“I am a mechanical engineer, but I didn't want to study engineering. I wanted to study agriculture, as I liked nature. It was an uncle of mine who told me I should choose engineering, and he was far-sighted.”
After earning a degree from Milan Polytechnic, in 1987 Battaini began his career at the Pirelli Group, in the Tyres department, holding positions of responsibility in various areas until 2002, when he was transferred from the tyre to the cable department. For him, it was “a sign of destiny”.
In subsequent years, he took part in the acquisition — finalised in 2005 — of the Pirelli Cavi e Sistemi Energia business by Goldman Sachs, which transformed it into Prysmian S.r.l. After the completion of the transaction, Battaini moved to the United Kingdom, accepting to serve as CEO of Prysmian UK.
He went back to Milan after six years, in 2011, to manage Prysmian's historic acquisition of Draka Holding, the then No. 4 world player in the cable and optical fibre industry. It was Prysmian's very first step-up towards its cable market leadership.
In 2014, Valerio Battista appointed him Senior Vice President Energy Projects Business. The same year saw the launch of the high-power submarine and underground cables business that led — as Battaini stated — to a “period of great satisfactions, in which I had to run an extremely engaging and stimulating business.”
At the end of 2017, he received a call from Valerio Battista announcing that he would have liked him to manage the acquisition of General Cable. Battaini seized this challenging opportunity, which led him to move to North America for three years. During this period, he successfully managed the integration of the two groups.
When he came back to Italy, in January 2021, Massimo Battaini was promoted to Prysmian’s COO.