Marco Drago

Marco Drago was born in Settimo Torinese, in the province of Turin, in 1946, and graduated in economics and business from Bocconi University in Milan in 1969. He joined the family firm, Istituto Geografico De Agostini, that same year, beginning a career that would carry him to the top of one of Italy's largest family-owned groups. He rose through operating roles — Vice Director General of the Istituto Geografico De Agostini's graphic works (1978), Director General over the fascicle and mail-order divisions (1983), and Delegate Councilor (1986) — before being appointed Chairman of the holding company De Agostini S.p.A. in 1997, succeeding Achille Boroli.

As Chairman (and previously CEO through the 1980s and 1990s), Drago engineered the transformation of De Agostini from a single publishing business into a diversified international investment family. From around 2000 he pushed the group into lottery, gaming and services (Lottomatica and GTECH), media and communications (Antena 3 in Spain, Mikado Film and Magnolia in Italy), and finance and alternative investments through DeA Capital. Under his leadership the group became a portfolio holding spanning publishing, media and communication, games and services, and finance.

In June 2022 Drago was appointed Chairman Emeritus of De Agostini S.p.A. as part of a generational handover, with the next generation — including his sons Nicola and Enrico Drago — taking senior positions in the group. His son Nicola is separately a co-founder of the London venture-capital fund Connect Ventures, underscoring the family's presence across the venture and angel ecosystem.

Alongside his institutional role, Drago has become an active personal investor, deploying dividend flows from the De Agostini conglomerate through his private vehicle Blu Acquario Prima. This vehicle is the basis for his angel-style and minority investments in Italian technology companies and, more recently, a widening set of manufacturing, diagnostics and club-deal opportunities. He has been recognized as "Bocconiano dell'anno" (2001) and named a Cavaliere del Lavoro (Knight of Labour) in 2003.

• Invests personally through Blu Acquario Prima, redeploying dividend income from the De Agostini group into a diversified private portfolio.
• Backs early-stage Italian technology companies (e.g., Quomi, Casavo) and specialist accelerators/holdings (Mycelium), consistent with a seed/early-stage angel posture.
• Increasingly takes minority stakes in niche Italian manufacturing, healthcare/diagnostics, and club deals — a "diversification" strategy that mirrors the group's own hunt for small and medium Italian enterprises with growth potential.
• Frequently co-invests alongside other Italian entrepreneur-investors and family capital (e.g., Diana Bracco's Dolfin and Guala Closures founder Marco Giovannini in Gravtech; RedFish Capital and others in Purelabs).
• Publicly frames the family's approach around "diversification, family and managers" as the engine of the group's growth, and describes the family office as having an "industrial logic" rather than a purely financial one.