Catia Bastioli

CEO Gruppo Novamont

Catia Bastioli is a chemist, scientist and entrepreneur.

She is the CEO of the Novamont Group, a company created from the results of her research into the development of bioplastics and biochemicals from renewable sources according to a model of circular bio-economy which she developed as a territorial regeneration with soil and water quality at its heart.  

She is also President of the Kyoto Club Association and of the Italian Circular Bioeconomy Cluster SPRING. Full member of the Club of Rome, she was President of Terna from 2014 to 2019.

She has been a member of important European Commission working groups on climate change, the environment and the bioeconomy, such as the Mission Board on Soil Health and Food. She was awarded “European Inventor of the Year 2007” in the field of biopolymers. She has been awarded an Honorary Degree in Industrial Chemistry (2008, University of Genoa), in Materials Engineering (2016, University of Palermo) and in Business Administration (2018, University of Foggia) and an Honorary Doctorate in Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering (2019, University of Bologna). He has been a Cavaliere del Lavoro since 2017.

Beatrice Bauer

Associate Professor of Practice, SDA Bocconi School of Management

Over the last 30 years I have run workshops in several European countries in companies such as Rolex, Eni, Boeringher, Prysmian, Danone, on leadership in challenging situations.  The topics dealt with are: how to help managers to abandon an obsolete leadership style that is dysfunctional with the context and the objectives, manage the resistance to change of their employees, invest in the creation of a positive company climate and develop participation at all levels of the company.  As a psychotherapist, I started and ran an interdisciplinary facility for psychosomatic disorders for 25 years and worked as a sports psychologist preparing sports teams for the Olympics.  

Tito Boeri

Professor of Economics,Bocconi University

He has been Centennial Professor at London School of Economics, Senior Economist at the OECD, consultant to the IMF, WB, EC, ILO as well as the Italian Government, and has served as President of the Italian Social Security administration (INPS). He has been director of the Rodolfo Debenedetti Foundation since its establishment in 1998. He is a fellow of the European Economic Association and the European Association of Labour Economists. He is a columnist for La Repubblica, a founder of the economic information website www.lavoce.info and of the federated English-language website www.voxeu.org. He is the scientific director of the International Festival of Economics in Torino.

Andrea Boltho

Emeritus Fellow, The Magdalene College, Oxford

Andrea Boltho has been an Emeritus Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford University since 2008, where he was a Fellow and Tutor in Economics from 1977 to 2007. From 1966 to 1977 he worked at the OECD in Paris. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of Finmeccanica and is a Director of Oxford Economics.

Andrea Cabrini

Director, Class CNBC

Since 2001 he has been the director of Class CNBC (Sky 507); since September 2012 he has also been co-editor-in-chief of Milano Finanza.

He conducts: CEO Talks, exclusive interviews with the CEOs of leading Italian and foreign companies; Italia 4.0, the programme dedicated to the digital transformation of companies and technological innovation; CNBC’s Italian connections.

He is also responsible for Class Editori’s Creative Solutions and Corporate Television business units.

He was editor-in-chief and presenter of Mediaset news programmes for ten years.

Mario Calabresi

CEO & Editor-in-Chief, Be Content

He wrote the entry “Curiosity” for the Zingarelli dictionary, because he is convinced that curiosity is the engine of the world and the best companion in life. A journalist and writer, he began his career as a parliamentary reporter at Ansa, was a correspondent in the United States and directed La Stampa and La Repubblica. He has written seven books: the first was Spingendo la notte più in là, the last Quello che non ti dicono. He dedicates himself to experimenting with new forms of journalism and fiction, convinced that technologies do not kill information but rather multiply the possibilities of dissemination. He has a weekly newsletter called Altre/Storie. He runs Chora Media, of which he is one of the founders.

Massimo Canducci

Faculty Global, Singularity University

He is a member of the Advisory Group “Standardization for Emerging Technologies and Innovations 

and Innovations” which guides ISO’s strategic choices on a worldwide 

on emerging technologies and innovation.

Keynote speaker at national and international conferences on the topics of 

Innovation, Digital Transformation, Innovation Management and the Future. 

Management and the Future.

He is professor at Executive MBA Ticinensis, teaches Innovation Management 

at the University of Turin and Consultancy and Soft Skills at MIBE 

University of Pavia, and is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Pavia. 

of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Florence.

Giovanni D’Alessandro

General Director, Basko

He has developed his professional career between Brand Industry and Retail, holding roles of increasing responsibility.

His personal background is strongly focused on leading teams and implementing complex plans.

For 8 years in the Sogegross Group, a distribution reality based in Genoa, he was immediately entrusted with the Sales, Marketing and Communication Management of Basko Supermarkets. In the last 6 years, assuming the responsibility of General Manager of Basko, he was able to design and manage Strategic Plans that generated a growth in market share and brand reputation of the Company. 

Since January 2022, he has also been Lead Director of the “Retail” project of the Sogegross Group.

He considers crucial the human impact that a leader can have in the teams he has to manage, where one of the most important tasks is to choose the right people and commit them to the right roles. 

Alessandro d’Este

President and CEO, Ferrero

Alessandro d’Este graduated in Economics in Florence and completed post-graduate courses in General Management at Emory University, INSEAD and Cranfield University.

He has gained experience in several industries: Retail, FMCG and Durable Products in the Marketing, Sales and Supply Chain functions, in Europe, USA and Asia.

He joined Ferrero, since January 2016, as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Italian Trading Company.

Since June 2020 he has been President of IBC.

Giorgio De Rita

Secretary General of Censis

He holds a degree in aeronautical engineering from La Sapienza University in Rome. Since 2014 he has been Secretary General of Censis, a research institute that is a leading player in studies on the development of Italian society and the economy. 

After his military service in the Fire Brigade Corps, he worked in public and private companies as a researcher. Subsequently, he became Director of the Inarcassa Studies and Institutional Relations Service; Head of development projects and external relations in a large real estate company; Managing Director of Nomisma Società di studi economici; in 2009 he was appointed by the President of the Council of Ministers as Director General of Cnipa, then DigitPa and Agenzia per l’Italia digitale. Since 1993 he has held teaching positions at various Italian universities and has participated as a speaker in seminars and conferences on changes in Italian society and technological innovation. President since 2018 of the National Prize for Scientific Disclosure. 

Paolo Magri

Vice President, ISPI

Paolo Magri is Executive Vice President of ISPI and Professor of International Relations at Bocconi University. 

He is a member of the Strategic Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and of the Europe Policy Group of the World Economic Forum (Davos); a member of the Board of Experts of GLOBSEC Global Europe Initiative and of the Advisory Board of Assolombarda and of the Board of Directors of the Italy-China Foundation. He is also a member of the Scientific Committee of: Centre of Excellence for Stability Police Units (CoESPU); Military Centre for Strategic Studies (Ce.Mi.S.S.); Fondazione Italia per il dono Onlus. 

A freelance journalist, he is a regular commentator on television and radio networks.

Luca Mercalli

President of Italian Meteorological Society – Scientific Journalist

Luca Mercalli (Turin, 1966), climatologist, master in mountain sciences at the Université de Savoie-Mont-Blanc, editor of the magazine Nimbus, is president of the Società Meteorologica Italiana, a national association founded in 1865. He researches Alpine climates and glaciers, teaches environmental sustainability in schools and universities in Italy (University of Turin-SSST), Switzerland and France, and practices it himself, living in a solar-powered house, travelling by electric car and cultivating his vegetable garden. He is a consultant to the European Union and scientific advisor to ISPRA-Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale. For RAI he has participated in “Che tempo che fa”, “Scala Mercalli” and “TGMontagne” and Rainews24. A columnist for Il Fatto Quotidiano, he worked first at La Repubblica and then at La Stampa and has thousands of articles and over 2600 lectures to his credit. His books include: Filosofia delle nuvole (Rizzoli), Viaggi nel tempo che fa (Einaudi), Prepariamoci (Chiarelettere), Non c’è più tempo (Einaudi), Il clima che cambia (BUR), Salire in montagna (Einaudi) and the children’s book Uffa che caldo (ElectaKids).

Carlo Montalbetti

General Manager of Comieco

General Manager of Comieco Consorzio Nazionale Riciclo e Recupero imballaggi a base Cellulosica. Expert in business management with particular specialisation in the management of industrial cycles related to paper and cardboard recycling and environmental sustainability. Author of several publications on the recycling industry and on waste management and recovery. Member of the Symbola Foundation Committee; of the Strategic Committee of the University of Gastronomic Sciences of Pollenzo; of the Institute for Enterprise Values (Bocconi University); member of the scientific committee of CSEA (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore); of the Board of Directors of Scuole Civiche Milanesi, of the Amerigo Association (International Cultural Exchanges Programs Alumni); member of the Board of Directors of Sacbo (Società Aeroporto Civile Bergamo Orio al Serio).

Francesco Mutti

CEO Mutti

Francesco Mutti was born in 1968 in Parma, the beating heart of the Food Valley. After graduating from Cardiff University with a degree in Finance & Management, he became Managing Director of Mutti, the family business, and has been leading its continuous growth since 1994. 

His entrepreneurial project is based on 5 strategic drivers: a strong investment in people; the focus on the search for the highest quality starting from the product and then the enhancement of relationships with the agricultural world; a continuous search for innovation to offer products with high added value; a focus on the growth of the brand in international markets; a responsible construction of good economic, social, environmental practices.

In 2017 Francesco Mutti was made a Cavaliere del Lavoro by the President of the Republic and since 2018 he has been President of Centromarca.

Denis Pantini

Agrifood Manager, Nomisma

Head of the Agriculture and Food Industry Business Unit and of the Wine Monitor of Nomisma spa. An economist, he provides technical and strategic consultancy for companies in the food and wine industry, as well as political and economic advisory services for associations and institutions in the agri-food chain. Author of numerous publications, in particular on agricultural policy, economics and marketing of wine and quality food products, he is a member of the National Order of Journalists as a publicist and collaborates with numerous magazines in the agri-food sector. His various publications include: “The Italian food industry beyond Covid-19” published by Egea (2020), “Wine Marketing, 2003, 2008 and 2018 editions”; “Marketing of typical products” (2010), “Wine beyond the crisis” (2011), “Ci salveranno gli chef” (2013), published by Agra Editrice. A lecturer at the Master’s degree course at the Sant’Anna high school in Pisa on “Italian wines and world markets”, he has participated in numerous conferences on the economy and marketing of wine and the competitiveness of the food industry as an expert and speaker.

Marco Pedroni

President ANCC Coop

Marco Pedroni, from Reggio Emilia, graduated in Economics and Business at the University of Modena in the 1984-85 academic year; for a number of years he was involved in industrial economics research and post-graduate training at IFOA. 

He joined Coop Consumatori Nordest in 1992 and held various positions (personnel, management control, sales) before being appointed Chairman of the Cooperative, a position he held from 2001 to 2013. 

He has been a director of Unipol and Chairman of Finsoe. From 2014 to 2017 he was Chairman of GS1 Italia – Indicod ECR and of Coopernic, the European Cooperative Central that aggregates Coop Italia, Leclerc, Ahold-Delhaize and Rewe.

Since 2013 he has been Chairman of Coop Italia

Since 2020 he has been Chairman of ADM, Associazione Distribuzione Moderna.

Since December 2020 he has been President of ANCC_Coop.

Vincenzo Perrone

Professor of Business Organization, Bocconi University

Vincenzo Perrone Professor of Business Organisation, Bocconi University, Milan. Here he was also Research Pro-rector. He is a member of the boards of several companies and a consultant to numerous entrepreneurs and business teams on the topics of strategy, organisational design, leadership, effective communication, change management and the enhancement of human potential in a corporate organisation. He has published in internationally respected journals such as Organization Science and California Management Review. He helped found and develop the fin-tech Leanus, the web-based platform for analysing corporate accounting data.

Francesco Pugliese

Managing Director, Conad

Francesco Pugliese is managing director of Conad, the largest organisation of independent cooperative retail entrepreneurs. 

Since joining Conad in 2004, he has promoted and strengthened its commercial development to achieve outstanding performance. 

He is a member of the board of AgeCore, the strategic alliance between four of Europe’s largest retail groups: Conad (Italy), Eroski (Spain), Colruyt (Belgium) and Coop Suisse (Switzerland).

He holds the position of president of GS1 Italy, the association that brings together 35,000 FMCG companies with the aim of facilitating collaboration between companies in the name of innovation and efficiency, and is a member of the executive committee of ADM – Associazione Distribuzione Moderna.

In December 2021 he led the entry of the Conad system into Confcommercio-Imprese per l’Italia, the largest business representation active in Italy with over 700,000 members, taking on the role of Vice-President with responsibility for taxation and business finance.

He is a board member of UPA – the association body that brings together the most important and prestigious industrial, commercial and service companies that invest in advertising and communication. 

A leading manager in the food and distribution sector, he was General Manager Europe at Barilla and Managing Director and General Manager of the Yomo Group.

In May 2019, the President of the Republic made him a Cavaliere del Lavoro (Knight of Labour) for his activities over the 35 years he spent in the trade and food sector.

In 2015 he published the book Tra l’asino e il cane. Conversazione sull’Italia che non c’è, together with the editor of il Foglio Claudio Cerasa.

Giorgio Santambrogio

CEO Gruppo VéGé, General Manager VéGé Retail

Giorgio Santambrogio is CEO of Gruppo VéGé and General Manager of VéGé Retail.  Deputy Vice President of Federdistribuzione, with responsibility for digitalisation. Founder and EC member of Aicube in Italy and Grupo IFA in Europe.  Former President of the Associazione Distribuzione Moderna, he is Vice President of the Retail Institute Italy and member of the Executive Committee of GS1. He is a columnist and discussant and works as a lecturer, chairman and speaker for Masters, Universities, Institutes and Trade Associations, both nationally and internationally.  The focus of his speeches is on the social, cultural and economic development dynamics of retail and the entire Italian food industry.

Renzo Sartori

President, Number 1 Logistic Group

Renzo Sartori was born in Treviso and graduated in engineering from Padua. He developed his skills in logistics through managerial positions in the public sector (he was first director and then president of Ente Magazzini Generali in Padua) and in various start-ups (he oversaw the creation of the Veneto Region’s logistics meta-district). He took part in the foundation of the Sincro Consortium and concentrated his efforts on the development of advanced integrated logistics systems. In 2011 he creates with other partners the Fisi group, that the following year will acquire Number 1 Logistics group, a company from Parma leader in Italy in integrated logistics for consumer goods that from April 2020 is also the first benefit company in the sector in Europe. Currently Sartori, president of Number1, collaborates with the Contract Logistics Observatory, of the Polytechnic of Milan, participating in the working team dedicated to research and innovation of the Italian market and logistics outsourcing. He is also vice president of Assologistica and member of the national board of ANITA.

Beppe Severgnini

Journalist, Corriere Della Sera

Beppe Severgnini is a columnist and deputy editor of il Corriere della Sera, where he arrived in 1995. For the daily newspaper in Via Solferino, he has run the blog Italians (since 1998), a weekly column of the same name (since 2001), the video magazine Fotosintesi (since 2019) and the podcast RadioItalians (since 2021). He edited the weekly 7 for 777 days between 2017 and 2019.

From 2013 to 2021 he was opinion writer for The New York Times, from 1996 to 2003 correspondent in Italy for The Economist. He worked for Indro Montanelli’s Giornale (1981-1994) and for Voce (1994-1995).

He is the author of many books, translated into several languages. The first is ‘Inglesi’ (1990), the most recent is ‘Un italiano’, written with Francesco Paolo Figliuolo (2022). “La testa degli italiani” (2005) became a New York Times bestseller with the title “La Bella Figura: A Field Guide to the Italian Mind’, and is translated into fifteen languages.

From “Life is a Journey” (2014) he adapted a play, which he interpreted himself. In 2015-2016 he conceived, wrote and hosted “L’erba dei vicini” (Rai 3). For Rai he had already presented “Italians, that is Italians” (1997) and “Luoghi comuni, un viaggio in Italia” (2001 and 2002). He has worked for Sky Italia (2004-2010) and since 2011 has participated in “Otto e mezzo” (La7).

In 2106-2017 he created “Rock&Talk” on Virgin Radio. Between 2007 and 2013 he collaborated with Radio Montecarlo (RMC), previously with Rai Radio 2 and BBC radio.

Beppe Severgnini graduated from the University of Pavia and worked as a foreign correspondent in London, Moscow, Washington DC; he covered Eastern Europe, China, the Middle East.

He taught at the “Walter Tobagi” School of Journalism at the Università Statale di Milano (from 2010 to 2020). He has been Visiting Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT (2009) and at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (2013), Isaiah Berlin Visiting Scholar at Oxford University (2013), Visiting Lecturer at Politecnico in Milan (2021).

He has won several awards and was voted European Journalist of the Year in Brussels in 2004.

In 2001 Queen Elizabeth II awarded him the title of Officer of the British Empire and in 2011 he was made a Commendatore of the Italian Republic.

He lives in Crema and Milan.

Francesca Vecchioni

President, Diversity

A non-profit organisation committed to promoting social inclusion and organisational well-being through research, training, monitoring, consultancy and advocacy activities – she is an expert in communication, media language, hate speech and human rights, and a trainer on the issues of inclusion, discrimination, diversity management and unconscious bias. She is the creator of the Diversity Media Awards (DMA), a research project and media event dedicated to the representation of diversity in the national media, and the Diversity Brand Summit (DBS), which identifies the brands considered to be the most inclusive – always with reference to areas of diversity – and measures the economic value generated on the basis of an annual consumer-based research (DiversityBrand Index).

She published “Unconscious Prejudices. Why commonplaces are always so crowded”. (2020, Mondadori), “T’innamorerai senza pensare” (2015, Mondadori); signed the volumes “Parole o-stili di vita. Media e persone LGBTQIA+” (2020, Ordine dei Giornalisti Lombardia), “Maternità. Il tempo delle nuove mamme” (2015, Corriere della Sera) and “Le cose cambiano” (2013, Isbn Edizioni).

Marco Pellicci

Thought leadership team leader, NielsenIQ Italy

Marco Pellicci is eCommerce & Thought Leadership Team Leader, Italy at NielsenIQ. He is responsible for driving NielsenIQ’s eCommerce and Digital Shopping solutions, as well ensuring clients get the best insights to optimize their eCommerce performance. 

Marco began his career with NielsenIQ in 2012, working together with the top global manufacturers within the food, health, beauty and personal care industries. Two passions have remained constant throughout his NielsenIQ career: 1) building trusted client relationships to help them solve their biggest questions, and 2) uncovering insights behind the data that form compelling thought leadership. 

Marco is based in Milan, Italy. He is a passionate believer in digital transformation and regularly serves as a speaker on topics related to eCommerce, as well as retailer and consumer trends.  

Debora Costi

Analytics & Insights Manager, NielsenIQ Italy

After graduating in Economics and Business, Debora started her professional career in the field of market research, immediately developing a passion for understanding the “consumer” at 360°.   

She joined NielsenIQ in May 2015 as Senior Consultant and to date is responsible for the design and coordination of quantitative Consumer Panel surveys for several manufacturers and retailers.    

In about 10 years of experience he has worked with more than 40 Brands in the FMCG sector, interpreting insights from customised market research and analysing market trends, to support Marketing Managers of companies in defining short or medium-long term strategies aimed at growing their business.