Pen Talk: Interview with Montegrappa CEO Giuseppe Aquila at Stout NYC
On Monday, May 14th, we had the pleasure of traveling to New York City for the first Montegrappa Passport Series tour meetup at Stout NYC. There, we were able to meet Montegrappa's CEO, Giuseppe Aquila. He traveled from Italy with his daugther to meet with American pen enthusiasts and showcase the full line of writing instruments. Thankfully, Kenro Industries (US distributors of Montegrappa) and Giuseppe were kind enough to grant us a video interview an hour before the meetup took place.
Giuseppe was a wonderful and pleasant interviewee. We talked about his family's history with the Montegrappa brand, starting in the 1930's. He showed us a brand new, "revolutionary" pen. He also shared a story about how Sylvester Stallone approached him about the Montegrappa Chaos pen.
After we concluded the interview, we had the chance to mingle with all the attendees at the meetup. Some we've met before from other meet-ups and pen shows. We passed around our newest spring catalog, which had just been delivered to our door earlier in the day.
Hats off to the hospitality of Stout NYC. The backroom we had to ourselves was an excellent space for our meetup. Their staff was more than accommodating when we showed up early with camera equipment. They also kept the drinks flowing once the meetup commenced.
Thank you to our partners at Kenro Industries, Montegrappa and Signor Aquila for working with us in producing this excellent interview.