FIATA Salutes
Air Cargo News FlyingTypers

     Attending The FIATA World Congress during their 100th Anniversary week in Milan Italy, we were unexpectedly surprised, delighted and slightly overwhelmed to receive some unsolicited individual recorded moments of accolades and thanks from FIATA's current Director General (DG) Stèphane Graber, past DG Marco Leonardo Sorgetti and Past Presidents Turgut Erkeskin (Turkey) and Huxiang Zhao (China) for our work as FIATA Fellow during the past decade.
     Ten years ago in 2016 we were invested as first FIATA Fellow in the 90-year history of the largest non-governmental organization representing the freight forwarding and logistics industry in the world.
     Emotion washed over the packed meeting room where during an unforgettable moment, an unusal heartfelt standing ovation erupted from a usually staid business audience as mother of our four children, my partner and brain trust, Sabiha and I accepted an honorarium from FIATA President Thomas Sim and Director General Stèphane Graber.
     But in fairness and reality, your reporter as a messenger can think of scores of FIATA people who deserve attention for what they do in life and business.
Today as my mind centers on Italy, it doesn’t go first to postcards or landmarks. It goes to a person.
     I picture Francesco Parisi of Francesco Parisi Casa di Spedizioni S.p.A. in Trieste, in his offices, doing what he has been at for his entire life: carrying forward a business with extraordinary roots.
     This is a company that traces back to its founder, Francesco Parisi, who lived from 1778 to 1813 and established the enterprise in 1807.
     Put that in perspective for a second. In that same era, the United States was still a brand-new country, only a few years into its existence.
     In Europe, in 1807 Napoleon was in Venice where he famously took in the gondola regattas on the Grand Canal from the balcony of Palazzo Balbi.
     So when I think of Francesco Parisi, both the current and former, I see Francesco today, leading the company in 2026, in front of a wall of faces, generations of ancestors, 220 years of history, are looking down on the action in the home office every day.
     Imagine what that feels like: not as pressure, exactly, but as responsibility, as continuity. It tells me what you do today can transcend time and place.
     In the picture (back row left) are Marco Sorgetti with Francesco Parisi.
With us (left) is Signora Marina Grimani Parisi during our evening filled with wonderful Italian hospitality and fun Wednesday October 7 at the beautiful and exciting Alfa Romeo Museum.
Geoffrey Arend