Flavio Cattaneo

Biography

Graduated in Architecture at “Politecnico” University in Milan, he got a specialisation on business finance and management in the real estate sector at SDA Bocconi School of Management. From 1989 to 1998 CEO of various Italian companies in the building and Real Estate sectors. From 1998 to 2001 Flavio Cattaneo has been Director of many energy companies, including AEM S.p.A. (now A2A) as Deputy Chairman, in which he was in charge of the gas distribution activities in the Northeast of Italy as CEO of Triveneta Gas S.p.A. and Seneca Gas S.p.A. From 1999 to 2003, he was Chairman and CEO of Fiera Milano S.p.A., the leading exhibition group in Italy, of which he oversaw the listing in 2001. Before the IPO, he followed the spin off between the institutional activities of the foundation and the market activities in charge of the S.p.A., which expanded internationally with an increase of its international presence in over 30 countries.

From 2003 to 2005 he was nominated General Director of Rai. He was the youngest Managing Director of RAI S.p.A, the Italian public service broadcaster. The next year, under his leadership, the company gained the highest income ever.

Mr. Cattaneo was also, from 2007 to 2011, Chairman of the Brazilian subsidiary TERNA Partecipaçoes, a private electricity grid operator. During that period, the Subsidiary was listed on the BOVESPA Stock Exchange and became the first private grid operator in Brazil.

From 2005 to 2014, CEO of the infrastructure company Terna S.p.A., the Italian electricity transmission grid operator and the leading independent grid operator in Europe. During his management, he developed an international expansion strategy in South America and in the Balkans, doubling the value of the stock price, indeed recognized internationally as the best Utility stock in Europe for Total Shareholder Return (Edison Electric International Award Washington D.C., periods from 2007 to 2009 and from 2010 to 2012). He also served on the board of directors of several companies: Generali Assicurazioni (independent director, from December 2014 to April 2016); Domus Italia (Chairman, from March 2015 to May 2016); Cementir Holding S.p.A. (independent director and member of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee and Control and Risks Committee, from January 2008 to April 2015). 

From February 2015 to March 2016 Mr Cattaneo was CEO of NTV S.p.A. the first Italian private railway operator in the very high-speed railway market (over 90% of sales made via web site CRM). While CEO, NTV reached positive Net Income for the first time since inception. Since December 2014 he still sits as director in the Board of Directors.

From March 2016 to July 2017 he held the role of Chief Executive Officer of Telecom Italia, replacing the resigning Marco Patuano. While CEO, improved growth and efficiency: completed the major and extraordinary turnaround of the business via a major reorganization of internal processes, efficiency plans on non-core costs and revenue plans. Resulted in Company increasing its customers and revenues to levels not reached in the last 10 years, increase its core investments, bringing the Company back to leadership of the mobile segment (downloads) and covering around 70% of the country with fibre. Before his appointment as CEO, he was already in the Board of director as independent director (since April 2014), where he also served as member of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee (up until March 2015).

His responsibilities are related to the overall management of the Society and the Group, being in charge of conceiving and implementing strategic, financial and industrial plans. He also has organizational responsibilities, in charge of managing and developing Italian and South American business.

During his office the development of the 2016-2018 business plan includes the growth and improved efficiency of the group. The results of this plan were visible in the second and in the third quarter of 2016, when Telecom Italia registered results in the domestic market that were not equalled since 2007: +1,4% of consolidated returns, +8,5% of Group’s Ebitda, +1% of domestic business unit revenue and an overall return of 1 billion (vs 367 millions gained in the same period of 2015).

Awards

He received various national and international recognitions: in 2010 nominated Best Italian Manager in the energy sector; in 2011, Man of the Year by the newspaper Staffetta Quotidiana; in 2016 Manager of the Year following magazine Milano-Finanza’s survey, highlighting the improvement made in Telecom Italia Group from an industrial point of view; Lombard Elite for having improved Italy’s competitiveness. 

He has been member of the Giunta of industrial association Confindustria and Vice President of the Industrials of the City of Rome.

In December 2016 he was nominated “Manager of the Year”, following magazine Milano-Finanza’s survey, which highlighted the improvement he made in Telecom Italia Group from an industrial point of view, promoting a higher revenue both for phone and mobile in the first nine months of the year.

Honor

Knight of Labour

Critics

Flavio Cattaneo earned a bonus of 25 million euro working as CEO at the Telecom Italia company; this has been stated by some market economy analysts as an unfair bonus, because of the high debt of the company (Telecom Italia has a debt of 26 billion euro).