About

Salvatore Mautone currently serves as the head of the legal department of Kimbo, a notable Neapolitan coffee producer with over 50 years in the Italian coffee industry. His role entails all legal support in favour of the board of directors on new and innovative projects, as well as the development of international markets by opening of new branches and affiliates, and new agreement drafting activities. Although he has only been at Kimbo since September 2017, Mautone has already made many significant changes to the working activities of the legal department. Mautone takes pride in having cut 50% of the costs for external legal advice, with a focus on internal development, he has introduced to all company members an important legal “data bank” for legal research and for the drafting of new agreements. On this he states: ‘I organised a kick-off meeting with all the relevant departments for each new project involving the company; in such way I have a complete and clear framework, including potential issues from the beginning, and I managed to receive support from my colleagues, who are fully informed about the project’. He specifically requests to be actively involved in any relevant project concerning the company, even if the legal department’s involvement is not particularly obvious – a move that has consequently created much more appreciation and trust towards the legal function. Prior to his current role, Mautone spent a number of years at Seri Group, a company active in the battery market with a turnover of €160m in 2017. While there he held the positions of legal general counsel and of corporate secretary, during which time he provided advisory activities and assistance on several M&A transactions in Italy and abroad. Amongst these, he most notably provided legal support to the board of directors in a very complex transaction aimed at obtaining the quotation of a part of Seri Group in the Italian market through a transactional incorporation in a listed company named Krenergy. Mautone acknowledges that a formative part of his career took place whilst in private practice, where from 2007 up to 2012 he worked as an associate at the M&A restructuring department of Gianni, Origoni, Grippo, Cappelli and Partners, a well-known Italian business law firm. ‘I think it was very important for my career to work as a lawyer in [such a] law firm in Italy. In this office I learned a method of work, understanding, sitting on the other side and the needs of the companies. When I moved from a law firm to a company, my new experience started with some important and relevant knowledge’ says Mautone.