Since April 2011 Franco Bernabè is Telecom Italia Chairman and Chief Executive Officer after having the position of Chief Executive Officer in the previous three-year period. After earning his degree with honours in Economics and Political Science at the University of Turin in 1973, Mr. Bernabè worked for two years as a post-graduate fellow at the Einaudi Foundation. He began his professional career in 1976 as a Senior Economist at the OECD Department of Economics and Statistics in Paris.
In 1978 he joined the Planning Department of FIAT as Chief Economist. In 1983 he joined Eni and became subsequently the Head of Corporate Planning, Financial Control and Corporate Development.
From 1992 to 1998 Mr. Bernabè was CEO of Eni. In November 1998 he became CEO of Telecom Italia, a position he retained until May 1999 after the acquisition of the company by Olivetti.
At the end of 1999 he founded FB Group, an investment company active in the areas of financial advisory, ICT and renewable energy. In 2004, following the merger of the financial advisory activities of FB Group with the Rothschild Group, he was appointed as Vice Chairman of Rothschild Europe, position which he left when he became CEO of Telecom Italia.
Mr. Bernabè is currently Chairman of the Board of GSMA, the international organisation of mobile operators, member of the Board of Directors of PetroChina, and member of the European Roundtable. He is also Co-President of the Italy Brasil Business Council and Vice President of the Rome Industrialist and Enterprises Association with special duties for innovation and Broadband.
He has served on the Board of TPG-TNT, of FIAT, on the Advisory Board of the Council on Foreign Relations and on the Board of the Peres Center for Peace. He has also served pro bono on different public assignments: in 1999 he was appointed by the Italian Prime Minister as a special representative of the Italian Government for the reconstruction of Kosovo; between 2001 and 2003 he was the Chairman of La Biennale di Venezia, and since 2004 he is the Chairman of the Mart Museum.
