A Look Back at Growing an International Chapter of AFCEA
Lt. Gen Pietro Finoccho, ITAF (Ret.), longtime president of the Rome chapter, provides details regarding his longtime involvement with AFCEA and helping to grow the Rome chapter.
Editor’s Note: As AFCEA looks back on its long history, one of the pivotal decisions was to expand its reach more globally, which included formation of international chapters, creation of events in a variety of countries and establishment of an office in Brussels, Belgium, which would facilitate and grow European operations. Lt. Gen Pietro Finoccho, ITAF (Ret.), longtime president of the Rome chapter, provides details regarding his longtime involvement with AFCEA and helping to grow the Rome chapter.
I was nominated chapter president for the first time in the year 2000. At that time, I was responsible of the military research department of Italian defence and chairman of the Western European Armament Group Panel II (Military Research and Technology). The Rome chapter was a small one with about 100 members, and we could only organize three or four events per year. Mainly the subjects of these events covered research and technology in military communications.
That experience lasted only two years. In 2001, I was nominated as general manager of NATO Helicopter Management Agency, and I moved in Aix-en-Provence, France.
In 2004 I moved back to Italy, and I became general manager of TELEDIFE, the Italian Defence General Directorate for Communication. It was obvious to be nominated AFCEA president in that role.
At that time, my professional experience had been design and development of combat aircraft and helicopters. As a result, I did not have any experience of the market of military communications and also not enough technical knowledge on the topic.
Being general manager of TELDIFE, I had the great opportunity to recruit communications companies in AFCEA that were interested in defence contracts.
In a few months the chapter member number jumped from 100 to about 1,000. Therefore, I was able to organize more than one event a month. I chaired all the events thus having the opportunity to know the technologies, the major companies and the operators. It was a great experience and helped me to manage TELEDIFE and the defence contracts for about six years.
The events always had a large participation of exponents of the armed forces eager to present the operational requirements and learn about the solutions available on the market. I’m not sure that, without AFCEA, I would have been able to have such a performance. In 2010 I retired but I decided to continue as AFCEA president. I ended my service as chapter president in 2014. The current president, Lt. Gen. Antonio Tangorra, ITAF, (Ret.), is doing a great job despite the economic crisis and the pandemic.
