptcy

He has retained strong connections with Italy. In 2005, it was thanks to his intervention that Pastificio Delverde, a pasta manufacturing company in Fara San Martino in Abruzzo, not far from his wife’s home village of Colledimacine, was saved from extinction when he bought it out of bankruptcy.

Zappacosta installed businessman Leonardo Valenti as CEO, rehired the 120 employees who had lost their jobs and began taking on young graduates. Within a year, the factory was back on track. 

Founded in 1967, the Delverde factory uses water from the Verde river, a stream of pure spring water from the Majella massif which flows through the factory itself, providing a crucial raw material for pasta production. Using a low temperature drying process, the company has gained a reputation for high quality pasta products.

Zappacosta is secretary and treasurer of Issnaf (Italian Scientists and Scholars in North America Foundation), an association of Italian scientists and researchers in North America that was founded in 2007 by 36 scientists including four Nobel Prize winners - Renato Dulbecco, Riccardo Giacconi, Louis Ignarro and Mario Capecchi.

In 2015, he was appointed a Knight of Labour by the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella. 

Chieti occupies an elevated position on a hillside, about
18km (11 miles) inland from the coast of Abruzzo

Travel tip:

Chieti is among the most ancient Italian cities, reputedly founded in 1181BC by the Homeric Greek hero Achilles and named Theate in honour of his mother, Thetis. There is evidence, however, of prehistoric settlement, with Lower Paleolithic hand axes found in the area. Its elevated position, around 330m (1068ft) above sea level, offers panoramic views of both the Adriatic Sea and the Majella mountains, earning it the nickname “the Terrace of Abruzzo.”  The city is notable for the Gothic Cathedral of San Giustino, which has a Romanesque crypt dated at 1069 but is mainly of later construction, having been rebuilt a number of times, usually because of earthquake damage. The main part of the cathedral is in early 18th century Baroque style. There are also some Roman remains, including those of a theatre, an amphitheatre, baths and temples.  The city consists of Chieti Alta, the higher part and the historic centre, where Zappacosta was brought up, and the more modern Chieti Scalo.

Find a hotel in Chieti with Hotels.com

Monte Amaro, the highest point of the Majella
massif, makes for a dramatic backdrop 

Travel tip:

Majella National Park is one of Italy’s most dramatic landscapes, a vast limestone massif rising abruptly between the Adriatic coast and the Abruzzo interior. Its character is shaped by deep gorges, high plateaus, and broad, wind‑scoured summits. The Majella massif itself reaches its peak at Monte Amaro (2,793 m; 9,173ft), a mountain long associated with hermits, shepherds, and pilgrims who sought solitude and silence in its uplands. The park’s biodiversity is exceptional. Beech forests cloak the lower slopes, while chamois, wolves, and golden eagles inhabit the higher, harsher terrain.  Yet Majella is as much a cultural landscape as a natural one. The mountains are threaded with hermitages carved into cliffs, medieval shepherd routes, and abandoned stone villages. It is popular with hikers, who can explore the Vallone di Santo Spirito, the panoramic Blockhaus ridge, or the high Fondo di Femmina Morta plateau. Towns such as Caramanico Terme and Pacentro provide gateways to the park, blending mountain traditions with Abruzzese hospitality. 

Stay in the Majella National Park with Expedia

More reading:

The Olivetti engineer who built the first personal computer

The 19th century inventor behind the forerunner of the fax machine

The inventor who used recycled piano keys to make typewriter

Also on this day:

1857: The death of socialist revolutionary Carlo Pisacane

1922: The birth of fashion designer Pierre Cardin

First running of Palio di Siena

Home

 

Candido Jacuzzi - inventor

Improvised hydrotherapy device became world's favourite spa bath

Candido Jacuzzi with the pump
he made for his son's treatment

Candido Jacuzzi, whose surname became familiar across the world because of what followed his invention of a hydrotherapy bath for his sick son, was born on this day in 1903 in Casarsa della Delizia, a town in Friuli-Venezia Giulia about 80km (50 miles) northwest of Trieste, the regional capital.

His family joined many Italians in the early 20th century in emigrating to the United States in search of economic prosperity. After a number of years, they set up a business, Jacuzzi Brothers Inc., initially working in the burgeoning aircraft sector before later manufacturing pumps for agricultural use. It was based in Berkeley, California.

Business was successful if not spectacularly so and it was not until 30 years later that Candido, who was by then the father of a young child diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, hit upon the idea that would turn Jacuzzi into a household name.

Jacuzzi's son, Kenneth, was only 15 months old when he was diagnosed with the painful, inflammatory condition, for which there was no cure. He was given hydrotherapy sessions to ease the symptoms and regular immersion in a bath of hot, aerated water, followed by a massage, made him feel much better. 

The problem for Candido and his wife, Ines, was that these therapy sessions involved a two-hour round-trip to a hospital several times a week. It would be much more practical, Jacuzzi thought, if he could install a similar bath at home.

But none existed for home use at the time and the only real option open to him was to build one himself.  Jacuzzi studied the hydrotherapy unit used by the hospital and realized that it was run by pumps, which gave him a head start as pumps were part of the family business. He decided to experiment by modifying an agricultural pump by adding an air intake, reversing its pump action and submerging it in a bathtub of hot water. 

To his great satisfaction, it worked. The strong jet of bubbles emerging from the pump replicated the whirlpool effect of the hospital bath and Kenneth could now have his treatments without leaving the house. 

The therapists who now visited Kenneth at home encouraged Candido to make more of the devices so that other sufferers could benefit.  He talked to his older brothers, who had been the founders of the business, and other family members, and they agreed to give it a try.

Candido Jacuzzi (left) with brothers Gelindo, Frank,
Joseph and Valeriano at their factory in Berkeley

While the merits of the whirlpool bath pump were obvious to Candido and his wife, it needed exposure for its benefits to become more widely known. Thankfully, this came thanks to a daytime TV programme, Queen for a Day, who agreed to take a number of Jacuzzi’s pumps to give away as prizes.

Sales took off, with the unexpected bonus that its appeal would spread beyond those who needed it for medical reasons to others - many celebrities among them - who simply liked the idea of luxuriating in a bath of perpetual bubbles.

To cater for this market, Candido and his nephew, Roy Jacuzzi, devised a way of incorporating their pump in a custom-made fibreglass tub as a single, self-contained unit, a luxury item that could be made large enough to hold two people or more. With its own hot-water supply, it could even be used outside.

After the first two-person Jacuzzi 'Roman' Spa Bath was sold in 1970, the brand soon became a household name. 

Given the family’s humble start, it was quite a success story.  Candido’s family in Italy were not poor. His father, Giovanni, ran a fruit and vegetable shop in Casarsa, selling produce from his farm. But money was tight. Italy as a country was suffering economic hardship at the start of the 20th century and the possibility of war in Europe was looming.

The family was made up of 13 children and keeping them all on the proceeds of the farm was a challenge. Candido’s older brothers had already been sent to Germany for months at a time to find work.

The popularity of the Jacuzzi made it
the world's best-known spa bath brand

Most of them worked as bricklayers but the oldest, Rachele, was smart enough to become a telegraph operator while attending classes to further his education. He joined the Italian army, making a point of studying aeronautics, which he had identified as a field likely to throw up opportunities.

He might have seen active service, but as a world war became more likely, Giovanni decided to protect his older sons from the possibility of being conscripted and sent them to America, at first to Washington State

Rachele used the knowledge he had acquired in the Italian military to get a job with McDonnell Douglas, the aircraft manufacturer, for whom he designed an aircraft propeller with thin, aerodynamically efficient blades made of wood that became known as the “Jacuzzi Toothpick”. 

It was so successful it was bought by both the US and Russian military. Thanks to his rights as the inventor, the two major contracts provided him with enough money to launch the family business, Jacuzzi Brothers Inc., which had its headquarters in San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley. 

Initially, their factory made products for the aviation industry, including one of the first fully enclosed aircraft cabins, which was used by the postal service to transport mail. When one of these planes crashed, however, with Giacomo Jacuzzi, one of Candido’s brothers, among those killed, the family turned their back on the aircraft business and diversified into other products, including water pumps.

Between 1912 and 1920, the whole Jacuzzi family left northern Italy for California, including Candido, then entering his teens, who would work for the company until ill health forced his retirement in 1975 at the age of 72, having been president since 1971. He died in 1986 at the age of 83.

The Church of Santa Croce e Beata Vergine
del Rosario, with its distinctive twin towers

Travel tip:

The town of Casarsa della Delizia is in the province of Pordenone, a town about 15km (9 miles) to its west, surrounded by flat, fertile countryside shaped by waterways and vineyards. The La Delizia wine cooperative, established in 1931, is still a major local institution. Casarsa, with a population of around 8,500 inhabitants, is known mainly for its association with the writer and film-maker, Pier Paolo Pasolini, whose mother was from Casarsa, where he spent part of his childhood. The town became a place of memory for his admirers, these days drawn by the Centro Studi Pier Paolo Pasolini, a cultural centre dedicated to Pasolini’s life and work, hosting exhibitions, archives, and events.  Just outside the main town lies Versuta, a tiny hamlet where Pasolini lived during World War Two. II. In the town centre, the Church of Santa Croce e Beata Vergine del Rosario, the twin towers of which give the town its most recognisable architectural silhouette, has frescoes by Pomponio Amalteo, a notable 16th‑century painter of the Venetian school, the presence of whose work is an example of how Friuli’s religious buildings often hide unexpected artistic treasures.  The fertile quality of the land around Casarsa is due to the nearby Tagliamento River and a network of irrigation channels.  Casarsa is surrounded by vineyards, and seasonal festivals celebrate Friulian varieties such as Friulano, Refosco and Prosecco.   

Find a hotel in Casarsa with Hotels.com

The Palazzo del Governo is one of several grand
palaces flanking Trieste's Piazza Unità d'Italia

Travel tip:

The seaport of Trieste, capital of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, officially became part of the Italian Republic in 1954. It had been disputed territory for thousands of years and after it was granted to Italy in 1920, thousands of the resident Slovenians left. The final border with Yugoslavia was settled in 1975 with the Treaty of Osimo. The area today is one of the most prosperous in Italy and Trieste is a lively, cosmopolitan city and a major centre for trade and ship building.  At its heart is the Piazza Unità d'Italia, the main square, which faces the Adriatic and is thought to be Europe's largest square located next to the sea. When it was built, Trieste was the most important seaport of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Its impressive buildings include the city's municipal offices and other important palaces. Trieste has a coffee house culture that dates back to the Habsburg era.  Caffè Tommaseo, in Piazza Nicolò Tommaseo, near the grand open space of the Piazza Unità d’Italia, is the oldest in the city, founded in 1830. Just along the coast is the Castello di Miramare, which stands over the harbour at Grignano, located on the end of a rocky spur jutting into the Gulf of Trieste, about 8km (5 miles) from the city itself. This Habsburg castle was built between 1856 and 1860 for Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian and his wife, Charlotte of Belgium, based on a design by Carl Junker.  Legend has it that Ferdinand chose the spot to build the castle after taking refuge from a storm in the gulf in the sheltered harbour of Grignano that sits behind the spur.

Stay in Trieste with Expedia

More reading:

The world renowned coffee brand with its roots in Trieste

The father who invented ‘Lorenzo’s Oil’ for sick son

The Italian-American believed to have made the world’s first ice cream cone

Also on this day:

1530: The coronation of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V

1607: The premiere of Monteverdi’s historic opera L’Orfeo 

1896: The birth of restaurateur Cesare “Caesar” Cardini

1934: The birth of politician Bettino Craxi

1934: The birth of soprano Renato Scotto

1990: The death of popular president Sandro Pertini

Home