Franco Bulian is the new director of Catas, Europe's leading testing laboratory for the wood-furnishing industry, which carries out over 50,000 tests every year at its sites in San Giovanni al Natisone (Udine) and Lissone (Monza Brianza).
Born in 1960, from Udine, married with two children, Franco Bulian began his professional career in 1987 when he joined the chemical analysis department of Catas, becoming deputy manager and marketing director.  His long involvement with Catas has given him first-hand knowledge of its activities, as well as active participation in its growth.
“I am proud to complete my career at Catas with this new and prestigious challenge,“ he said. “I would like to thank the board of directors and president Lucia Cristina Piu for their trust and I am sure that together with all the talented Catas staff, their enthusiasm, passion and skills we will be able to achieve new and ambitious goals with the renewed aim of contributing to improving the safety and performance of products in this important industrial sector.“
A graduate in Pure Chemistry from the University of Padua, Franco Bulian is a contract professor in the course “Materials and Technologies of the Furniture Industry“ at the University of Trieste and the author of numerous books and technical publications.
Bulian thus takes over from Andrea Giavon, who is leaving the institute due to age limit. He received the thanks of the board of directors and all the institute's employees and collaborators for his enormous contribution to the growth of Catas, which he joined when he was very young, in 1984. To say goodbye to Giavon, Catas employees and collaborators collected a sum which, in accordance with the wishes of the past-director himself, was donated to the Santa Maria della Misericordia hospital in Udine for the Covid-19 emergency.