Born in Turin on 31 May 1964, he has lived mainly abroad: in Columbia and Brazil first, then Scotland, where he attended Gordonstoun School.

After getting his Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Brown University (Providence, RI), he completed his studies with an MBA at Harvard Business School.

His first work experience was as fixed income trader at Drexel, Burnham and Lambert in New York; he then continued his career in the world of finance, working especially in the investment banking sector at Bear

Stearns & Co in South America, and finally he joined the Merges & Acquisitions department at Credit Suisse First Boston of New York in 1994. Moving to London in 2001, he was put in charge of the pharmaceutical M & A Sector and then, from 2004, Chief Operating Officer of the whole M & A activities in Europe.

In February 2006 he became CEO and General Manager at IFIL Investments S.p.A. He is also a Director of Fiat Group S.p.A., Cushman & Wakefield Inc., Sequana Capital S.A. and Alpitour S.p.A.; he's a member of the Supervisory Board at Intesa Sanpaolo Bank too.