Always in the launch phase.
If we had to choose a single phrase to summarize Maurizio Croceri’s professional and personal journey, it would be this. Without any doubt.
For those who work with him, whether they have been by his side for many years or have just started to get to know him, it is an obvious fact, an innate, contagious, propulsive energy.
To be close to Maurizio, you need to have a certain attitude, be ready to spring into action, but at the same time know when it is right to stop and observe. 
After all, throughout his career, no one has ever heard him say, “Goal achieved.” Not out of dissatisfaction, but for a very simple reason: a few steps before reaching the goal he has set for himself, Maurizio moves it several meters further or even revolutionizes it. Always.
His story is different from what one might expect. 
It does not follow a predetermined path or even a straight line. 
It is a story made up of insights, encounters, and often unexpected coincidences, never decided or planned in advance.

But we should rather start from the beginning.
Maurizio was born in 1983, in Corridonia, province of Macerata (Italy), during years of great turmoil, when the population was growing like never before and people were beginning to imagine a new expressiveness for those places. 
Maurizio’s father, Corrado Croceri, has been Italian Judo champion multiple times. One could say that Corrado passed on his passion to his son. But that is not the only thing Corrado passed on to Maurizio. 
Their relationship is marked by the discreet and explosive power of discipline, as energy, speed, technique, and positioning are not enough. In judo, it is essential to be able to stop, even for just a moment, and train yourself to observe. 

Maurizio is first and foremost an athlete, by education and dedication. 
Commitment, sacrifice, perseverance, tenacity, determination, concentration, vision, thinking, temperament and character, challenging and surpassing himself are the pillars of his DNA, the sparks of his personality. He is a genuine and sharp young man from the Marche region, attached to his land and its artisanal and industrial driving force. Maurizio is also attracted to everything that is distant, innovative, still in the experimental phase, everything that transcends boundaries.

That is why in 2001, at the age of just 18, Maurizio left to study at Katsuura, Japan, at the International Budo University. For him, there could be no better school of economics than that. Maurizio absorbed it fully and turned it into a strategic asset.
When he returned to Italy, his career took off rapidly. He learned to observe, and when you master this technique, you can understand what is happening around you at a different pace from others. Before working on concepts and numbers, Maurizio worked on his essence, like all athletes. And he brought this ability with him into his way of doing business, holding on to it tightly, with his fingernails and teeth.
Everyone who has crossed his path remembers him well – he learns very quickly. 
He takes on ventures that others prefer not to undertake, always with great energy, and his approach surprises the veteran entrepreneurs who place their trust in him. 
As for the more difficult ones, Maurizio wins their trust through perseverance, another of the qualities that judo has allowed him to develop.

At just 20 years of age, he took on the role of Commercial Director of Fornari SPA, 
In 2016, at just over 30 years of age, he reached a new milestone, founding ELI Group, a company based in Civitanova Marche, 51% owned by Eccellenze Italiane Holding, headed by Marco Marchi, and 49% by Resilience Holding, linked to Croceri. 
Maurizio recognized the great value in creating synergy between the Liu Jo brand and a new way of doing business in the Marche footwear district. It was a visionary insight.
ELI Group is a hotbed of innovation and creativity that draws on experience and expertise to create, enhance, produce, and distribute women’s, men’s, and children’s footwear under the Liu Jo brand, in the spirit of true Italian style. It is a creative hub that plans and manages every step of the value chain, from design to marketing. 
Behind these surprising results lies not only technical and strategic know-how and a team with excellent skills, but above all Maurizio’s vision, his ability to understand that the challenge is to create and sell identities rather than just products, and that the relationship with the target audience is consolidated by building unique and multisensory experiences with the brand.
Meanwhile, the first awards arrive, from the Micam Contemporary Booth Winner Award to the “Industria Felix” award for the most competitive and reliable companies run by someone under 40 years of age. For some, this might seem like a milestone. For him, it is a new beginning.


A few years later, in 2021 Enterprise Japan was born, the first project of the ELI Group’s creative HUB, with which Maurizio produces high-profile sneakers, a project that combines sustainability, regeneration, and vision. Numerous testimonials appreciate its personality, which combines design with street style, including Sfera Ebbasta and Blanco.

The research continues, and in 2022, in Villa Luciani, he also launches ELI Factory, an engineering and footwear production hub capable of interpreting the new demands of the luxury market.

At the helm of the Eli FACTORY industrial structure is his brother Andrea Croceri, with whom he returns to collaborate, sharing the long-term strategic vision.

A year later, he also collaborated with Pinko, a mid-to-high-end total look brand, completely Made in Italy, founded in 1986 in Fidenza.
Meanwhile, Maurizio’s energies remain anchored to his love for his family and his homeland, a love that permeates the various aspects of his life as a man and as an entrepreneur. One thing Maurizio cannot do is that he never divides the aspects of his life. This is why “ELI Group” is not a random label: it comes from the name of his daughter, Elena. And perhaps it is through Elena that Maurizio also reveals his desire to work for his region, to implement everything he knows to new scenarios.
Elena loves horses and enjoys horse riding. Maurizio accompanies her. He leaves the company every afternoon and, with her, returns to the open spaces where he went as a child. Today, he sees them with new eyes. Once again, as he learned in Katsuura, he, who is always quick and would never give up a call, stops for a moment, puts down his phone, and observes. At that point, the intuition emerges quickly. He wants to devote himself to his land, to the territory where he grew up and which he wants to enhance, almost as if to give back what he has benefited from.

Also in 2022, in a historic three-story building 100 meters from the ‘Piazza’ of Civitanova Marche, he created Palazzo 1927, an accommodation facility dedicated to international hospitality, with an elegant, refined, and authentic aesthetic. It is a place with an ancient, centuries-old history. Maurizio wants, at all costs, to rediscover that history.

He did not stop at the city. The following year, in 2023, he acquired a large piece of agricultural land in Porto Sant’Elpidio, where he established Croceri Farm, a project designed to promote the historical culture of the Marche region, its products, and a lifestyle closer to nature, seeking a slower pace of life and a quiet, exploratory, and meditative atmosphere.
Croceri Farm is a life project, a way to return to a genuine pace and values, without sacrificing the research, innovation, and comfort that a place like this can offer, thus consolidating a path that combines innovation, attention to detail, and vision in the equestrian world, with training and animal welfare as essential values and assets.
Today, the farm is already bearing fruit, from extra virgin olive oil to wine with an evocative flavor and, above all, with the many varieties of vegetables and fruit that come from the salt-scented soil to the table, enriching convivial moments with authentic flavors. The Croceri Farm project is further enhanced with content and meaning, and in the fall of 2026 it will also become a HUB dedicated to the main equestrian disciplines, i.e. show jumping, dressage, reining, and eventing – designed to become a reference point in technical training and contemporary equestrian culture.
The facility covers 40 hectares and will have facilities designed to ensure functionality, safety, and aesthetic quality: a 5,400 square-meter open arena, an 800 square-meter covered field, a 900 meter-long riding arena, 30 muavé wood stalls, two 10,000 square-meter paddocks, a veterinary infirmary, eight lodges, a clubhouse, and a technical area to accommodate up to 80 temporary stalls. The facilities are designed to host sporting, training, and representative activities in an architectural context that prioritizes sustainability and landscape integration.
The center will also host a selection of training projects run by leading Italian players in the sector, with training programs that combine technical expertise and a cultural approach, outlining the profiles of a platform that integrates training, nutrition, and mental preparation.

Since 2024, contaminations, networks, research, and vision have united Croceri Farm with FIERACAVALLI, the undisputed leader in the equestrian world for 127 years, both nationally and internationally.
In 2024, Maurizio became creative director of Fieracavalli, revamping the entire brand identity and media strategy, giving visibility to the format on other channels, involving excellent partners, and attracting investors from different businesses with the same goal: to create value.

In the 2025 edition of Fieracavalli, Maurizio became ACADEMY Partner and launched FIERACAVALLI LAB, a project born from the collaboration between Croceri Farm, GBK Academy, and Scuderia 1918, which offers a packed schedule of talks, meet & greets, and events with athletes, icons, and distinguished personalities from the equestrian world, building value for the sector, training, and ethical respect for the animal, the horse, which has always been at man’s side in his endeavors.
In September 2025, Maurizio Croceri, at just 42 years of age, became the new CEO and shareholder of Liu Jo.
The appointment came from his partner and brand founder Marco Marchi, who saw in Maurizio the potential to attract a younger audience and develop the brand’s internationalization. But above all, the Carpi-based entrepreneur saw himself in Maurizio, who is ambitious and has the qualities and energy to lead Liu Jo into a new phase. 
Croceri is not only the CEO of Liu Jo but also of Exelite, the platform that includes Liu Jo along with Eli Group, Digital Boite, and Blumarine.
“The journey with Marco Marchi continues to climb and with great strategic and financial solidity. The future of the premium segment will be rewritten in a new model. We are confident and have clear ideas for the present and the future,” says Maurizio.
“I’m not interested in positions. I’m interested in creating value.”
That’s right. Maurizio returns as a beginner every time. This is his strength.
He lets himself be carried away by enthusiasm and euphoria, but always with planning and strategic vision. Every time, he is passionate and dedicated. Because he knows very well that this is where the driving energy comes from, which gives him everything else and provides the impetus for new future challenges.