The Montellis – three generations of migrants
In 1922, when Piero Montelli Bombelli, son of Francesco Montelli, was born in Rome into a relatively comfortable family for the time, his fate was already on the verge of a major shift.
With the World Wars—and especially during the second—the Montelli family, like many other European families, had to seek new destinations: Australia, the Dominican Republic, the United States, and Venezuela. It was in the latter where Piero Montelli Bombelli settled and, with great sacrifice and far from his closest relatives, succeeded in building a home. It was there, in Caracas, that Piero Montelli Torres was born in 1969. He spent his childhood studying at a school run by Opus Dei. Later, in 1987, he began his studies in Public Accounting at Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas. During his final years of university, he worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where—by a twist of fate—financial institutions became the focus of his work. That was the moment when his interest in finance was sparked, a passion that continues to play a decisive role to this day.
Professional Career
By 1996, he joined Interacciones Mercado de Capitales in Caracas, working alongside Julio Polanco, who would remain a business partner in later ventures. As the political turmoil in Venezuela deepened, Piero and Maribel, whom he had married two years earlier, decided to move to Canada. During that time, he worked as an accountant. In Canada, they also welcomed their three children, whose lives remain closely tied to the country: Alessandro, currently studying at the University of Toronto; Claudio, at Western University in London, Ontario; and Alberto, who is following a similar path in Madrid, studying at ESE (European School of Economics).
Financial Consulting
In 2004, Piero returned to Venezuela and founded a financial consultancy firm, offering support to foreign banks in structuring bond placements and syndicated loans.
Notable clients included Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), ABN Amro Bank, and Calyon. Many of the deals featured sophisticated financial engineering, as Venezuela’s capital markets were booming and the country’s main export commodity was near a historic peak in price. Three years later, the consulting office was closed to make way for a new venture: Inverplus Sociedad de Corretaje, a stock brokerage firm he co-founded with another colleague.
Tiempos turbulentos continúan en Venezuela, el Gobierno de Hugo Chávez se radicaliza y comienza un proceso de purgas en el mercado de capitales, se cierran y se intervienen instituciones. Realmente eran tiempos muy dificiles y la familia decide migrar a la Argentina, donde ya para ese momento estaba radicado Julio Polanco, allí en compañía de otro amigo que para el momento trabajaba para Ashmore arman sociedad con la cual se hicieron varias inversiones en el área de Generación y Distribución Eléctrica.
After the arrival of President Macri’s administration, and accompanied by Argentina’s country risk improvement, the decision was made to exit all positions in the energy sector. This marked the beginning of a new chapter: agriculture.
Current Status of Piero Montelli
Piero Montelli is now a cattle rancher in northern Argentina, in the province of Formosa. Through GR-Global, Piero Montelli established a livestock operation with 12,000 head of cattle, using advanced techniques in water management, pasture development, and animal genetics.
