Born in Albese con Cassano (Co) on 4 January 1945, he has a business degree from Luigi Bocconi University.
After starting out working in marketing for a multinational pharmaceutical company, in 1973 he joined Turin company IFI S.p.A.

In September 1980 he became executive assistant to the CEO of the Fabbri Editorial Group. He became General Manager of that company in 1984 and, as RCS Group became stockholder of the Fabbri Editorial Group, in 1991 he was CEO of Rizzoli's book sector.

In November 1993 he joined the Mondadori publishing group and became CEO of parent company Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A., as well as Director of many other companies within the group. In November 1994 he left and become CEO and General Manager of the Rinascente Group. He stayed there until July 2005.

In 2003 he become Chairman of Federdistribuzione, and he has also been Deputy Chairman and Director of Confcommercio, a position he left at the end of 2005.

He has also been member of the Board of Director of Alpitour (until April 2007) and Auchan (until October 2007) and member of the Directorate and Deputy Chairman of UPA (Associated Advertising Body). At the moment he sits on the Board of Directors of ICE (National Institute for Foreign Trade) and of Federdistribuzione.