Marco was born on in 1979 in Province of Bolzano in the North of Italy and speaks fluently German, Italian and English. He worked as project manager in Bolzano for almost 10 years (PMP certified), and he is an enthusiastic cyclist, mountain climber and marathon runner. It was precisely because of running that he discovered his passion for Ethiopia. Since 2009 he has been there several times, for tourism trips, but also for different other projects. Finally he and his friends set up SimienEcoTours, the company that Marco is now leading as General Manager. He’s also co-founder of Lela Trails, a company engaged in community tourism in Ethiopia, and Lela Outdoors, the country's first and only outdoor shop. Marco is now based in Addis Ababa where he lives since 2014 with his Ethiopian wife and 2 children.