Elio Leoni Sceti is an Italian businessman and an investor in early-stage companies. He is co-founder of

The Craftory The Craftory is a British-American venture capital fund headquartered in Piccadilly, London, and also based in San Francisco. Launched in early 2018 by Ernesto Schmitt and Elio Leoni Sceti as an alternative to traditional venture capital, it focuse ...

, an investment group for challenger brands in the consumer products space. He is chairman of LSG Holdings and a non-executive board member of beverage and brewing multinational

Anheuser-Busch InBev Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, commonly known as AB InBev, is an American-Belgian multinational drink and brewing company based in Leuven, Belgium. AB InBev has a global functional management office in New York City, and regional headquarters ...

. He is a former CEO of Iglo Group and former director of

Nomad Foods Nomad Foods is an American-British frozen foods company, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The company's jurisdiction of incorporation is the British Virgin Islands. In 2015, Nomad acquired the Iglo Group. Five countries – the UK, Ita ...

. He is also a current board member of

Barry Callebaut Barry Callebaut is a Belgian-Swiss cocoa processor and chocolate manufacturer, with an average annual production of 2.3 million tonnes of cocoa & chocolate (fiscal year 2021/2022). It was created in 1996 through the merging of the Belgian ...

Room to Read Room to Read is a global non-profit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California. The organization focuses on working in collaboration with local communities, partner organizations and governments to improve literacy and gender equalit ...

and One Young World.

Early life and education

Born in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in 1966, Leoni Sceti went to school in

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

, Switzerland before returning to Rome to study economics at Luiss University. After graduating, he completed a postgraduate course in corporate law and tax, finishing top of his class.

Procter & Gamble and Reckitt Benckiser

In 1988, he joined

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...

's French and Italian business as one of its youngest ever brand managers. In 1992, he moved to

Reckitt Benckiser Reckitt Benckiser Group plc, trading as Reckitt, is a British multinational consumer goods company headquartered in Slough, England. It is a producer of health, hygiene and nutrition products. The company was formed in March 1999 by the merg ...

as a category manager before becoming global head of category development and innovation in 2001. From 2005 to 2008 he was head of the company’s European division, during which time he developed new variants in Reckitt’s product range, working with brands such as

Cillit Bang Reckitt Benckiser Group plc, trading as Reckitt, is a British multinational consumer goods company headquartered in Slough, England. It is a producer of health, hygiene and nutrition products. The company was formed in March 1999 by the merg ...

Calgon Calgon is an American brand of bath and beauty products, owned by PDC Brands. Early history The original product consisted of powdered sodium hexametaphosphate (amorphous sodium polyphosphate), which in water would complex with ambient calci ...

, Finish and Airwick. In total he worked for 16 years at Reckitt Benckiser, in six different countries.

EMI

In July 2008, Leoni Sceti became the CEO of EMI’s recorded music division. He returned the division to operational growth before leaving in 2010 to invest in early-stage technology companies, including social TV startup Beamly, of which he became chairman.

Iglo

Leoni Sceti is a former CEO of European frozen food company Iglo Group. While CEO he refocused the group's marketing strategy to include educational campaigns about the benefits of frozen food and its role in reducing

food waste Food loss and waste is food that is not eaten. The causes of food waste or loss are numerous and occur throughout the food system, during production, processing, distribution, retail and food service sales, and consumption. Overall, about o ...

. In May 2015 he oversaw the sale of Iglo to Nomad Foods, stepping down as CEO to become a director of Nomad, before stepping down from Nomad in May 2016.

The Craftory

In May 2018 Leoni Sceti co-founded

, an investment house for consumer product

challenger brand A challenger brand is a brand in an industry where it is neither the market leader nor a niche brand. Challenger brands are categorised by a mindset which sees they have business ambitions beyond conventional resources, and an intent to bring change ...

invests in owner-operated companies with annual revenues of more than $10m, in sectors including beauty, health, food, beverages and household products. It is the first investment group to focus on growing challenger brands across the consumer packaged goods space. Leoni Sceti and co-founder

Ernesto Schmitt Ernesto Gottfried Schmitt (born August 1971) is an Americans, American-born entrepreneur, serial entrepreneur and investor. He is co-founder of The Craftory, a $600m VC fund, venture capital fund for cause-driven Challenger brand, challenger bra ...

launched

with $300m in investment capital, including $60m from Spice Private Equity.

Other positions

Elio Leoni Sceti has been a non-executive board member of beverage and brewing multinational Anheuser-Busch InBev since April 2014. In December 2017 he became a board member of the chocolate and cocoa manufacturer Barry Callebaut. He is co-founder and chairman of The Leoni Sceti Group, a UK-based firm with interests in real estate, private equity and venture capital. Leoni Sceti is a councilor and director at the non-profit organisation One Young World and a board member at

, a non-profit organization for improving literacy and gender equality in education in the developing world.

Personal life

He is married with four children. In a Times interview in January 2014, he gave his motto as ‘''

per aspera ad astra ''Ad astra'' is a Latin language, Latin phrase meaning "to the stars". The phrase has origins with Virgil, who wrote in his ''Aeneid'': "''sic itur ad astra''" ('thus one journeys to the stars') and "''opta ardua pennis astra sequi''" ('desire ...

et semper ad majora''’, (‘through adversity to the stars and on to better things’).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sceti, Elio Leoni 1966 births Italian investors Living people Procter & Gamble people Venture capitalists