Sparkle is TIM Group’s fully owned global operator, with around 540,000 km of fibre reaching from Europe to Africa, the Americas and Asia.
Romano has 30 years’ experience in the telecoms, IT and media sector, starting as a software Developer for Alcatel in 1987. After various technical roles there, she joined Ericsson in 1998 as head of Operations Support Systems in Stockholm, developing strategies for telcos.
In 2015, she became Head of TV & Media, based in Santa Clara, California, then became head of core networks in 2017.
Rapid rise
In July 2018, she joined TIM Group as Chief Technology Officer, with the responsibility of ensuring – at Group level – technological innovation and the evolution of networks and IT to support digital transformation.
She was memorable in a debate at Digital Transformation World in Nice in 2018 when she said that as part of the operator’s digital transformation and in preparation for 5G, “I need a product manager with mindset who starts every day asking, ‘What can I close down today?’”.
She was appointed Head of Chief Innovation & Partnership in November 2019 (with Michele Gamberini becoming the new CTIO – you can read our exclusive interview with him here).
Sparkle offers a range of ICT solutions to ISPs, over the top players, media and content companies, application service providers, fixed and mobile operators and multinationals.
Its sales force is active worldwide and distributed across 34 countries.