Mario Monti

In 1965 he received his degree in Economy at the Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, Milan, and went on to specialise at Yale University.

Business Activities

In 2005 Mario Monti, joined Goldman Sachs as an international adviser. He is also a member of the advisory board of the Coca-Cola Company.

He was previously advisor to Italian car giant FIAT, Insurance company Generali Group, and between 1988-1990 he was Vice President of one of Italy's first and most important banks La Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI) (also known as Comit). He has authored many publications on economy and finance and is a columnist in one of Italy's leading newspapers Il Corriere della Sera.

Affiliations

Mario Monti was the first elected European chairman of the Trilateral Commission in 2010 and is on the Steering Committee of Bilderberg. He is also on the Executive Committee of the Aspen Institute Italy, Honorary President (previously Chairman 2005-2008) of Brussels-based think-tank Bruegel

Revolving Door

On the 9th of November 2011 Mario Monti was nominated as Senatore a Vita (Life Senator) and on the 13th of November 2011 was appointed Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri (Prime Minister) of Italy by Presidente della Republica (Italian Head of State) Giorgio Napolitano within less than 24 hours of the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi.

The European Commission's official website states:

Monti served as European Commissioner in charge of the Internal Market, Financial Services and Taxation from 1995 to 1999 and then as European Commissioner for Competition (1999-2004). In the latter position, he handled a number of well-known cases such as General Electric/Honeywell, Microsoft, and the German Landesbanken. He also introduced a radical reform of EU antitrust and merger controls and led, with the US authorities, the creation of the International Competition Network (ICN).

As EU coordinator for the France-Spain electricity interconnection, he brokered the agreement between Prime Ministers Fillon and Zapatero in June 2008. Mr. Monti was also a member of the Attali Committee on French economic growth, set up by President Sarkozy (2007-2008).

Between the years 1995-1999 he was a member of the European Commission, and between 1999-2004 he was appointed the role of European Competition Commissioner.

The Santer's Commission 1995-1999 in which Mario Monti served as a Commissioner, was dissolved amidst allegations of fraud, mismanagement and nepotism. The official report of the allegations was put forward by a Committee of independent experts and led to the immediate collective resignation of Santer's Commission. Although many of the Commissioners, including Monti, were not individually subject to any specific allegations or wrongdoing, the Commission as a whole was found to be at fault due to concerns about the individual claims

that they knew nothing of the problems that were often common knowledge in their services, even up to the highest official levels (Committee of Independent Experts, 15 March 1999, p. 137)

This article is part of the EU Revolving Door project of SpinWatch.

Resources

• "European Commission, Economic and Financial Affairs," accessed 17 November 2011.
• Merrell, Caroline, "Goldman hires former EU Competition Commissioner," 14 December 2005, Times Online, accessed 31 January 2010.