Corrado Passera

Minister of Economic Development, Infrastructure and Transport in the Mario Monti government. He graduated in business economics from the University Bocconi of Milan and was awarded an MA in Business Administration at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, after which he worked for five years at the international consultancy firm McKinsey & Co. In 1985 be began his professional career with the De Benedetti Group, during which time he held various posts, including chief operating officer of the CIR, deputy chairman of Credito Romagnolo, chief operating officer of Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, deputy chairman and chief executive officer of Editoriale L’Espresso, co-chief executive officer of Olivetti. In July 1996 he was called by Giovanni Bazoli to head Banco Ambroveneto and to oversee the first major process of aggregation in the Italian banking market – the merger with Cariplo – which led to the establishment of Banca Intesa. In 1998 he was appointed managing director of Poste Italiane. In 2002 he returned to Banca Intesa as managing director, a post he continued to hold following the merger with Sanpaolo IMI that led to the creation of Intesa Sanpaolo, which he left in 2011 to enter the Monti Government.