Nicholas Dellai

SDA Bocconi School of Management

“Architect turned entrepreneur, building ventures that combine design thinking, strategy, and global ambition.”

Hometown: Asiago, Italy

Fun fact about yourself: I’m the go-to person for organizing all MBA events; my classmates expect me to plan their future weddings too.

Undergraduate School and Degree:

Università degli studi di Ferrara. M.Sc. Architecture. GPA:110/110 Cum Laude and Honorable mention

Exchanges: BCIT Vancouver (Canada), USJ Zaragoza (Spain), KTH Stockholm (Sweden)

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school?

VETZ, a company I co-founded in the spirits industry, where I acted as CMO.

Before that, I was Project Manager and Senior Architect for AML Arkitekter in Stockholm (Sweden)

Where did you intern during the summer of 2025? Not Applicable.

Where will you be working after graduation? Undecided

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

Leadership roles

President – SDA Bocconi Sailing Club
VP of Innovation & Venture Capital – SDA Bocconi Entrepreneurship Club
Director of Events, Experiences & PR – SDA Bocconi Luxury & Arts Club

Community work

Within the MBA community, I have been informally referred to as the “CEO of Events.” I organize weekly gatherings, aperitivos, dinners, and large-scale events across MBA and other Masters programs, bringing together hundreds of participants. At the beginning of each month, I share a structured calendar of events, creating a rhythm of connection that did not previously exist. Beyond individual events, my focus has been on building a stronger sense of community: creating platforms that bring people together and foster meaningful relationships.

In parallel, I am part of the team launching the Fifty1 Foundation. Guided by the motto “Learn, Earn, Return,” our goal is to build a lasting initiative that gives back to our communities and supports projects that create tangible opportunities and long-term impact.

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? It was leading the organization of the largest sailing weekend at SDA Bocconi in the past years, while expanding the Sailing Club into a broader community platform.

As President of the Sailing Club, I have driven the end-to-end design and execution of the event, which will take place in Lerici (Italy) in May, bringing together over 200 participants across MBA and other Masters programs, as well as alumni, and securing nearly 30 partners and sponsors for a total scale of approximately €250,000.

In parallel, I worked on restructuring the club by merging the existing community with the racing team into a more integrated and scalable platform. The goal was to create a stronger network connecting students, faculty, and alumni around a shared passion for sailing. The complexity went beyond logistics: it required aligning diverse stakeholders, building partnerships, and creating momentum across different communities.

What makes me most proud is not just the scale, but the impact. These initiatives are designed to strengthen connections across programs and generations, fostering a lasting sense of community.They reflect how I approach leadership: building platforms that bring people together, aligning them around a shared vision, and executing with discipline.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? Building and scaling VETZ from concept to an internationally recognized brand.

I co-founded VETZ to redefine the aperitivo experience, identifying an opportunity to create a product that resonates with a new generation of consumers. From the ground up, I led its development: shaping the brand, defining its positioning, and driving its go-to-market strategy. We expanded VETZ across 15 markets, partnering with leading bars globally and collaborating with top-tier brands. This required navigating fragmented distribution channels, building credibility in a competitive industry, and executing consistently across different geographies.

What I am most proud of is turning an idea into a tangible product with global reach. It reflects how I operate: combining strategic clarity with execution, and building ventures that scale beyond their origin.

Why did you choose this business school? I chose SDA Bocconi for its strong connection between strategy and real-world execution.

Coming from a background in architecture and entrepreneurship, I learned to operate in a highly hands-on way: building ventures, making decisions under uncertainty, and navigating complexity in real time. What I was missing was a more structured and rigorous foundation in business strategy. SDA Bocconi stood out for its ability to bridge these two dimensions. The program constantly challenges you to translate frameworks into decisions, and ideas into action, mirroring the realities of building and scaling a business.

After nearly a decade working abroad, returning to Italy in such an international and high-performance environment made this choice even more meaningful. It gave me the opportunity to strengthen my strategic capabilities while remaining closely connected to the ecosystem where I aim to build.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? Professor Stefano Pogutz.

What stood out was his ability to bridge sustainability and business strategy without reducing it to a narrative or trend. His teaching consistently challenged us to think in systems: understanding how environmental, social, and economic dimensions interact and shape long-term value creation. Beyond the content, what made his impact particularly strong was his approach to people. He consistently placed students at the center of the learning experience, creating an environment where everyone felt heard, challenged, and included.

His role as MBA Director reinforced this even further. He embodies the same principles he teaches, setting a tone of responsibility and intellectual rigor across the program. That coherence between thinking and action is rare. He pushed me to look beyond short-term performance and consider how businesses can be designed to be both competitive and sustainable over time, a perspective that is now central to how I approach building ventures.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? Managerial Economics with Professor Marco Ottaviani.

What made the course particularly impactful was its focus on decision-making under uncertainty. It provided a structured framework to think about incentives, pricing, and strategic interactions, areas that are critical when building and scaling a business.

As a founder, I had often relied on intuition and experience. This course gave me a more rigorous approach to evaluating trade-offs and anticipating market dynamics, especially in competitive and rapidly evolving environments. It fundamentally changed how I make decisions, moving from instinct-driven to analytically grounded, without losing speed. That balance has been one of the most valuable takeaways from my MBA.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? Bocconi Homecoming.

What stood out was the scale and depth of the community it brought together: thousands of alumni from across the world, alongside students and faculty, for three days of dialogue, learning, and connection.

More than an event, it reflected SDA Bocconi’s long-term vision: a global network that extends far beyond the classroom. The ability to reconnect generations, geographies, and industries in one place highlighted the strength of the ecosystem the school builds.

It showed me that an MBA is not just a one-year experience, but entry into a lifelong platform, where relationships, ideas, and opportunities continue to evolve and create impact over time.

What was the most impactful case study you had in business school and what was the biggest lesson you learned from it? “Merck & Co.: Addressing Third-World Needs.”

What made this case particularly impactful was the decision to develop and distribute a drug for river blindness despite limited short-term economic returns. It challenged the conventional view of decision-making driven purely by financial metrics.

The discussion that followed highlighted how global decisions often require balancing profitability with long-term impact, reputation, and responsibility. What initially appeared economically irrational became strategically sound when considering trust, brand, and long-term positioning.

The key lesson for me was that not all value is immediately measurable. The most effective leaders are those able to make decisions that may not maximize short-term returns, but create enduring value over time, for both the business and society. This perspective strongly resonates with how I aim to build ventures: combining economic performance with long-term impact.

What did you love most about your business school’s town? Milan’s unique combination of global energy and design culture.

It is a city where fashion, design, and business intersect naturally, creating an environment that is both creative and execution-driven. You can move from a classroom discussion to real-world inspiration within minutes.

What made the experience even more powerful was the campus itself. Located in the city center and redesigned by SANAA, it reflects the same principles of openness, innovation, and attention to detail, bringing together architecture and functionality in a way that enhances everyday interactions.

What business leader do you admire most? Brunello Cucinelli.

I admire his model of humanistic capitalism: building a global luxury brand while placing human dignity, craftsmanship, and long-term value at the center of the business. He demonstrates that economic success and ethical responsibility are not trade-offs, but reinforcing forces.

What makes his approach particularly compelling is how he has translated this philosophy into action. Through the restoration of Solomeo, he invested in rebuilding an entire Italian borgo, creating schools for artisans and preserving traditional craftsmanship that would otherwise risk disappearing. It reflects a long-term commitment to culture, not just business.

In a world often driven by short-term optimization, his model reflects discipline, patience, and clarity of purpose. As I build my own ventures, I aim to follow a similar path: creating businesses that are not only scalable and profitable, but also meaningful for the people involved and the communities they serve.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? AI was integrated as a practical tool across multiple courses, from data analysis to strategic decision-making.

Rather than treating it as a standalone topic, SDA Bocconi encouraged us to use AI as part of everyday workflows: supporting research, structuring problems, and testing assumptions.

The key insight I gained is that AI does not replace thinking: it amplifies it. Its value depends on the clarity of the questions you ask and the structure you bring to a problem. Used effectively, it becomes a powerful tool for speed and scale; used poorly, it can create false confidence. This experience reinforced the importance of critical thinking and judgment as core managerial skills in an AI-driven environment.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? Eva Jankoic.

What I admire most about Eva is her resilience combined with a strong sense of responsibility. At a young age, she moved to London to pursue her studies, supporting herself by working multiple jobs while adapting to new environments.

What truly stands out, however, is how she stepped up when her family’s logistics business faced severe challenges. With her father unable to work due to health issues and the company close to bankruptcy, she returned to Lithuania, took on the CEO role, and led the business back on track.

Beyond the achievement itself, what I find most inspiring is her mindset: taking ownership in moments of uncertainty and making difficult decisions under pressure. She combines humility with determination, and consistently brings that same level of commitment to the MBA experience.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list?

1) Scale VETZ into a global brand and complete a strategic exit to a leading spirits portfolio.

2) Play an active role in revitalizing Italy’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, fostering a new generation of ventures rooted in innovation, craftsmanship, and long-term value.

What made Nicholas such an invaluable member of the MBA Class of 2026?

“I am pleased to recommend Nicholas Dellai as an outstanding candidate to be featured as Best MBA Student of the Class of 2026.

Nicholas is currently pursuing his MBA at SDA Bocconi, where he has distinguished himself as one of the most dynamic and well-rounded individuals in the program. His profile is remarkably eclectic, combining strong academic performance with meaningful leadership and community engagement.

He serves as President of the Sailing Club and is actively involved in both the Luxury and Entrepreneurship Clubs, demonstrating not only a wide range of interests but also a consistent commitment to contributing to the MBA community. In a class representing over 35 nationalities, Nicholas stands out as a natural leader—someone who can navigate, embrace, and elevate diversity, fostering collaboration and mutual growth among his peers.

What truly sets Nicholas apart is his ability to balance academic rigor with the experiential and transformative aspects of the MBA journey. He consistently achieves excellent academic results while fully engaging in the broader learning environment, making the most of every opportunity the program offers.

For all these reasons, I believe Nicholas represents the spirit of this recognition well. His journey and his impact on the Class of 2026 make him a deserving candidate.”

Francesco Ausania
Alumni Engagement Manager
SDA Bocconi School of Management

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