Marazzi USA is proud to share the news that Filippo Marazzi was honored posthumously as Tile Council of North America’s (TCNA) 2013 Tile Person of the Year in an award ceremony during Coverings 2103 in Atlanta. Prior to his death in November of 2012, Marazzi was chairman of the board and president of Marazzi Group and had been widely recognized as a dynamic leader within the international tile arena. TCNA is one of the most influential ceramic tile trade associations on the continent.
Upon accepting the award, Marazzi Group CEO Mauro Vandini celebrated the figure of a great entrepreneur and friend, stating, “Filippo Marazzi, driven by a great passion, was able to convey Italian know-how to the world and establish Italian ceramics as a benchmark of excellence. His entrepreneurial vision was always at the forefront in all areas: product development, international growth and continual development of in-house knowledge. Filippo Marazzi believed that it was the people, their skills and their talent, who often made the real difference.”
Marazzi’s vision was big, and his actions were bold. After assuming leadership of the company at a young age following his father’s death, he confidently pursued opportunities for expansion outside Italy when that strategy was not commonplace. Initially, manufacturing plants were opened in Spain and the United States (a first for an Italian tile manufacturer). Those successes and added growth were compounded through joint ventures, cooperative agreements and acquisitions of important competitors in Spain, France, the United States and Italy during the 1990s. In 2003 a new Marazzi manufacturing plant was built in Moscow, and another acquisition there made Marazzi the market leader in Russia.
Always leading the industry, Marazzi was the first tile manufacturer to achieve ISO 9001 certification for its quality systems; it followed up shortly with ISO 14001 certification for its environmental management systems. Marazzi Group was green before it became trendy to be so.
Yes, Filippo Marazzi was a strong, visionary leader, but he was also a man of great humanity and warmth. He showed keen interest with whomever he was speaking, always wanting to learning new things, tile related or not. He will be greatly missed by his family, his friends, his colleagues and the many people he touched throughout the world.