The Squinzi Legacy

Several decades ago a young businessman, Rodolfo Squinzi, set out to carve his niche in the building industry and founded MAPEI as a small family business in Milan, Italy. It was his
vision to fill what he perceived as a void in the local construction industry by manufacturing interior and exterior paints and masonry repair products for commercial buildings, hospitals and airports. MAPEI opened its doors on February 12, 1937, with a three-person workforce.

Under Mr. Squinzi’s guidance, MAPEI expanded its manufacturing to adhesives for laying floors and floor coverings.

The company’s first adhesives were for linoleum, later followed by ceramic tile, stone, carpet, PVC and wood. Specialization became a hallmark of MAPEI. Always forward-thinking, Mr. Squinzi made it a personal mission to identify trends in the building and flooring industry and to stay a step ahead of those trends by bringing innovative products to market that immediately met the newly founded demands.

As the flooring industry grew, especially the Italian ceramic tile market, MAPEI recognized a need for setting materials that would make tile installation faster and more secure. MAPEI developed products that provided its customers with timesaving processes, more reliable installations and better yields.
Today, Rodolfo’s son, Dr. Giorgio Squinzi, an industrial chemistry graduate, heads this multinational company. MAPEI has become the world’s leader in the manufacture of mortars, adhesives, grouts, sealants, waterproofing agents, additives for concrete and other specialty products for the building industry. MAPEI remains a family-owned and -operated business and is a privately held entity generating annual revenues of more than one billion U.S. dollars. The tradition of MAPEI is one that has expanded from the Squinzi family in Italy to encircle the globe, including the Western Hemisphere (MAPEI Americas).

 

MAPEI Americas
In the 1970s, MAPEI began expanding across Europe and, in 1978, into Canada, where MAPEI Inc. housed the first manufacturing plant outside of Italy. In 1983, Nicholas Di Tempora, a businessman from Canada, partnered with Dr. Squinzi to create MAPEI Corporation in the United States.

In the years that followed, Mr. Di Tempora strategically increased MAPEI Corporation’s locations throughout the United States.

 

Today, the operations in the Western Hemisphere are united under the banner of MAPEI Americas, which comprises affiliates and subsidiaries
in Canada, the United States, the Caribbean and South America. In 2000, headquarters were moved to Deerfield Beach, Florida, to centralize management of the various operations.

 

Under Mr. Di Tempora's leadership, growth and expansion have been steady and widespread throughout MAPEI Americas.In 2006, Mr. Di Tempora retired, and Rainer Blair became President and CEO of MAPEI Americas. Mr. Blair is focused on moving MAPEI Americas to the next level of performance excellence and strengthening MAPEI's global brand of technological innovation.