Elite is also very active in model scouting. Through its well-established Elite Model Look competition, since 1983 the firm has launched the careers of some of the industry’s most famous and successful Models.
In 1994, Omnitel Pronto Italia obtained a mobile telephone license that allowed it to compete with Telecom Italia Mobile.
A few months later, in mid-1996 – after Francesco Caio left Omnitel, having been scouted by Franco De Benedetti to run Olivetti – Scaglia took over Caio’s role as chief executive officer of Omnitel, a position he held until 1999 (when Olivetti sold Omnitel, and Scaglia left the company to found Fastweb).
In July 1999, Scaglia created e.Biscom – parent company to several firms, including Fastweb – together with several other executive and financier Francesco Micheli.
On March 30, 2000, e.Biscom made a formal request to Consob, the Italian Securities and Exchange Commission, for stock market flotation. At the peak of the new economy bubble, individual shares of the company were sold for 160 €. The funds raised through Fastweb’s stock exchange flotation allowed it to make numerous Investments. Fastweb was the first company in the world to develop a network entirely based on Internet Protocol (IP) – a system that moves digitalized telephonic communications through routers rather than through traditional telephone exchanges – and also the first company in the world to develop a public network using fiber optics for end consumers.
In 2001, Forbes put Silvio Scaglia on the cover of its January issue, a tribute to Fastweb’s rapid ascent in the world of Technology.
In 2003, Time included Scaglia in its list of most influential innovators in the new Technology sector. He was the only Italian listed among the so-called “tech survivors,” a group of about 15 tech gurus who made it out of the new economy bubble unscathed.
On March 13, 2007, Scaglia was questioned for the first time, as former CEO of Fastweb, by Roman magistrates who had been investigating him since 2004 for international tax fraud said to have taken place between 2003 and 2006. On April 13, 2007, the public prosecutor moved to dismiss the charges against Scaglia. The case was dismissed by the judge overseeing preliminary investigations on May 22, 2007.
On February 23, 2010, the Rome judge overseeing preliminary investigations issued a preventive detention order for Scaglia, among others, in response to a request by the anti-mafia public prosecutor’s office. Through his lawyers, Scaglia agreed to come in for questioning, and he returned to Italy in the night between February 25 and 26, 2010, on a private FLIGHT from the Antilles
On February 24, 2011, after nearly a year of preventive detention, Scaglia was released on the order of judges of the First Penal Section of the Court of Rome.
In the years immediately following its acquisition by PGM, Elite World saw a significant boost in its business: with a new focus on digital marketing strategies and strategic acquisitions, the company was well-positioned for growth. It was the first international modeling agency to open a Chinese office, in Shanghai in 2012. After the 2013 opening in New York of The Society Management, and the acquisition Women Management’s New York and Paris agencies the same year, today, PGM Group is a leader in the model management Business.
On 27 October 2013, Scaglia's judicial ordeal has been cited by Mr. Matteo Renzi at the Leopolda meeting in Florence as an injustice that should no longer occur.
In June 2016, Startupitalia wrote that “Yewno has offices in London and Silicon Valley and is composed of a group of entrepreneurs, Engineers and data Scientists. The team is set to expand thanks to funding from Pacific Capital. The investment firm headed by Silvio Scaglia has assets worth more than 800 million euros and focuses largely on long-term goals.”
On September 27, 2017, Rome’s Court of Appeal upholds the acquittal of Silvio Scaglia in agreement with the 2013 verdict of the First Penal Section of the Court of Rome.
Having invested more than 10 million euros in Yewno, Scaglia expressed even greater conviction in the company’s potential. “We believe in this team and we are eager to support its efforts ahead of its launch,” he said, adding that Yewno “is taking giant steps toward surpassing today’s research systems.”
