Alessandro Profumo, current CEO of Leonardo S.p.A., is an Italian manager who had significant influence in the consolidation of the Italian banking sector. He worked as a consultant at McKinsey and Bain and, when CEO of Unicredit, he was involved in the merger with HypoVereinsbank, Bank Austria Creditanstalt and Capitalia with the UniCredit Group. He resigned as CEO of the Unicredit Group on 21 September 2010.
Childhood and youth
Alessandro Profumo was born in Genoa on 17 February 1957 as the youngest of five children. He grew up in Palermo; in 1970, he moved to Milan with his parents, where he went to the Liceo Manzoni and met his future wife Sabina Ratti, then his classmate.
Studies, family and beginning of professional life
After finishing high school, Profumo enrolled at Bocconi University. In 1977, he married Sabina, and his only son Marco was born the same year. Having to support a family, Profumo dropped out of university and started his professional career at Banco Lariano, with an initial salary of 377,000 Italian Lire.
Professional development
In 1987, Profumo resumed his studies and obtained a degree in Business Economics. By December of the same year, he joined McKinsey & Company, where he acted as a consultant to financial institutions. In 1989, Profumo moved to the Bain, Cuneo & Associati consultancy, today known as Bain & Company. In 1991, he left the consultancy path and was appointed to General Manager of the banking and financial sector at RAS. Following RAS's acquisition of shares of the recently privatized Credito Italiano in 1994, he became Deputy General Manager of Credito Italiano, and was responsible for strategy and controlling. In 1995, he was appointed to Chief General Manager. On 29 April 1997, the UniCredit group was formed, of which Profumo became Chief Executive Officer. In 2007, with the merger of Unicredit with Capitalia, Profumo was the head of one of the biggest banking groups in Europe. According to Il Sole 24 Ore, in 2007 he had a profit of €9,427,000, while in 2008 he voluntarily renounced bonuses worth 5.5 million euros, gaining 3.48 million. On 21 September 2010, he resigned from that position, following political disputes. In 2011 he became President and majority shareholder of Appeal Strategy & Finance, a consultancy firm on international strategy and finance, founded with notable entrepreneur and banker Isidoro Lucciola. In March 2011, Profumo became part of the supervisory board of Russian bank Sberbank. Since May 2011, he is part of the board of directors of Eni. In early 2012, Profumo was appointed CEO of Italian bank Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. In June 2012, Alessandro Profumo and other 19 people were remanded to trial for a tax swindle. The charge was of creating an illegal tax evasion scheme worth 245 million euro. The scheme, according to the prosecution, was created through an arrangement between Unicredit, Barclays, and two other minor companies. The trial was set to start in October 2012. In May 2017, the Finmeccanica Board of Directors appointed Alessandro Profumo as new Chief Executive Officer of the Group. In 2017, Alessandro Profumo undertook certain actions that culminated in the presentation, on 30 January 2018, of the new 2018–2022 Industrial Plan.
Current activities
Since 1998, when UniCredit Group arose from "Credito Italiano", Profumo has acted as its CEO. By December 2005 he was appointed to chairman of the supervisory board of HVB. As of June 2012, Profumo was CEO of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. Alessandro Profumo's activities by the end of 2006 included:
Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation and AIRC, the Italian association for cancer research.
Publications
Alessandro Profumo has written several articles and studies. In 2003 he published together with Giovanni Moro the book Plus Valori, addressing the "social responsibility of companies".
Honours
In 2004, Alessandro Profumo was invested as Knight of the Order of Merit for Labour of the Italian Republic, by then president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. In August 2019, Profumo was awarded Best CEO in the Defence Industry at the CEO Awards 2019 by Business Worldwide Magazine.
