Oliviero Gobbi

Biography

Oliviero Antonio Gobbi is an Italian entrepreneur and head of the mountain sports equipment company Grivel. Grivel was founded in Courmayeur, in the Aosta Valley, in 1818, where he was born and raised. The company is notably at the origin of the first crampon. It would forge the very first model in the world in 1909, based on a design by the English mountaineer Oscar Eckenstein, and for over two centuries has been constantly looking to the future. "I grew up in Courmayeur and did my secondary studies in Aosta and the fourth year I spent abroad, in Alaska! Then I moved to Milan, where I graduated in theoretical physics and immediately after, I did a master's degree in management at Bocconi. I worked in Milan for 5 years as a consultant before deciding in 2007 to return to the Aosta Valley to work in the family business Grivel. Oddly enough, during my studies and in the first period of work, I was certain that I would never return to work in the Aosta Valley... then I reassessed the opportunity, both from a work and personal point of view." Oliviero will take over the management of the Grivel company in 2015. His grandfather, Toni Gobbi, was already climbing alongside mountaineering legends in Italy, such as Walter Bonatti. He greatly developed the practice of ski touring and mountaineering and played the role of high mountain guide by creating itineraries for his clients. "A passion that seems to have spanned generations.