Following the Path of Christopher Columbus

In July 2001 Italian-born, high-tech industry veteran Mauro Calvi decided to take time off and pursue the dream of his life: follow Christopher Columbus’s course and cross the Atlantic ocean on a 40-foot sailboat. He bought a sailboat in France, toured the Mediterranean with his wife and kids for four months, and eventually set off for the unknown with a crew of 2 through the Straits of Gibraltar, the Canary and Cape Verde Islands, the Caribbean, the Bahamas and the final landfall in Florida.

Mauro will share his experience as a novice bluewater sailor, including the humorous and the scary, the exciting and the tedious, the fantasies and the realities of 21st century ocean crossing.

Presenter(s)

Mauro has fifteen years of experience in marketing IT products and services to international markets, including the Microsoft Network, where Mauro supervised the release of the first version in over 20 countries and 11 languages. In addition to a number of successful global product rollouts, Mauro's track record includes setting up operations for software and Internet companies in Europe and Asia and managing a US-based venture capital and business development enterprise for a large European telecommunications company. Mauro has held board positions in a number of media and technology companies in the US and Europe. He currently serves as VP of business development at CGNET Services International, a communications services provider specializing in developing country connectivity based in Menlo Park.