01 / 05An emerging industry needs more than an invention.
At HyperloopTT, Andrea’s remit spanned global operations, product and technology development, supply-chain and partnership programs, strategic business development, and investor relationships. He helped build the organizational machinery around a radical transport ambition.
Across more than ten years as an executive, including COO, Engineering Council Chair, and board responsibilities, he connected engineering teams, industrial capabilities, capital, and public stakeholders across countries. His work combined the direction of a product portfolio with the practical demands of growing an international technology company.
He remains a shareholder and continues as a senior advisor on strategic direction, product, and business development.
02 / 05Bring the right capabilities into the same room.
Andrea’s partnership work connected HyperloopTT with industrial, research, and entertainment organizations, including Hitachi Rail, Leonardo, Webuild, NASA, and Sony Pictures.
The Hitachi Rail collaboration illustrates the approach: adapt proven railway signaling and traffic-management expertise to a new transport system. Andrea’s published account describes a capital-efficient route to innovation, building on established technology while developing the capabilities hyperloop requires.
His negotiation of a Sony Pictures partnership brought a different perspective to passenger experience—connecting content, technology, and the possibilities of the augmented window.
03 / 05An idea meets institutions, industry, and place.
Andrea led HyperloopTT’s successful public-tender effort in Italy with Webuild and Leonardo. The resulting Hyper Transfer initiative in Veneto established HyperloopTT as technology provider and designated designer alongside its Italian licensee.
The initiative was structured as a phased program with an anticipated overall value of approximately €800 million, beginning with feasibility and progressing toward design, construction, testing, and certification.
In North America, Andrea led business-development work that established a public-private partnership around the Great Lakes Hyperloop feasibility study, exploring a Chicago–Cleveland–Pittsburgh connection.
04 / 05Different forms of capital. One shared undertaking.
Andrea co-led fundraising initiatives securing more than $70 million in investment and $150 million in in-kind contributions over time, while managing relationships with shareholders and investors.
He also helped develop and implement the crowd-powered operating model: an equity-based framework connecting more than 800 contributors and over 60 companies. Its legal, financial, and management structures made international participation part of the company’s way of building.
The approach became the subject of a Harvard Business School case on breakthrough innovation in crowd-powered ecosystems.
- Capital raised · Co-led
- $70M+ in investment
- Industry participation
- $150M+ in-kind contributions
- Organizational model
- Subject of a Harvard Business School case
05 / 05From the whole system to a specific technical solution.
As Engineering Council Chair, Andrea’s responsibilities reached across invention and design, product development, sourcing, manufacturing requirements, quality assurance, and engagement with industry experts, standards, and regulation.
He is also a named co-inventor, with Amir Babazadeh and Siavash Sadeghi, of a magnetic levitation train system with asymmetrical power distribution. US patent 11,597,411 B2 was granted in March 2023; the invention also received European patent protection.
That technical work sits within a broader practice of connecting product vision, intellectual property, organizational design, and commercial development.
