Francesco Caio

Personal life

Francesco Caio was born in Naples on August 23, 1957. He is married with two children.

Career and Education

He graduated with distinction in Electronic Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Milan in 1980, before earning two postgraduate degrees: one in Computer Science from the Polytechnic University of Milan and one in Business Administration (MBA) from INSEAD (Fontainebleau, France). His career started working as Telecommunication Systems Product Manager for Olivetti (1982–83) and as Business Planner for Sarin (1984). From 1986 to 1991, he worked for McKinsey & Company in London, where he was a strategy and development consultant to multinational clients in the electronics, telecommunications and media industries.

From 1991 to 1992, he went back to Olivetti, at the time dealing with a corporate restructuring; at the end of this process, a group of shareholders captained by Olivetti founded Omnitel, the first private mobile network operator in Italy. Caio was appointed Managing Director of Omnitel until 1996.

In September 1996, Merloni’s owner Vittorio Merloni called Francesco Caio to take the position of Managing Director of the company, aiming at improving financial performance and brand's presence in international markets. Caio became the first Merloni's Managing Director arrived from another company.

In March 2011, Francesco Caio became a member of the Board of Directors of Avio, and on May 2 he took over as Chief Executive Officer of the group. Avio Aero, a GE Aviation business, is a leading player in the design, manufacture and maintenance of civil and military aeronautics components and systems. Around the world, the company has approximately 4,700 employees (around 4,000 in Italy) and has plants also in Poland, Brazil and China. From 2010 to 2012, company earnings increased from 1.7 to 2.3 billion euro, and Ebitda (Company's Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) grow from 340 to 430 million. In December 2012, the aeronautical department of Avio S.p.A. was acquired by General Electric for 3.3 billion euro.

Francesco Caio has also been a member of the Boards of Directors of multinational groups including Equant (1997-2000) and Motorola in the United States (2000-2003), and member of the Advisory Board of Polytechnic University of Milan. He has been an industrial policy consultant to the UK and Italian governments in the area of broadband network infrastructure development. In June 2013 he was appointed as Commissioner for the Italian Government’s Digital Agenda by Prime Minister Enrico Letta.

CEO of Poste Italiane

In April 2014 he was appointed as CEO of Poste Italiane. In October 2015, Caio led Poste Italiane to the IPO (initial public offering). The offer, the first large sale of shares in government-owned companies in 16 years in Italy, was expected to generated around €3.4 billion in much-needed cash for the government and was priced at €6.75 per share, right in the middle of the initial forecasted range of €6.0-7.5.

Controversy

Francesco Caio has received criticism for his high salary. His tenure has been characterized by actions to promote legality in the company. In 2015, Caio was investigated for violating laws concerning safe working conditions in a small local post office.

Publications

Lo stato del digitale. Come l'Italia può recuperare la leadership in Europa, Marsilio, 2014.