Enrico Tommaso Cucchiani: Italian Business Executive

Enrico Tommaso Cucchiani studied Economics and Business Administration at Bocconi University in Milan from 1970 to 1975. He then completed research work on multinational corporations at Harvard Business School in 1975. Enrico holds an MBA and Fulbright Fellow from Stanford Graduate School of Business from 1975 to 1977.

He started his career in 1977 serving at Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust in Chicago, Illinois. Enrico then moved to McKinsey & Co. Milan/New York from 1979 to 1985.  He was then General Manager of fashion house Gucci from 1985 to 1992. 

Other positions include being CEO of Llyod Andriatico, SpA, a subsidiary of Alliance SE, Head of Insurance Europe of Alliance SE (formerly Allianz AG). He has served as Member of the Management Board of Alliance SE from October 2006 to December 21, 2011 and Head of Insurance Europe (& South America) from January 2010 to December 21, 2011.

Enrico has been Managing Director and Member of the Management Board at Intesa Sanpaolo SpA since December 22, 2011, and served as its CEO. Intesa Sanpaolo is the second-largest bank in Italy. Enrico has been trying to institute reforms in the bank but had several clashes with major shareholders.  He finally resigned in September 2013 after a 21 month tenure.

A business executive of vast and varied experience Enrico has had a sterling career but also knows when to exist when he can’t do things his way.

Vittorio Calao: The Second Time Around

It may be the case that the position you think will go to you goes to someone else. It could be that the position wasn’t meant for you or it simply wasn’t the time yet. The latter was the case with Vittorio Calao.

Calao was born on October 3, 1961 in Brescia, Italy.  He graduated from Bocconi University with a degree in Business. Highly intelligent Calao earned, with Honors, an MBA from Harvard Business School.

He began his career in London working as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley. In 1986 he was back in Italy as a Partner in the Milan office of McKinsey & Co. His work covered telecommunications, media and industrial goods. Calao was also responsible for office recruitment.

Around a decade later Calao joined Omnitel Pronto Italia and reached the position of Chief Operating Officer before it was taken over and became Vodafone Italy. When you’re good at what you do even the new owners will notice. Calao didn’t have to worry about his employment status. By 2001 he was the Regional CEO for Southern Europe and the following year even joined the main board of Vodafone Group.

Calao was a rising star at Vodafone and was in line for the top post. As things turned out the CEO position became open but it went to someone else. Calao resigned from Vodafone and joined RSC MediaGroup, an Italian publishing company, where he was appointed CEO in July 2004.

Things did not go very well at RCS MediaGroup. There was criticism from shareholders concerning the group’s governance and strategy.  Calao resigned from the company and rejoined Vodafone in 2006 as CEO, Europe and Deputy Chief Executive. 

He finally got the CEO post in July 2008 succeeding the man who got the job instead of him. His resignation at RCS MediaGroup was actually a blessing in disguise as it gave him another crack at the top post at Vodafone. A winner never quits.