The Foundation

Domenico Marco Minniti is the Chairman of Med-Or Foundation.

Born in Reggio Calabria in 1956, he graduated in Philosophy from the University of Messina.

A politician with more than 20 years' experience in security and defence, in 1998 Marco Minniti was appointed Undersecretary to the Prime Minister under the 1st D'Alema administration; in 1999, Undersecretary to the Prime Minister, responsible for secret services, under the 2nd D'Alema administration; in 2000, Undersecretary for Defence under the Amato administration; and from 2006 to 2008, Deputy Minister of the Interior under the Prodi administration.

From 2013 to 2016, he was Undersecretary to the Prime Minister, responsible for secret services, first under the Letta administration and then under the Renzi administration.

From 2016 to 2018, he was Minister of the Interior under the Gentiloni administration.

From 2001 to 2021, he was a Member of Parliament of the Italian Republic (Chamber and Senate).

He is the author of Sicurezza è libertà. Terrorismo e immigrazione: contro la fabbrica della paura (Security is Freedom. Terrorism and immigration: the battle against the factory of fear, Rizzoli, 2018).

Letizia Colucci is the Director General of Med-Or Foundation.

She graduated in Law from Naples’ Federico II University, where she worked as a lawyer for some time.

She worked in the legal department of Alenia Spazio (now Thales Alenia Space Italia) and Alenia Difesa, where, while serving as Legal and Corporate Affairs Manager, she was involved in the setting up of the Alenia Marconi Systems joint venture.

Later, as General Affairs Director of the same company, she was entrusted with managing the due diligence and contributions aimed at setting up the MBDA missile joint venture.

In 2005, she was appointed General Affairs Director at Selex Sistemi Integrati, and, later, Deputy General Manager and then Joint General Manager.

Until May 2021, she was the Secretary General of Telespazio and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of MBDA Italia. Furthermore, she is a member of the Board of Directors of Hensoldt, AVIO S.p.A., and e-GEOS.

Domenico Marco Minniti is the Chairman of Med-Or Foundation.

Born in Reggio Calabria in 1956, he graduated in Philosophy from the University of Messina.

A politician with more than 20 years' experience in security and defence, in 1998 Marco Minniti was appointed Undersecretary to the Prime Minister under the 1st D'Alema administration; in 1999, Undersecretary to the Prime Minister, responsible for secret services, under the 2nd D'Alema administration; in 2000, Undersecretary for Defence under the Amato administration; and from 2006 to 2008, Deputy Minister of the Interior under the Prodi administration.

From 2013 to 2016, he was Undersecretary to the Prime Minister, responsible for secret services, first under the Letta administration and then under the Renzi administration.

From 2016 to 2018, he was Minister of the Interior under the Gentiloni administration.

From 2001 to 2021, he was a Member of Parliament of the Italian Republic (Chamber and Senate).

He is the author of Sicurezza è libertà. Terrorismo e immigrazione: contro la fabbrica della paura (Security is Freedom. Terrorism and immigration: the battle against the factory of fear, Rizzoli, 2018).

Since 2021, Paolo Bigi has been Group CEO of Arkad, a Saudi Arabian Engineering and Construction group operating in the Middle East, North Africa and Europe in the oil & gas and energy fields.

Having graduated with honours in Mechanical Engineering from the Politecnico di Milano, in 2000 he then completed the International Operations Management Program at INSEAD in Fontainbleau (France).

From 1986 to 2005, he held various positions at Tecnimont SpA, rising to the role of Sales Director in 2001 and Executive Vice President in 2005.

He served as Executive Vice President of Borealis AG in 2008-2009, before being appointed CEO and member of the Board of Directors of Techint Engineering & Construction SpA in 2009, a position he held until 2014. In 2015-2016, he held the role of Managing Director of Petrofac Engineering & Construction.

From 2017 to 2020, he served as Chief Operating Officer, International Operations, at Saudi Binladin Group (SBG), the Middle East's largest Engineering and Construction company.

Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, writer, journalist and playwright, is the director of CiviltàdelleMacchine.it, the online newspaper of Leonardo Civiltà delle Macchine Foundation.

He was born in Catania in 1963 and graduated in Philosophy from the University of Catania in 1984.

He has written seven novels, reaching the finalist stage of the 2006 Campiello prize with Le uova del Drago (Mondadori, 2005). His Il lupo e la luna (Bompiani, 2011) was staged at Vicenza’s Teatro Olimpico in 2020.

Pietrangelo Buttafuoco also writes and presents television and radio programmes, including Giarabub on La7 and Questa non è una pipa on Rai5.

He was the President of the Teatro Stabile in Catania from 2007 to 2010.

He is the current President of the Teatro Stabile of Abruzzo and is a journalist for II Quotidiano del Sud.

Germano Dottori has been a Professor of Strategic Studies at the Department of Political Studies of the Luiss-Guido Carli University in Rome.

Born in Rome in 1964, he graduated with honours from Luiss-Guido Carli in 1990.

In addition to embarking on an academic career, since 1996 Germano Dottori has also been a parliamentary advisor specialising in foreign policy, defence and internal security. In 2018-2019, he served as Delegated Affairs Advisor to the Undersecretary of Defence, Raffaele Volpi.

Since 2011, he has been President of the Centre for Strategic Studies and International Policy, a non-profit organisation based at Luiss, which he co-founded. Since 2016, he has been a member of the Scientific Council of the Limes journal. For three years (2010-2014), he edited and contributed to Nomos & Khaos, Nomisma's report on economic-strategic horizons.

Having written numerous books and essays on geopolitical issues, Germano Dottori also appears as a guest speaker on international politics and security on several TV talk shows, in particular for Rai, SkyTG24, Canale 5, La7 and Al Jazeera, and for the most important radio stations.

Alessandra Genco is the Chief Financial Officer of Leonardo since October 2017.

Alessandra holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a M.Sc. in Economics summa cum laude from LUISS Guido Carli University of Rome.

She worked as Vice President in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs in New York, covering clients across numerous industries, including financial sponsors.

Before taking up the current position in Leonardo, Alessandra served as Vice President Group Finance, in charge of capital markets, treasury, investments and insurance. She was also Head of Investments and Portfolio Evaluation.

She is also a Board Member of various for-profit and no-profit organizations.

Filippo Maria Grasso is the Italian Institutional Affairs Director of Leonardo since September 2020.

Born in Rome on February 9, 1978. He graduated cum laude in Law in Rome in 2001, with a specialization at the Pace University School of Law of New York.

After joining the External Relations and Institutional Affairs division of Pirelli in 2007 and after various experiences, at both national and international level, in 2017 he was appointed CVP Institutional Affairs.

From May 2018 to November 2019, he was appointed (from Chemchina) CEO of China National Rubber&Tyre Corporation, which holds the controlling interest of Pirelli & Co.

Since november 2019 he became CVP Global Institutional Affairs & Sustainability of Pirelli, having direct responsibilities on the management of Security politics of the Group and on HSE subject matters at the global level.

He currently teaches “Techniques of International Institutional Affairs” at several Italian universities and Business Schools.

Egidio Ivetic is Associate Professor at the Department of Historical, Geographical and Ancient Sciences of the University of Padua, and Director of the Institute for the History of Venetian Society and State at Fondazione Giorgio Cini Onlus.

Born in 1965 in Pula (Croatia), he graduated with honours in Literature (Modern History) from the University of Padua and obtained a PhD in History from the Ca' Foscari University in Venice.

Egidio Ivetic is a specialist in modern history, with specific historiographical expertise in the history of the Mediterranean, the Balkans and Venice.

Among his international academic assignments, since 2015 he has represented the University of Padua in the Coimbra Group Universities initiative, as a member of the Working Group in Social Sciences and Humanities.

A member of the Executive Board of the Italian Society for the History of the Modern Age, he has written over 200 publications and edits the “Studi Veneziani” journal of Fondazione Giorgio Cini.

Born in Rome in 1966, he graduated in Law at the La Sapienza University of Rome in 1993.

A lawyer and politician, from 2008 to 2013 he was as a Member of Parliament, affiliated with the Popolo della Libertà party, in the 16th Legislature. He was a member, first the Foreign and Community Affairs Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, then of the Defence Commission. During his term of office, he was a Member of the Parliamentary Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

From 2008 to 2011, he was International Affairs Advisor to the Minister of Defence; from 2011 to 2013 he was Economic Affairs and Business Relations Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

From May to November 2016, he collaborated with the Minister of the Interior (International and Minority Relations).

President of the Italian Section of the Anti-Defamation League from 2004 to 2008, he has been an Honorary Lifetime Member of the National Commission of the Anti-Defamation League since 2017.

Enrico Savio has been Chief Strategy & Market Intelligence Officer at Leonardo Spa since July 2019.

Born in Pisa in 1965, he graduated from the Police Academy and obtained a degree on Law from the University of Pisa.

From 1990 to 1996, he held various positions in the State Police Counter-Terrorism Service, before joining the Criminal Police Central Directorate as Assistant to the International Coordinator.

In 1995 he attended the “Hostage Negotiator & Crisis Manager” course in the United States. In 1997 he was awarded the "National Academy Graduate" at the FBI Academy.

In 1998, he was Head of the Technical-Operational Sector within the Southern Italy Operational and Security Programme. In 2000, he was appointed Assistant to the Director General of Public Security - Chief of Police.

In May 2002, he left the State Police and embarked on a series of managerial experiences with companies operating in the defence and security sectors.

In 2008, after re-joining the State Police, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Department of Security Information (DIS), acting on behalf of the Prime Minister, as well as taking on the role of Security Officer, which he held until February 2019. In December 2016, the Prime Minister appointed him Deputy Director General of the Department of Security Information.

Francesca Maria Corrao is Professor of Arabic Culture and Language at the Faculty of Political Science in LUISS University of Rome, director of MISLAM Program (Master in Economics and Institutions of Islamic Countries) of the School of Government at the same university, and chair of the Scientific Committee of the Fondazione Orestiadi in Gibellina (Sicily), IOP (Soka University Japan) research member, UEAI (European Union of Arabist and Islamist) and EMTAR (European Teachers of Modern Arabic literature) member. Among her recent Books: States, Actors and Geopolitica Drivers in the Mediterranean, Edited with R. Redaelli (Palgrave, 2021); L’Islam non è terrorismo, con L. Violante (Il Mulino, 2018); Islam, religion and politics (Luiss University Press, 2017); Le rivoluzioni arabe La transizione mediterranea (Mondadori, 2011); Islam, State and Modernity. Mohammed Abed Al-Jabri and the Future of the Arab World, with Z. Eyadat and M.Hashas (Palgrave, 2017); Costruire la democrazia: un progetto mediterraneo, F.M. Corrao S. Maffettone (LUPO, 2008); Le opinioni e l’informazione nei Paesi arabo-islamici dopo l’11 settembre, a cura di F. M. Corrao (2003); La Rinascita islamica (Università di Palermo, 1985); I Cavalieri, le dame e i deserti. Storia della Poesia Araba (Istituto per l’Oriente, 2020); In guerra non mi cercate. Poesia araba delle rivolte e oltre, ed. F.M. Corrao, O. Capezio, E. Chiti, S. Sibilio (testo arabo a fronte, Mondadori, 2019); Le Storie di Giufà (Sellerio, 2001); Poeti Arabi di Sicilia (testo arabo a fronte, Mesogea, 2002).