Listen to Noomii's interview with Federico Malatesta

About Me

Federico Malatesta is the founder of FM Transformational Coaching™, a practice that unites executive insight, leadership frameworks, and lived experience to explore how identity evolves through change.

Rooted in narrative theory, neuroscience, and contemporary psychoanalytic thought, Federico’s work helps individuals and organizations interpret context, act with coherence, and translate insight into meaningful, sustained results, for an exhilarating second half of life.

Previously Chief Investment Officer for a $40 billion energy portfolio, Federico now applies the discipline of global finance to the psychology of transformation.

Born in Rome, Italy, his life has spanned several countries and countless roles: academic, journalist, entrepreneur, traveller, and ranch hand. His story is less a résumé than an exploration of how identity shifts across contexts.

Federico is also the founder of The Artha Ranch in Perrin, Texas functions as both a reflective coaching retreat and a working horse ranch, where Federico breeds and rides reined cow horses, keeping the work of transformation grounded in the grit of daily reality.

Through his signature FM Equine Coaching™ program, Federico engages with Executive and Transformational coaching clients in a rare form of experiential learning. Horses respond instantly to shifts in presence, emotion, and intention, reflecting what words often conceal. Within this silent dialogue, leaders learn to align thought, emotion, and action, deepening empathy, clarity, and trust.

Federico writes and speaks on leadership, identity formation, and the complexity of midlife transformation. His essays appear in his newsletter ‘Almost Everything Is Context’ , published across his website and Substack. He is the author of two books - Trading On Line (1999) and Oil and Europe (2000) - and is currently writing his third, an exploration of selfhood, desire, and the challenge of redesigning life’s second act, to be published in 2026.