Scaling operations in a high-growth consulting environment.

ESB Link is an Italian legal and tax consulting firm specializing in tax incentives, construction-related tax credits, and complex compliance processes. During one of the most active periods in Italy’s tax-credit market, the company supported professionals, businesses, and property owners as they managed highly regulated projects involving substantial documentation and coordination.

I joined ESB Link as Chief Operating Officer, taking responsibility for designing, optimizing, and scaling the operational processes that allowed the organization to handle a rapidly growing workload while maintaining quality and regulatory compliance.

My role spanned operations, workflow design, platform strategy, process management, team coordination, and business execution. It required a blend of strategic thinking and hands-on problem solving.

Designing processes for scale

One of the organization’s central challenges was managing thousands of documents, multiple stakeholders, and tightly regulated workflows across a large portfolio of active projects.

To meet that challenge, I designed and refined operational frameworks that helped standardize activities, improve efficiency, reduce bottlenecks, and create clearer visibility across every stage of a project’s lifecycle.

Particular attention went into defining and optimizing project milestones, approval stages, review procedures, and internal controls. The goal was to ensure that every participant understood their responsibilities and that progress could be monitored reliably.

Building the digital backbone

A key part of the company’s growth strategy was the development of a proprietary digital platform that centralized project management, documentation, communication, and compliance activity.

The platform created a single source of truth where professionals, consultants, engineers, architects, contractors, and clients could securely upload, access, and manage the information needed throughout each project’s lifecycle.

I contributed to the definition of workflows, platform logic, user journeys, operational requirements, and process architecture, helping turn complex consulting activity into structured, repeatable digital experiences.

From user experience to operational excellence

During the platform’s early evolution, I also contributed to its user interface and user experience design. My focus was on shaping how people interacted with the system while keeping critical information accessible despite the complexity of the underlying workflows.

The objective was to create a platform capable of supporting sophisticated professional workflows while remaining intuitive for users with different technical backgrounds and levels of expertise.

This approach strengthened collaboration between departments, reduced administrative friction, and created a more efficient experience for both internal teams and external stakeholders.

Coordinating people, processes, and compliance

Beyond technology, a significant part of my role involved coordinating the work of multiple professional groups across the same projects. Legal advisors, tax consultants, technical experts, contractors, and clients often needed to work in parallel while meeting strict compliance requirements.

I developed operational structures that improved communication, reduced delays, and ensured documentation could be reviewed, validated, and approved through clearly defined procedures.

ESB Link’s consulting teams added a further layer of quality assurance by reviewing submissions, identifying inconsistencies, and supporting professionals throughout the process. My responsibility was to make sure those workflows operated consistently and efficiently at scale.

Leadership in a complex environment

My responsibilities also included supporting credit-recovery activities, consulting operations, stakeholder management, and the wider business processes that shaped the company’s day-to-day performance.

Working in such a highly regulated environment meant constantly balancing operational speed, service quality, risk management, and regulatory compliance, all while keeping execution moving forward.

The experience strengthened my ability to design scalable systems, coordinate multidisciplinary teams, optimize business operations, and translate complex requirements into practical solutions with measurable results.

Driving growth through structure

My time at ESB Link demonstrated the strategic value of operational design. By improving workflows, contributing to digital tools, and building processes capable of supporting growth, I helped establish the foundations needed to manage increasingly complex projects with greater efficiency and control.

As COO, I worked at the intersection of operations, product thinking, process design, team leadership, and execution. It remains one of the strongest examples of my ability to turn complexity into structured systems, allowing people, technology, and processes to work effectively toward a common goal.