Piero Gandini was born in Brescia, Italy, in 1963. Soon after high school he decided to join FLOS, the leading lighting company of which his father Sergio had been chairman since 1964. He began by working for several years at FLOS GmbH, the group’s German division, before joining FLOS S.p.A. in 1988 as new product development manager. In this period he worked closely with the great contemporary Italian industrial designers, including Achille Castiglioni and Tobia Scarpa, but at the same time he supported the exclusive collaboration with the young Philippe Starck, who introduced revolutionary concepts for Italian design.

Piero gradually developed the company’s business and in June 1996 he was appointed CEO. Then, in 1999, after his father’s death, he took over as Chairman of the company. In his new role as entrepreneur he launched a drive to internationalise the business and asked other great designers to work with him, as well as opening the door to highly talented young designers. He also expanded the company’s business into the world of architecture, by acquiring the Spanish brand Antares and creating the FLOS Architectural Lighting division. Experimentation and innovation continued with the launch of the Soft Architecture collection (2009), a leading-edge project that won international acclaim and demonstrated the success of his poetic approach to interpreting revolutionary new technologies.