Gianni Vernetti

Early life

Gianni Vernetti was born in Torino, Italy. In 1985 he obtained a degree in Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Torino. In 1987 he was awarded a PhD in Urban Ecology from the Politecnico di Milano university.

Career

Between 1993 and 1999, Vernetti was Deputy Mayor at the City of Torino, in charge of Public Works, Environment and Sustainable Development, and Urban Renovation.

In 2001, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament. As leader of his Group in the Commission on Energy and Industry he promoted several initiatives on Renewable Energies. He is member of the National Steering Committee of his party Democrazia è Libertà-la Margherita, a center-left political party member of the European Democratic Party (EDP) and of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group (ALDE) in the European Parliament.

In 2006, he was elected to the Senate of the Republic, and after the center-left coalition won the general election he became UnderSecretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the Prodi government. He was in charge of all bilateral relations between Italy and the Asia/Pacific countries. Vernetti coordinated all the Italian initiatives in Afghanistan, where Italy takes part in the NATO military mission and is coordinating the Justice Sector and Rule of Law Reform.

He promoted the new Italian policies towards Central Asia implementing several development aid projects, and improving economic, commercial and military cooperation. Vernetti coordinated the Italian aid to the countries affected by the 2004 tsunami. He coordinated the Italian initiatives in Asia promoting several projects of economic, scientific, commercial and military cooperation, particularly between Italy and India, China, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Pakistan.

Vernetti coordinated the Italian initiatives in the Pacific area and promoted the entrance of Italy into the Pacific Islands Forum. He represented Italy in the UN Human Rights Council.

In 2008, Vernetti was elected for a third term in the Chamber of Deputies and he is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Italian Delegation to the NATO Parliamentarian Assembly. He is member of the Steering Committee of the European Democratic Party.

He is Coordinator of the Alliance of Democrats an international network of more than 70 democratic, liberal and centrist political parties from all the five continents.

He is co-president of the Italian Group of the Liberal International.

He became President of the Italy-Darfur Parliamentary Association in 2008, and Vice-President of the Italy-Israel and Italy-Tibet Parliamentary Association.

He writes regularly on foreign politics in the Italian daily newspapers Europa.

In 2013, after three terms in Parliament, he decided to not run again and founded Gea Solar, a company focused on utility scale Solar PV development in Africa, Asia and Latin America

Personal life

He is married to Laura De Donato, a journalist. They have four children.