Born in Milan in 1991, Ambrogio Beccaria holds a degree in Nautical Engineering and is an atypical ocean sailor. A deep student of every aspect of boat and sail, he combines a visceral relationship with the sea with the competitive instinct that defines the most experienced athletes. He is the first Italian to have won the Mini Transat, the solo transatlantic race from France to the Caribbean sailed on Mini 6.50s, a race whose finish line is usually crossed by the French themselves. In June 2026 he won the Vendée Arctique aboard Allagrande Mapei, becoming the first Italian to win a solo IMOCA race, completing a remarkable comeback after lying more than 200 miles behind the leader in the closing stages.

Italian by birth and now a US citizen based in Utah, Francesca Clapcich is one of the most versatile athletes in modern sailing, with success across Olympic competition, offshore racing and elite sport performance. A two-time Olympian, World and European Champion and America’s Cup sailor, she made history in 2023 as the first Italian to win The Ocean Race with 11th Hour Racing Team. She has sailed twice around the world in The Ocean Race and was the first Italian woman to compete in the Solitaire du Figaro. In 2025 she finished second in the Transat Café L’OR alongside Will Harris, becoming the first Italian and American woman to compete in the race and delivering the best IMOCA result for a woman in 20 years. Her next challenge is the Vendée Globe 2028, racing solo, non-stop, around the planet.

Giulia Conti is a four-time Olympian across three classes, with three top-five finishes and eight World and European Championship medals including three golds. She won the inaugural PUIG Women’s America’s Cup with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli in Barcelona as helm, skippering a landmark victory for women in sailing.
She transitioned into elite coaching, working with the US Sailing Team at Tokyo 2020, before joining We Are Foiling as Head of Performance, where she leads coaching management at We Are Foiling events, coordinating on-water support, athlete pathways and performance protocols across Foiling Week in Malcesine and Pensacola.

Francesco Di Biase is Executive Advisor at DHTA Sport and a sports marketing, technology, and media professional with over 20 years of international experience.
He has worked with leading organizations across sport, media, and technology, supporting business development, strategic partnerships, commercial growth, and market positioning.
His expertise focuses on helping companies identify new opportunities, build valuable relationships, and bring innovative products and services to market.

Ray Davies, sailor, now coach with Team NZ. Helped bring foiling to mainstream sailing through Teams New Zealands push to get their AC 72 foiling in 2011 for the 2013 Americas cup Was at the beginning of the AC 75 and AC40 class.

Viola Devoti is a Marketing Executive for the America’s Cup and Social Media Manager for We Are Foiling, working on brand promotion, audience engagement, and digital communication. She develops creative campaigns and communication ideas that help bring the event to life and connect the brand with audiences worldwide.

Tom Herbert-Evans is SailGP’s Head of Community and Commercial Engagement. He joined the organisation in 2018 to launch SailGP Inspire, the league’s global youth and community program, and now leads community engagement across all SailGP venues worldwide. A native of Wales, Tom has built his career around widening access to sailing and dismantling the barriers that have traditionally kept the sport exclusive.

Jana Germani is a professional sailor from Trieste who signed for Red Bull Italy ahead of the final event of the 2025 Season, joining the roster as Strategist.

Competing in the 49erFX class, she won five national titles and three World and European medals before representing Italy at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Her move to the F50 reflects a wider shift taking place across the sport, with elite Olympic dinghy sailors increasingly transitioning into professional foiling circuits and bringing with them a sharp, decision-led approach to racing at speed.

A passionate sailor and advocate of all things foiling. Julian’s career has been an interesting mix of London’s financial markets and the desire to sail as fast as possible.

Ryan Littlechild is an Australian sailor who came up through the Optimist and 420 classes before moving into the 49er and then establishing himself as one of the leading names in the International Moth. He finished 4th at the 2025 Moth World Championships in Lake Garda and 2nd at the 2026 European Championship, also taking the Youth category. He is now part of GB1’s Athena Pathway Racing Team, the Women and Youth programme competing in the 38th America’s Cup cycle on the AC40.

Photo credit: www.sailweb.co.uk

Adriano Luati is the head of Global Brand Experience and Partnerships at Alfa Romeo, one of the world’s most iconic sporting car Brand. With extensive international experience, he bridges automotive, sailing and sport bringing performance-driven experience across industries. He holds a master’s degrees in international trade.

Michele Marchesini is an Olympic sailor, high-performance coach, and sports executive with more than three decades of experience in elite sailing. A former Olympian, he later coached worlds and Olympic medal-winning campaigns for Spain and Sweden before leading the Italian Sailing Federation’s Olympic program. Since 2013, he has overseen Italy’s high-performance sailing strategy, contributing to multiple Olympic gold medals and world titles.

Alan McMillan is a member of Pensacola Yacht Club and serves as Past Commodore of the Gulf Yachting Association, the regional sailing authority representing 39 clubs across the US Gulf Coast from Florida to Texas, founded in 1901. He was a key institutional partner in bringing Foiling Week to Pensacola in 2025, the first edition of the event held outside Europe and the largest foiling gathering in North American history. His involvement reflects a broader commitment to developing high-performance sailing infrastructure along the Gulf Coast and positioning Pensacola as a long-term home for foiling in the United States.

Richard Moore is Head of Media and Communications at The America’s Cup, where he is responsible for growing The Cup’s fan base and delivering fan engagement. Before joining The America’s Cup he ran a thriving independent creative agency which supported consumer brands such as Bacardi, Havaianas and PUMA and exciting projects such as the growth of sailing in Saudi Arabia.

Scott Over has spent 20 years across professional sport, international federations and event organisation, holding leadership roles at four Olympic Games and serving as Chief Commercial Officer at World Sailing, where he oversaw partnerships with Rolex, SAP and the IOC and directed the Special Events portfolio. He was previously Director of the World Sailing Trust, leading its sustainability agenda and strategic review of women in sailing. He remains active as a professional offshore sailor and at 16 years and 10 months became the youngest person to solo-cross the Atlantic.

Greta Eline Poclen combines a physics background with hands-on experience in foiling technology, performance sailing, and environmental research. She is Head of Science at WeAreFoiling, where she covers innovation analysis and communication across the global foiling scene. Previously Sustainability Manager and then Vice Team Leader at Audace Sailing Team (University of Trieste), an R&D team designing, building, and racing sustainable sailboats. Her work also spans Velocity Prediction Program (VPP) development for sailing performance and boat design. A sailor herself, her time in Costa Rica, India, and the UK has shaped a genuinely international outlook on where the sport is heading.

Francesco Pretagostini is a mechanical engineer specialized in performance control systems. Since joining Ferrari in 2018, he has contributed to the development of Ferrari Sportscar control systems and overall vehicle dynamics performance.
Combining his technical expertise with a lifelong passion for sailing, he now leads the Controls and Energy Management Team at Ferrari Hypersail. His role focuses on overseeing the development of the automatic flight control system and the mechatronics control system, the development of the sailing simulator and the onboard energy performance management.

Andy Rice covers almost every part of the top end of the racing scene in sailing, from SailGP to America’s Cup, the Olympic fleets, wingfoil racing, round the world races like The Ocean Race and the Vendee Globe. He works as a writer for the New York Times and The Athletic, and is a weekly podcaster for The Foil, visiting every SailGP event in the season and commentating at major World Championships like the 49er and Nacra 17 Worlds. He has won national and European titles in skiff classes like the 49er and International 14 and currently races a Musto Skiff. He is very poor at wingfoiling though…

Colin Ralph is a Certified Marina Manager with extensive experience across the Middle East and Gulf region. After earlier roles at Dubai Marina Yacht Club and marinas in Kuwait, he served as Marina Director at Jeddah Yacht Club and Marina, where he was part of the team that built one of the Red Sea’s first international-standard superyacht facilities and launched the RYA-accredited JYC Academy. He is now Marina Manager at AMAALA Yacht Club, the luxury sailing and marina destination on the northwest Saudi Red Sea coast, developed as part of the AMAALA Triple Bay project under Saudi Vision 2030. He holds a degree from the University of St Andrews.

Luca Rizzotti spent nearly 20 years in the foiling industry, including a period as Commercial Director at Persico Marine, seven years as President of the International Moth Class and three years as Class Manager of the AC40. He founded Foiling Week in 2013, the first community-based foiling event recognised by World Sailing as a Special Event, and through We Are Foiling has built a portfolio of globally recognised initiatives including the Foiling Awards and the Foiling Film Festival. He is Founder and President of The Foiling Organization, the global industry and professionals association, and serves as ambassador of the Magenta Project, the charity dedicated to advancing women in high-performance sailing.

After a career in the consumer products industry, he has been Treasurer of the French Sailing Federation (FFVoile) since 2018 and Director of the Semaine Olympique Française – Hyères since 2020, and founding member of the Sailing Grand Slam (SGS). He has been sailing one design boats since university and is currently sailing the SB20 (3-person sportsboat) since 2009. He believes sailing has been an Olympic sport since the 1st Games in 1896 and a significant part of the sailing industry has been built and funded around this premise, which is now in jeopardy as a result of audience performance criteria established by the IOC. Collectively, we need to grow significantly the audience following our sport.

Lorenzo Valle is a Mechanical Engineering Master’s student at Politecnico di Torino, passionate about innovation, sports, and hands-on engineering. His experience includes working on composite structures, hydrofoils, racing boats, and aerospace components through collaborations with Persico Marine, MOREnergy Lab, and university sailing teams. He enjoys combining CAD design, FEM analysis, manufacturing, and research to turn ideas into real projects. Outside engineering, he is a very active sportsman and has practiced windsurfing, wingfoiling, skiing, climbing, running, and basketball for many years. He likes challenging environments where teamwork, creativity, and practical problem-solving come together.

Dr. Jorgen Vogt is Secretary General of the Global Foil Board Sports Association (GFA). The GFA governs the non-wind-powered foil board sports. Dr. Vogt is also founder and CEO of the SFT Surf Foil World Tour, which crowns the World Champions in Surf-Foiling, Pump-Foiling, E-Foiling, Wake-Foiling and Downwind-Foiling. A sup-category of Downwind-Foiling is Parawinging.
Since 2019 Dr. Vogt chairs the Global Wingsports Association and the GWA Wingfoil World Tour.