Filippo Ghirelli

Filippo Ghirelli (born 23 January 1980) is an Italian businessman, billionaire and philanthropist based in the Principality of Monaco. In 2025, Forbes has estimated his wealth in 1.6 B$. He is the founder of Genera Group, which operates in fields of energy and process efficiency, energy production, green infrastructures and EV charging stations. Ghirelli is also founder executive chairman of Infracorp, a global infrastructure investment firm operating in net-zero transportation assets such as airports, port terminals and interports, circular economy, decentralized AI and space economy, and he is founder of Mareterra Group Holding being specialized in oil & gas assets with a focus on India.

Ghirelli also leads Sophrance Global, his family office which currently operates in Italy, Spain, France, Brazil, China, India and the GCC and has JV's with major multinationals and financial institutions.

Biography

Early life

Filippo Ghirelli was born in an Italian and Vatican family of real estate entrepreneurs in Rome, attended international schools and graduated from the University of Rome in Structural Engineering with further specialization at MIT and Harvard. Also, he obtained a master's degree in Business Administration at LUISS Business School and further specialization in Financial Markets and M&A.

Career

After BA degree he started his career as project engineer in Guinea, Ghana and Mali working with various construction multinationals such as Astaldi. Later on he returned to Italy to follow high speed train infrastructures. In 2007 he became General Manager for real estate and healthcare operator De Angelis Group. After sudden death of its founder, in 2009 Ghirelli started his own construction and real estate development business called Genera Group, being involved in Italian and international projects.

With the support of UniCredit's and WWF's Officinae Verdi, in 2013 he co-founded OV Energy which rapidly became the first sustainable energy trader in Italy. Meanwhile, Genera Group, thanks to the acquired knowledge, was becoming a prominent operator in sustainability and energy efficiency.

In 2017 Filippo Ghirelli and German fund IKAV signed and investment agreement in order to have the fund participate to Genera Group with a 49% stake and turning the company in the market specialist for energy and process efficiency projects. New contracts were signed in Italy, France, Brazil and China. In 2020, Ghirelli performed a buy-out of IKAV's stake into the company and sold 75% of the Group to Swiss investment fund SUSI Partners with performed investments exceeding 1.8 B€, which made Genera Group become market leader in energy & process efficiency and activating a strong vertical on biofuels production partnering with major multinational clients such as Unilever. In September 2024, Ghirelli exited from Genera Group selling the remaining stake to SUSI Partners.

In 2021, through fully controlled entity Mareterra Group Holding, he acquired 24.5% of Nayara Energy's refinery in Vadinar (India's second-largest) from Trafigura in order to invest in the implementation relevant sustainability projects on the entire petrol stations network and increase the production of the facility by introducing the largest Aviation Biofuel refinery in India. Following this operation, Ghirelli's name appeared in press articles for his business with Russian tycoons close to Vladimir Putin, as the remaining capital of Nayara Energy is controlled by the Russian oil company Rosneft (49.5%), led by Igor Sechin, and by UCP Investment Group, a Moscow-based group led by the financier Ilya Scherbovich. According to Italian weekly magazine L'Espresso, Filippo Ghirelli position is potentially ambiguous in light of the sanctions from Europe and the USA targeting Russian subjects and economic entities, including the oil sector.

In 2024 he founded Infracorp, a global systemic tech-infrastructure company operating on 4 verticals:

• Circular economy: the division operates on biofuels and battery storage projects in the United States and owns the only permit in Italy for the construction of a Waste-to-Energy plant which plans to heavily reduce waste from car disposal.
• Transportation: with this division, Infracorp plans to invest in Aviation concessions with a focus on private jets, logistics and maintenance facilities. Ventures also include maritime hubs and LNG terminals. Infracorp has recently acquired Riviera Airport in Italy which will be converted into the most important european private jets terminal serving French Riviera and Ligurian coast.
• Decentralized AI: Infracorp is planning to build Hypercenters® across Europe, Gulf Cooperation Council and Africa, being able, with a special proprietary protocol, to promote decentralized and GDPR compliant AI so that each entity will not only be able to store data securely, but AI training will only happen at local level, with no international dispersion.
• Space: the division is promoting a new vision of commercial space exploration, promoting Orbital Datacenters, Low Earth Orbit Modules, Commercial Space Missions and Spaceports. The aim is also to promote an innovative AI-based R&D Payload Integration and Certification Centre for the Europe, the Middle East and Africa regions.

Filippo Ghirelli was also involved in acquiring football team Mallorca in late 2014.

Personal life

Filippo Ghirelli lives in the Principality of Monaco with his family and is an active member of both the Monegasque and Italian communities through a series of important philanthropic events. Ghirelli is also a distinguished member of Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and co-chair of Monaco Ambassadors Club and, in 2019, he joined the executive board of the Young Presidents' Organization Italy then becoming YPO Monaco and French Riviera Chapter Chair until June 31, 2025. YPO has more than 34,000 members worldwide. Ghirelli and his wife Daniela recently founded The Ghirelli Initiative with double aim of promoting research projects in the field of Alzheimer's disease and elaborating a strategy for post-AI full implementation's social impact. Ghirelli is also a TedX Speaker and often mentors young managers and students.