"[6] Over the next two years the trio backed Giampaolo in opening up two health clubs, investing $50,000 to capitalise on the then-new trend for Nautilus fitness machines.

In 1987 Bally selected Giampaolo to set up and lead its business in the UK, beginning with The Barbican Health and Fitness Centre.

In 1991 Giampaolo set up Forza, a European exercise equipment distributor for several fitness brands, including Reebok and Cybex.

In 1998 he and Mark Mastrov co-founded Fitness Holdings Europe, a private-equity-backed investment vehicle, to open and acquire small chains of European health clubs.

[9] Giampaolo left 24-Hour Fitness in 2001 to begin work on a management buy-in of investor club Pi Capital, which completed in 2002.

Andrew Davidson, writing in The Sunday Times, describes Pi's membership as "... drawn from the business elite of Britain, [pooling] money and know-how to back fledgling firms.

[20] Under Giampaolo the club has refocused to become more like a salon, arranging monthly events with speakers on intellectual as well as financial topics.

Previous speakers include Bill Clinton, Kofi Annan, Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, Gillian Tett, Michael Lewis, Garry Kasparov and Dominic Barton, global MD of McKinsey.

"[21] The article drew parallels between Pi Capital's events and those of non-financial salons in London, such the 14-10 club, Intelligence Squared and the 5x15 talk series.

[23] Giampaolo is currently on the Board of Directors of Zumba Fitness and election technology group SGO, the parent company to Smartmatic.

Founded by James Balsillie, William Janeway and George Soros, INET is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working in promotion of new economic theories to address social issues such as wealth inequality and environmental sustainability.

Giampaolo is an ambassador for the Aurora Forum, a thought-leadership programme in support of social, scientific, technological, educational, and humanitarian innovation, hosted in Armenia.

[29] In May 2013 Giampaolo became patron of Pro Bono Economics, the not-for-profit organisation which matches volunteer economists with charities.