Matteo Takami Todisco ’13: Trade Broker and Diplomat in Geneva
When Matteo Takami Todisco ’13 entered Brown University, he was convinced he would follow in his parents’ footsteps and become the fourth generation of his family to study medicine. His rigorous humanities classes with Mr. Zellers and Dr. Williams at Greenhills notwithstanding, it wasn’t until sophomore year in college that he realized that the pre-med track was not for him.
“It dawned on me that I was putting off studying political science and philosophy every night as my reward for getting through the ‘hard stuff’”, he shared. “So ultimately I pivoted to a different major—international relations—and never looked back.”
Todisco arrived at Greenhills in the ninth grade, and found his coursework demands noticeably increased. At the same time he found a community of peers that respected and celebrated academic performance: “I really thrived and found my people.”
In addition to working hard in the classroom, Todisco participated in four varsity sports—lacrosse, tennis, baseball, and basketball—over his high school career. And every summer he was “shipped off to Italy” to spend time with his father’s extended family and polish his fluent Italian.
After Brown, Todisco went on to graduate studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. During his first study abroad semester in Bologna he met his future wife, Mathilde, who is French. They were married last summer in Tuscany and live in Geneva, where he works at the headquarters of the International Trade Centre, a joint United Nations-World Trade Centre agency. His wife is with the World Economic Forum.
“ITC’s overall mission is to drive the growth of emerging economies through trade,” Todisco explains. “Our task is to help small- to medium-sized businesses build their export capabilities to wealthier markets, which can drive significant economic impact.”
Over the last five years with the agency, Todisco has steered numerous enterprises around the world, from working with small cocoa plantations in Ghana to get their chocolate bars onto the shelves of Aldi, to growing manufacturing operations in surgical instruments and pharmaceuticals in Pakistan.
About his life today he says:
“Geneva is the easiest place in the world to live as an expat. Here, almost everyone has come from abroad with their own stories and backgrounds. You never feel like a foreigner surrounded by citizens of the world. It’s a peaceful and stable lifestyle for us, and a perfect neutral ground between my family in Italy, and Mathilde’s in France.”
