Cristina Scocchia, born on December 4, 1973, in San Remo, Italy, is the current Chief Executive Officer of Illycaffè, a company specialized in coffee production based in Trieste. She is one of the few Italian women serving as CEO in major companies.
Scocchia, with outstanding academic qualifications, was also Chief Executive Officer of KIKO, an Italian-origin company focused on cosmetics. This experience at KIKO opened the doors to Illy, a different sector that is part of gastronomy, specifically specialty coffee.
In some interviews, the Italian emphasized that throughout her journey she had to overcome several obstacles, including her place of origin, San Remo, a city with fewer than 55,000 inhabitants where she couldn’t learn English. “Where I come from, English isn’t taught.”
Scocchia’s early years
After finishing high school, Cristina graduated in Economics and Business at the University of Milan and later earned a PhD in Business Economics at the University of Turin. In 1997, at the age of 25 and after having completed both degrees, Scocchia applied for an internship at Procter & Gamble, a U.S.-based multinational consumer goods company.
This first glimpse during her internship at the American company shaped her for the future. Within a year she had already been promoted, and after going through several departments, she finally reached her desired position: cosmetics. So much so that nearly 20 years after joining the company, the Italian became the Director of Cosmetics Operations, overseeing several brands across around 70 countries worldwide.
In that short period of time, cosmetics drew her attention even more when L’Oréal Italy contacted her. Three years were enough for her to continue along the path of innovation at the company, although she was later appointed as Chief Executive Officer at KIKO, a cosmetics company.
Scocchia’s work at KIKO was outstanding. In her first few years at the company, profits doubled compared to previous periods. In the meantime, industry experts pointed out that the Italian overcame a corporate restructuring in terms of health and another one related to the coronavirus pandemic that altered the global outlook.
Illycaffè
Cosmetics were swapped for coffee beans, and Italian cosmetics companies were replaced by specialty coffee. Cristina Scocchia’s professional life took a sharp turn when she was appointed as CEO of the coffee company in January 2022.
Since her arrival at the coffee company, Scocchia admitted that it reported its best revenues since 2023. The Italian executive came in with the purpose of boosting international sales, especially outside Italy, to drive the company’s expansion. In one of her interviews, Cristina stated that “if I hadn’t left Italy, I wouldn’t have had the same opportunities.”
The most striking data were revealed by Scocchia. In 2023, one year after her appointment as CEO, Illycaffè reported 5% annual growth and profits 67% higher compared to 2022. One of the key elements identified by the Italian was the United States, a country with a direct link since Andrea Illy is the company’s president and a member of the founding family. Moreover, the U.S. market represents almost one-sixth of the company’s revenues.
Trieste is the main production factory, but Scocchia stated that the first coffee beans are sourced in South America. Most of them, once processed in Europe, end up in the United States, where the population tends to favor products made in Italy.
Another highlight at Illy since Scocchia’s arrival was the investment plan. The Italian executive allocated nearly 300 million euros, half of which were used to restructure and modernize the facilities in Trieste, aiming to improve the development of coffee bean production.
And in this fascinating timeline of the current CEO, in 2024 the Italian released her own biography. In the book, she highlights the obstacles she had to overcome and explores concepts like leadership and innovation to lead multinational companies.
In another of her interviews, Cristina mentioned that she had met Andrea Illy in 2019, when the president invited her to join the company’s board of directors. After an extensive career in the cosmetics field, where she worked at P&G and L’Oréal in Italy, Cristina landed in a different world but with new objectives. The challenge of positioning Illy outside of Italy was what convinced her to take on this new adventure filled with coffee, internationalization, and new strategies.