Milan, February 23, 2012. Leopard Publishing participates to the Business Lunch at the Westin Palace in Milan, organized by the British Chamber of Commerce for Italy. Davide Manfredi Amante, CEO of Leopard Publishing and Fatine Jennane, Public Relations manager, attended the event. Federico Ghizzoni, CEO of Unicredit Group, talked during the lunch on the theme 'Italy and the future of economy: opportunities and perspectives'.
Mr. Federico Ghizzoni's was particularly appreciated for his plain and clear words. He faced a difficult subject especially in this Italian economic period, and positively exposed the events of the last months. Following Italy's economic downturn and the shift from Mr. Berlusconi's government to Mr. Mario Monti's 'technical' one who is facing a recessive perspective for the Italian economy in 2012, we are nonetheless beginning to see the first lights on the horizon. This is a reassuring statement, especially when expressed by the CEO of a group such as Unicredit, strongly rooted on the european market and one of the major banking groups in Italy and Germany.
Mr. Ghizzoni emphasized a few issues that Italy needs to face to successfully overcome this economical phase: Italian entrepreneurs need a change of pace and need to accept the market's challenges and the european competition, also waiving complete personal or family corporate control, which is very popular in Italy; Government on it's side needs to speed up and align legislation to competition requirements and streamline bureaucracy in order to become supportive for Italian entrepreneurs and guarantee the fundamental stability so necessary to entice investors to choose Italy; Unicredit's CEO also insisted on a change of pace of the Italian banking groups who must optimize efficiency.
Mr. Ghizzoni demonstrated confidence on the Italian economy and stated his group is ready to face these challenges supporting Italian firms. Unicredit has identified a number of trustworthy Italian firms and is preparing to support and help them become primary multinational firms.
In short, Italy has the men, the products and the quality. It's now time for Italy as a country to do its part, believe in itself and face european challenges. A positive message which we appreciated and, as it seemed, all attendees too.
The Business Lunch was organized by the British Chamber of Commerce for Italy. Mr. John J. Law (Managing Director & Chief Risk Officer at HSBC Bank) is the BCCI's President. We particularly appreciated who the event was managed.
Source: Leopard Publishing editorial staff


FEDERICO GHIZZONI
Chief Executive Officer
Member of the Permanent Strategic Committee
Member of the Corporate Governance, HR and Nomination Committee

Federico Ghizzoni was born in Piacenza (Italy) on October 14, 1955.
He holds a Degree in Law from University of Law in Parma and started his career in 1980 as Customer Relations Manager at Credito Italiano's Piacenza Branch.
Having worked as Head of Credit & Marketing Department at Piacenza Branch, Ghizzoni assumed the position of Branch Director in Trieste between 1988 and 1989. Continuing his career as Director of Seriate Branch between 1990 and 1992, Ghizzoni was appointed Deputy General Manager to Credito Italiano's London Office.
After having been appointed the Credito Italiano's Singapore Office General Manager in 1995, Ghizzoni became Executive Director responsible of Corporate and International Banking between 2000 and 2002 at Bank Pekao S.A, affiliate of the UniCredit Group. In 2003 Ghizzoni started to work at Koç Financial Services, a 50-50 joint venture of Koç Holding and UniCredit.
In his capacity as Executive Board Member of Koç Financial Services and all its affiliates, Ghizzoni has also been serving in the upper management, responsible of auditing, risk management, planning and control. After the acquisition by Koç Financial Services of Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi and its affiliates, he become the COO & Executive Board Member of Koç Financial Services and COO & Vice Chairman of Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi.
In July 2007, he was appointed Head of Poland's Markets Division at UniCredit, Head of CEE Banking Operations and Board Member responsible for the CEE Banking Division at Bank Austria AG.
In August 2010 he assumed the position of Deputy CEO and Deputy General Manager of UniCredit. Since 30 September 2010 he is Chief Executive Officer of UniCredit and since March 2011 is Chairman of the Supervisory Board of UniCredit Bank AG in Munich. He is Chairman of the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala Association in Milan, Member of the International Monetary Conference in Washington and Member of the Institut International d’Etudes Bancaires in Brussels.
Source: http://www.unicreditgroup.eu/