Franco Debenedetti

Director

Franco Debenedetti was born on January 7 1933 in Turin. He graduated in 1956 from the Turin Polytechnic in Electrical Engineering; in 1957 he specialized in Nuclear Engineering. In 1959 he joined Compagnia Italiana Tubi Metallici Flessibili, where he became head of production and development.
From 1976 to 1978 he was Manager of the Components Sector of FIAT. In 1978 became Chief Executive Officer of Olivetti; founded Tecnost and Teknecomp; in 1989 he created OiS – the information services group. 1986 he was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sasib, positions which he left when he became a candidate for the Senate of the Republic. From 2000 to 2004 he chaired the Interaction Design Institute Association of Ivrea of which he was a founder member.

In 1994 he was elected Senator of the Republic for the constituency of Turin (XIIth legislature). From 1996 to 2005 (legislatures XIII and XIV) he was the first to sign many bills. He has contributed numerous articles to the main Italian newspapers and magazines (La Stampa, Corriere della Sera, Sole 24 Ore, Panorama, Il Riformista). In June 1996 he received the Ezio Tarantelli award from the Economics Club for the best idea of the year 1995 in Economics and Finance for his draft bill on privatization of Bank Foundations .

He is Director of CIR, Cofide and of the Rodolfo Debenedetti Foundation. Since February 2005 he has been a member of the Advisory Board of Progetto Italia SpA.

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