03/02/2015

Thank you, Fausto. Your talent is still with us.

Throughout his life, Fausto Maranca was a man with a renaissance spirit: self-taught and talented. With great joy and optimism, he combined his passion for technological innovation, the environment, industrial leadership, music and sports.

He founded the company, and is known everywhere as the crucial promoter of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as fuel for vehicles in Argentina. His enthusiasm had an impact and spread over millions of people; still, he carried out every action with a humble spirit.

He was born in Florence in 1937, and was named Fausto María Luis Juan Rodolfo Benito Maranca. Along with his parents, he disembarked in the Buenos Aires port in August 1948. His father, one of the pioneers of aerophotogrammetry in Italy, had been hired to work at the Military Geographic Institute in Argentina.

After completing high school at Raggio Industrial High School, he opened his own electronics shop, and a few years later turned it into a small audiovisual development business.

In 1970, Galileo -at the time a company that manufactured electric gauges for gas and accessories for electronic equipment- identified his talent and interest for electronics and hired him as an electronics technician to work with precision metal mechanics. There, he developed a record player and electronic equipment for production control.

Over time, he took on more responsibility at Galileo. First, he was Marketing Manager and at the end of the year of 1979, he became Development Manager.

With a strong focus on generating new businesses for Galileo, which by then had become an important Westinghouse branch of the United States, he was the mastermind of Galileo La Rioja, within the framework of the Industrial Promotion Act. This new company allowed him to foresee the importance that CNG would have for the country, used as fuel for vehicles, and he dedicated all his efforts towards its technological development and the necessary regulatory framework.

In 1984, his vision on the use of CNG found solid ground with the return of democracy: President Raúl Alfonsín visited the province of La Rioja to obtain the support of Governor Carlos Menem for his campaign promoting the plebiscite in favor of the peace treaty with Chile.

As part of the official activities of the visit, Fausto invited the president to drive a Ford Fairlane, especially conditioned to run on CNG. The governor joined them and Fausto always remembered with amusement how nervous everyone was: ”The car would not start because the parking brake was engaged; when we released it, the car sprinted forward. President Alfonsín said: ”I almost ran over a supporter of my political party!”. Menem quickly replied:  ”Be careful doctor. If you run over the only supporter you have, there will be none left in La Rioja”.

The boldness of Fausto’s idea was rewarded with the approval by the maximum national authority: in December of 84, the first two gas stations providing CNG were inaugurated, and taxis and utility vehicles belonging to Gas del Estado (State Gas Company) were converted to show the economic and environmental benefits of this new type of fuel.

The unprecedented success of this advertising initiative turned Argentina into a country with one of the largest vehicle fleet running on CNG; almost two and a half million automobiles. The country also became a role model and later an exporter of this type of technology.

Shortly after, Westinghouse had a change in partnership at their headquarters in the United States, and decided that the gas business was not to be part of their new strategy. Fausto, determined to continue developing his industrialist vision, bought the company with the support of Argentine investors.

And so, GNC Galileo was born. Fausto became its president and the first factory of compressors and inputs for the conversion of vehicles was constructed. CNG stations began to multiply and Galileo introduced the Microbox, Gigabox and Nanobox packed compressors. Also, the company developed the Virtual Gas Pipeline, for small communities to replace costly gas cylinders for more efficient gas consumption, as implemented in big cities.

Currently, GNC Galileo is Galileo Technologies, and carries on Fausto’s legacy.

  • exporting products to 65 countries
  • innovating in the use of Liquefied Natural Gas through Cryobox
  • manufacturing compressors for the exploitation of gas and hydrocarbons.
  • employing a team exclusively dedicated to Research and Development.

For all of this: thank you, Fausto. Your talent is still with us. We are still inspired by you. 


  • Fausto Maranca (1937-2015)

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