Paolo Savona

On 8 March 2019, Savona left his post as Minister of European Affairs in order to become president of the Italian Companies and Exchange Commission, the government authority responsible for regulating the Italian securities market.

In May 2018, the Five Star Movement and the League proposed Savona for the role of Italian Minister of Economy and Finances. President Sergio Mattarella opposed his appointment, considering his outspoken support for Italy's covert exit from the euro an overwhelming risk for the country's economy. The two parties refused to replace Savona with any other candidate, forcing the appointed prime minister Giuseppe Conte to give up on his task of forming a government. It was later agreed that Savona would serve as Italian Minister of European Affairs after both parties agreed to reinstate Conte as their choice for the prime minister and instead nominate economics professor Giovanni Tria, an associate of Savona, as Minister of Economy and Finances. Savona frequently denied being a Eurosceptic, saying that his Eurosceptic views had been exaggerated in the press, and that he never called for an exit from the eurozone and supported a strong, united Europe, commenting: "I want a different Europe, one that is stronger but fairer. Wild controversy has been made out of my ideas. I believe in European political union."

Savona served as Minister of Industry, Commerce and Craftmanship in the government led by Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (1993–1994), as Head of the Department for EU Policies of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers during the Silvio Berlusconi's third cabinet (2005–2006), under Minister Giorgio La Malfa, and, consequently, Coordinator of the Technical Committee for the Lisbon Strategy, which prepared the draft of the Italian plan for Growth and Occupation, presented to the European Commission in October 2005. In 2010, he was appointed President of Fondo Interbancario di Tutela dei Depositi for the second time and served as the Chairman of the Fintech startup Euklid Ltd until 2018. Savona also had several public offices in Italy and abroad, among which: member of the OECD Committee for the standardisation of financial statistics, and of the BIS Standing Committee on Eurodollars; President of the Technical-Scientific Council for Economic Planning, and of the Commission on Nuclear Power in Italy.

In the following years, he became President of Credito Industriale Sardo (1980–1989), Secretary-General for Economic Planning at the Ministry of Budget (1980–1982), Chief Executive Officer and then Managing Director of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (1989–1990), President of the Fondo Interbancario di Tutela dei Depositi (1990–1999), Impregilo, Gemina, Aeroporti di Roma and Consorzio Venezia Nuova (2000–2010). After having been vice president of Capitalia, at the moment of the merging with UniCredit, he was named president of Banca di Roma. Between 2000 and 2010, he was also a Board Member of RCS MediaGroup and Telecom Italia. Politically, Savona was inspired by Ugo La Malfa and thus involved in the Italian Republican Party (PRI), where he was close to Giorgio La Malfa, until the early 1990s.

Savona won the prize awarded by Associazione per il Progresso Economico in 1976, the Premio Capalbio 1998 in economy, the Premio IDI 1999 for the small and middle enterprise, the Premio Pisa 1999 for essay writing with the book Che cos'e' l'economia, the Premio Speciale 2000 for the sector 'Economy' as part of Premi della Cultura awarded by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Premio 2008 in International economy awarded by Camera di Commercio di Genova, the Premio Scanno 2009 in economy, the VII Premio Donato Menichella 2009 for socio-economic studies, and the Premio Fata Morgana 2010 in economy and finance. He is Chinese Eisenhower Fellow of Taiwan and Jemolo Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford University.

Paolo Savona (born 6 October 1936) is an Italian economist, professor, and politician. He was the Italian Minister of European Affairs from 1 June 2018 until 8 March 2019, his second stint in government after 1993–1994. During the 2010s, Savona became one of the most fervent Eurosceptic economists in Italy.

Savona was born in Cagliari, Sardinia, on 6 October 1936. After obtaining a degree in economics from the University of Cagliari in 1961, his career started at the Servizio Studi (internal research service) of the Bank of Italy. In that context, he worked together with Guido Carli (Governor, 1960–1975) and Paolo Baffi (Governor, 1975–1979), he attended classes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he came to work with Franco Modigliani. Together with Michele Fratianni, he studied international money creation. He also specialised at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, D.C. In 1976, Carli became the President of General Confederation of Italian Industry (Confindustria) and asked Savona to follow him as Director-General, a post that he kept until 1980.