ELITE Day: the first international conference focused on global business

Fast-growing dynamic and ambitious small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are key for future global economic prosperity, helping to create new job opportunities and economic growth in both developing and developed countries around the world. This is the key takeaway of the first-ever conference organized in Milan by the ELITE global community.

Launched in 2012, ELITE is London Stock Exchange Group's unique business support and capital raising programme that helps international SMEs to prepare and structure themselves for external investment, to boost the next stage of their development and to access capital markets. It's a practical hands-on programme, providing management teams with both a global support network and the tools to accelerate their growth. It also offers companies access to its own private placement platform to raise capital (equity, debt and convertibles) from a wide range of investors.

ELITE is a truly global network, boasting partnerships across Europe, the US, India, China, South America and Africa, and made of 900 companies from across 32 countries. ELITE community members currently generate over €64 billion in combined revenues and employ approximately 400,000 people worldwide.

The Milan conference started with Keynote speeches of Michael Spence, 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics, and Prof. John Davis, Founder and Chairman of Cambridge Family Enterprise Group, talking about the importance of gaining altitude on the company and taking an owner’s perspective on the business, the industry, and the broader business environment, and Andrea Guerra, CFO, Eataly.

Luca Peyrano, ELITE Ceo, is proud to highlight that "In the six years since its launch, ELITE has become a global community spanning 32 countries, united by the common goal of providing companies with access to the capital, skills and networks they need to grow. Supporting these enterprises, which are vital to our economy, is the reason we have organised today’s ELITE Day: Every day we see the value that connections formed through the ELITE network bring to our companies, opening new opportunities and boosting growth. Here in Milan, we will be sharing insights, debating key topics and trends affecting businesses worldwide, and drive inspiration for our global success."

Throughout the day, round table sessions will focus on the programme's global outlook and participants will include the following partners in the Elite Global Alliance, the international network that Elite is developing throughout the world: for Saudi Arabia, Abdulrahman Alsmailper, general manager of Monsha'at, the Saudi Small and Medium Enterprises Authority; for Brazil, Eduardo Campos, business development director for IDMC; for Morocco, Karim Hajji, CEO of the Casablanca stock exchange; for the West African Economic and Monetary Union, Kossi Felix Edoh Amenouve, general manager of Bourse Régionale Des Valeurs Mobilières; for Hungary, Richard Vegh, CEO of the Budapest stock exchange; and for Lebanon, Sami N. Saliba, executive board member of Capital Markets Authority.

Elite Day also includes networking sessions and closed-door workgroup sessions with executives and managers of leading international organisations including IBM, Illy, Swift, ESA, Vodafone, and Wipro. Elite CEO Luca Peyrano will end the day present future strategies and new international partnerships for the group.