Eng. Paolo Bernardi, President of CAE, passed away

Eng. Paolo Bernardi passed away on August 26^th. Founder of the Company, created in 1977, he was appointed its President by his 3 Partners, also engineers and researchers, and led it until his last day. Loved by those who worked with him and respected by all others, thanks to his pragmatism and sensitivity, he was the solid and authoritative anchor to whom everyone knew they could turn.

Among his gifts that most contributed to CAE's growth were his great analytical skills, which guided him in both technical and business decisions, combined with his ability to identify priorities and make related, often winning, decisions in a short time.

The ability to select opportunities was an important skill from his earliest steps as an entrepreneur. In an interview a few years ago, talking about the Company, Eng. Bernardi had told how the "firm," after a couple of years of working in different sectors, came to embrace the field of environmental monitoring and hydrogeological risk prevention: "My father worked at the Genio Civile and as a kid I often saw him going out at night to go and check the state and levels of the water in the rivers. Hence the idea: why instead of sending technicians out day and night to collect data, don't we rather have the data come directly to their desks?"

With reference to that period, he liked to recall the fruitful collaborations with early clients, including Mr. Cerioni, working as a surveyor at the “Civil Engineer Department for the Reno River”, and the working group of Prof. Lucio Ubertini, of the CNR IRPI in Perugia, who, in the early 1980s, created the first knowledge base on which CAE's offerings were developed.

Technical solutions were then born by listening to clients, while the choice to espouse a quality positioning, in which work had to be completed to a workmanlike standard no matter what, was always shared with its partners and a distinctive element of CAE. Clients knew that by working with the company, they would achieve the result.

The pinnacle of recognition in the national arena, in the field of real-time hydro-meteorological monitoring for civil protection purposes, was the awarding of the contract for the implementation of the Functional Centers system. On this great project, still recognized as a best practice for which Italy is admired internationally, the company then built many other developments, coming to be what it is today.

A shy, sensitive soul of few words, he was the emblem of a generation of entrepreneurs for whom a handshake was worth a thousand clauses. A quality that distinguished him and that, for entire generations of hydrographic service and Civil Defense officials, has also been associated with the Company's reputation, constituting its strength to this day.

Eng. Bernardi had also managed the generational transition to the top management with foresight, being joined by his two sons, Giorgio and Guido. Together, they have promoted, in recent years, the important path of growth that projects the Company into the future, in the continuity of the values on which it was founded and grew.


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