Mario Monti was born on 19 March 1943 and is an Italian economist and academic who served as the Prime Minister of Italy from 2011 to 2013, leading a technocratic government in the wake of the Italian debt crisis.
41 Facts About Mario Monti
2.
Mario Monti has been rector and president of Bocconi University in Milan for many years.
3.
On 12 November 2011, in the midst of the European sovereign debt crisis, Mario Monti was invited by President Giorgio Napolitano to form a new technocratic government following the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi.
4.
Mario Monti was sworn in as Prime Minister on 16 November 2011, just a week after having been appointed a Lifetime Senator by President Napolitano, and initially became Minister of Economy and Finances as well, giving that portfolio up the following July.
5.
From 16 May 2013 to 17 October 2013, Mario Monti was the president of Civic Choice, a centrist political party in Italy.
6.
Mario Monti's father went back to Argentina during World War II, but later returned to his family home in Varese.
7.
Mario Monti studied at the private Leo XIII High School and attended Bocconi University of Milan, where he obtained a degree in economics in 1965.
8.
Mario Monti began his academic career at the University of Trento, before moving to teach economics at the University of Turin from 1970 to 1985, and finally to Bocconi University, where he was appointed Rector in 1989, and President in 1994.
9.
Mario Monti served as President of the SUERF from 1982 to 1985.
10.
Mario Monti's research helped to create the "Klein-Monti model", aimed at describing the behaviour of banks operating under monopoly circumstances.
11.
In 1994, Mario Monti was appointed to the Santer Commission, along with Emma Bonino, by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
12.
Mario Monti was responsible for levying the EU's largest ever fine at the time against Microsoft for abusing its dominant market position in 2004.
13.
Mario Monti was criticised in the media and by competition lawyers for the perceived inflexibility of the merger oversight process and the high number of cases that were being blocked.
14.
Mario Monti was defended by supporters who saw his actions as an important step in the development of competition law in the EU.
15.
On 11 December 2002, Mario Monti proposed a series of reforms to the EU's merger rules and made structural changes within the Commission's Competition department which aimed to improve transparency for companies throughout the merger review process.
16.
In 2010, Mario Monti was asked by Commission President Manuel Barroso to draft a "Report on the Future of the Single Market" proposing further measures towards the completion of the EU's Single Market.
17.
On 9 November 2011, Mario Monti was appointed a lifetime senator by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.
18.
Mario Monti was seen as a favourite to replace Silvio Berlusconi to lead a new unity government in Italy in order to implement reforms and austerity measures.
19.
Mario Monti accepted the offer, and held talks with the leaders of the main Italian political parties, declaring that he wanted to form a government that would remain in office until the next scheduled general elections in 2013.
20.
On 16 November 2011, Mario Monti was sworn in as Prime Minister of Italy, after unveiling a technocratic cabinet composed entirely of unelected professionals.
21.
Mario Monti chose to hold the post of Minister of Economy and Finances.
22.
On 4 December 2011, Mario Monti's government introduced emergency austerity measures intended to stem the worsening economic conditions in Italy and restore market confidence, especially after rising Italian government bond yields began to threaten Italy's financial stability.
23.
Mario Monti announced that he would be giving up his own salary as part of the reforms.
24.
On 21 December 2012, Mario Monti announced his resignation as Prime Minister, having made a public promise to step down on 8 December, after the passing of the 2013 Budget.
25.
Mario Monti initially stated that he would only remain in office until an early election could be held.
26.
On 9 November 2011, Mario Monti was appointed a Lifetime Senator by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, in accordance with the second paragraph of "Article 59 of the Constitution, which merits national honor distinguished in science and society".
27.
Mario Monti was a member of the Commission for Industry, Commerce and Tourism from 30 November 2011 to 14 March 2013 in the sixteenth legislature.
28.
Mario Monti was a member of the independents' mixed parliamentary group until 19 March 2013, when he joined the Civic Choice parliamentary group, becoming the first lifetime senator aligned with a party group.
29.
On 4 January 2013, Mario Monti launched Civic Choice as an electoral list of the civil society, to realize the implementation of his agenda in a future government.
30.
On 12 March 2013, Civic Choice was turned into a political party as Mario Monti took office as acting SC president in the Provisional Committee of the party and appointed senator Andrea Olivero as provisional political coordinator.
31.
On 16 May 2013, Mario Monti was unanimously elected president of the Civic Choice.
32.
Particularly, Mario Monti criticized Mauro's line of unconditioned support to the government and of transforming SC in a larger centre-right political party, open to The People of Freedom.
33.
Mario Monti was the founding chairman of Bruegel, another European think tank, which was formed in 2005.
34.
Mario Monti is a leading member of the exclusive Bilderberg Group.
35.
Mario Monti has been an international advisor to Goldman Sachs and The Coca-Cola Company.
36.
In 2007, Mario Monti was one of the first supporters of the first European civic forum, Etats Generaux de l'Europe, initiated by European think tank EuropaNova and European Movement.
37.
Mario Monti was a member of the French government's Attali Commission from 2007 to 2008, appointed by Nicolas Sarkozy to provide recommendations to enhance economic growth in France.
38.
Mario Monti is a founding member of the Spinelli Group, an organization launched in September 2010 to facilitate integration within the European Union.
39.
In January 2014, Mario Monti became Chairman of the High Level Group on Own Resources, a consultative committee of the European Union aimed at proposing new forms of revenue for the European Union's budget.
40.
In 2019, Mario Monti chaired a search committee which recommended to the European Commission the appointment of Mauro Ferrari as the next President of the European Research Council.
41.
Mario Monti said that his youth was given over to hard study; spare-time activities included cycling and keeping up with world affairs by tuning into foreign short-wave radio stations.