Up and above: from 4,000 meters up in the sky to the place where Simone Favat learned to enjoy life

The image of a discretely tattooed motorbike rider who loves skydiving and martial arts is not that common yet among business people in Romania. But Simone Favat, the general manager of IQ Facilities Management, deals well with combining a couple of outdoor activities not for the faint-hearted with a more down-to-Earth activity: the real estate asset management business. By Corina Saceanu Simone Favat has jumped off airplanes 1,600 times and has more than 40 flying hours in the wind tunnel - the equivalent of other 2,400 jumps. He has seen the Earth from 4,000 meters above in the sky on numerous occasions while holding hands with his skydiving formation team colleagues. Yet, this is not his main activity- nor his day to day job, which is managing real estate assets, but it is one of Simone's greatest passions. The first 'jump' from Italy to Romania was in 2000, when he run a due diligence on a Romanian company. It was not the best first encounter with the country. The deal didn't go through and for some time his contacts with Romania consisted of in and out flights and short stays in the country. As with many coming for the first time to the country,

“I didn't know much about Romania before coming here. In 2000 Romania was quite a mystery for me. But I have been living here since 2007. My understanding of Romania was completely different before that, spending one week at the time in a hotel room didn't help me understand the country,” says Simone Favat.