I met Guido at the Monaco ATP tennis tournament in 2003 where i was in the Tamoil box hosting some clients .He was introduced to our President by a common friend and as Planning and Image Director of our Group and Managing Director of Tamoil Italia at the time, I examined his request for sponsoring.We agreed to meet in the office the next day, and I was very much impressed with the professionalism of Guido as he came with a press book thick as the chinese wall, and videos of his exploits. At that time he had already won 7 world championships . So I challenged him into a yearly sponsoring agreement that would be renewed only if he won the championship each year,  and we set a target to win 10 World Championships before he retired .I must confess i did not think he could pull it off, but he won 2 World championships on a row and came in second on the 3rd and last year of our contract .Yet he kept running and wearing the Tamoil colors for 2 more years, put my initials “NY” on the nose of his boat to remind himself of the promise he made me, and kept fighting until he finally won his 10th world Title. I obviously admired his determination and kept him as brand ambassador for our group for those additional years, as we both were hooked on reaching the goal we had set for Guido to win this 10th World title.What defines Guido if you need to put it in a couple of words is determination and honor. One example illustrates that very well : in 2005 after Guido had won his 9th title, he was disqualified unjustly in the qualification trials of the last race of the season. He called me to say that it was unfair, as they asked him to start last, and that he had already won the Championship for that year, so he was not going to run the last race. So I told him he was not running for himself, but he was running for me as his sponsor, for the Principality of Monaco where he had his residence, and above all, for the thousands of fans that will come just to see him race, and that he should go out and show them who is the Champion. So he told me that if he won , he would give me the race cup and offer his racing boat to the principality of Monaco.Needless to say, he started last, and in the most extraordinary race, he won his 50th Grand prix. He honored his word and gave me the cup, which i gave back to him to leave it next to the 49 others at the time. Many more came after that. And at the end of his career he offered that very same racing boat to the Principality of Monaco, where it can still be seen in the Musee de l’automobile as the only racing boat among all those incredible cars.That is who Guido is, a true Champion, a man of his word. I am proud to call him my friend after all these years!

Ness Yammine – Ex Olinvest Group Planning and Image Director, Ex Managing Director Tamoil Italia Spa