Cuoa: rising shareholder numbers and revenue. Focus now on international markets and corporate governance
In 2025, membership rose from 184 to 207. The Corporate Governance Centre was established to support the growth of SMEs
It is not easy, these days, to meet the targets of a three-year plan: “I haven’t seen many achieve their results without making gradual adjustments,” notes Federico Visentin, entrepreneur and president of CUOA, Italia’s oldest business school, founded in 1957 in Altavilla Vicentina and which, over almost 70 years of history, has become a benchmark for the business community not only in the north-east but, by now, throughout Italy.
“And yet we succeeded, and in 2025, we exceeded 10 million in revenue, representing a 6.7 per cent increase compared with 2024, doubling our profitability and achieving a profit of over 500 thousand euros, with more than 9 thousand people trained through our programmes.”
Significant figures, not so much in themselves (Cuoa is unique in that it is a not-for-profit foundation) but above all because, as well as ensuring economic and financial stability, they reflect companies’ interest in manager training at a time of profound and rapid changes in management models, production processes and trade flows.
Support for businesses
And they reflect Cuoa’s ability to respond to this interest and this need, notes Visentin: “‘Our aim as CUOA is to support our member companies, which historically have always been predominantly based in our region, the North-East, but which are increasingly also national and international firms, given that expansion abroad is one of the objectives of the new board of directors, elected a year ago, and of the new three-year plan’.
A key indicator of the effectiveness of the CUOA proposal is also the number of supporting members (private companies that choose to support the Business School with an annual contribution of 5,000 euros), which has risen steadily from 159 in 2023 to 184 in 2024 and reached 207 last year. The number of founding members (whose contribution is 10,000 euros a year) has also risen; with the addition of the Padua Chamber of Commerce, this figure reached 13 in 2025.
