Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish’ John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the US said once. Marco Oleotto’s story is all about patience and perseverance and how he climbed the ladder from being an Operation Director to being the CEO of Clean Swift Laundry in Dubai and Prime Automatic Laundry in Abu Dhabi. Coming from a very small town in the northeast of Italy when he joined the laundry and hospitality field in 2000, all he had was enthusiasm and no clue about the business.

Today, as the CEO of one of the biggest commercial laundry in UAE, he has created a credible name for the company in just seven years of his association with it. Clean Swift today is the combination of reputation, professionalism integrity and reliability and serves around 50 hotels all over Dubai. But Marco’s journey wasn’t easy, especially the cultural shift(from Italy to Middle East). Despite a diploma in accounting, Marco always preferred to personally conduct and run the businesses he was working for from the ground instead of only supporting them with numbers altogether, essentially for any company’s success.

Dedication that Speaks
Marco started his career in an IT & Telecommunication MNC but soon moved in the laundry and hospitality sector engaging with a new professional challenge in the year 2000. But he was always clear about his career goals and Clean Swift seven years ago represented a new era of an international managerial career and a key point of a new professional maturity. “That is what inspired my decision to move out of my country and from my 'comfort zone'. Clean Swift and I met almost by mistake, needy of one another. We grew together at the beginning like two perfect strangers soon becoming two inseparable friends,” explains a proud Marco.

He started his 20 years of managerial career from the ground being first an Operations Director for more than 15 years and then successfully climbing all company steps until becoming first General Manager and then the CEO of Clean Swift Laundry in Dubai.

Today, along with Clean Swift, he also leads Prime Automatic Laundry in Abu Dhabi, leading more than 500 staff and 10 managers. In his 15 years of operations experience, Marco has contributed and strengthened his capacity to analyse company’s needs creating unique solutions directed towards streamlining the processes and procedures to boost productivity and sales. “Those years have really shaped me professionally,” asserts Marco. Today as a CEO, Marco’s major role & responsibility is to drive the company into the future overseeing its global strategic vision and introducing and developing new services & products to all existing and future customers.

Believing in distributing his experience and learning to the industry, Marco has delivered speeches few times in the past at Gulf Laundrex Exhibition here in Dubai(the biggest laundry related event in all GCC countries). This year too, he is a part of its steering committee giving his contribution out of his experience.

But over the years, I was able to create at all levels a new mindset, new certainties and a new culture of work until then mostly unknown

Knowing Marco
However it was a big challenge majorly a cultural shift, for Marco when he moved to Middle East from Italy. “As a European manager established in the Middle East, the biggest impediment I faced and I had to overcome has been the mentality, the culture and the modus operandi of those who were working with me that were totally different from what I was used to. But over the years I was able to create at all levels a new mindset, new certainties and a new culture of work until then mostly unknown,” he reminisces.

Today, he and his wife walk hand-in-hand both personally and professionally, which makes the journey and the shift even more pleasing. “My personal and professional life story is more unique than rare, where my wife Sara has played an essential role in my growth as manager and man,” explains Marco. Marco met his wife 12 years ago in their first laundry business and they still work together and support each otherft’s (and now also of Prime) Operations Department. “Despite of this professional conflict our private life has never been affected; indeed it has benefitted from this, where our 24 hours of living together has always been our secret recipe that has led not only to widely recognized professional successes, but also to private ones giving life to a wonderful child that comes from our love and that of laundries,” explains a proud Marco.

Passionate about Formula 1, which has been accompanying him for over 30 years now, Marco is also very passionate about Jazz music that was passed-on to him by his father who has been an arranger and composer for over 40 years in Italy. This provided Marco an opportunity to meet and be friends with internationally renowned artists such as Sammy Nestico and Quincy Jones. Marco loves travelling and meeting new people; this helps him learn new cultures and explore new places, thus making him culturally enriched. Apart from the Italian food, he does not have any specific favourite cuisine, but the Greek, Arabic and Japanese ones definitely top his chart.

Key Management:
Marco Oleotto, CEO
A diploma holder in accountancy, Marco pursued his dreams passionately and today leads two of the most successful laundry businesses in Dubai and Abu Dhabi