The Operational Legacy
The Lympha Prize is not just a memorial award. It is an attempt to turn an entrepreneurial biography into a tool for new businesses led by women. “An idea without a network remains a dream,” says Patti. And this is where the memory of his wife becomes operational: incubation, accompaniment, relationships, access to an ecosystem.
Mandarano had dedicated an important part of her commitment to female entrepreneurship: for ten years she chaired the Catania Chamber of Commerce Committee, was vice-president of Confindustria Catania and general director of the Catania Ricerche Consortium.
‘Female talent, in enterprise and technology, is the resource that the South wastes the most,’ Patti argued, recalling his wife’s conviction.
The winners of previous editions
In 2024, Valentina Mancuso won with ‘Neurocognitive Virtual Reality’, software to anticipate the diagnosis of cognitive impairment. In 2025, the prize went to Sarah Kamsu, founder of We Africans United, a cultural ecosystem that produces digital content, events, a map of the Afro-Italian diaspora and the Spazio WAU in Milan.
The question is industrial: can an area that has built parts of its economy on chemistry, traditional energy and utilities transform those skills into new enterprise? The answer comes through Proteo, Etna Hi-Tech, GreenWaveR and Premio Lympha. “Proteo, EHT, GreenWaveR, the Lympha Prize: a single thread,” says Patti.
