Romano Prodi

Biography

Romano Prodi was born in 1939 at Scandiano near Reggio Emilia, one of nine children in a family of academics. He graduated in law from the Catholic University of Milan in 1961, did postgraduate work at the London School of Economics, and became a professor of economics at the University of Bologna.

A Christian Democrat technocrat, he was minister of industry in 1978-1979 under Giulio Andreotti and twice headed the state holding company IRI, overseeing privatisations in 1993-1994. He also ran an economic consultancy and was an adviser to Goldman Sachs from 1990.

In 1995 he founded the centre-left Olive Tree coalition, which won the 1996 election; as prime minister he brought Italy within the conditions for joining the euro and sent an Italian-led force to Albania in 1997, before losing a confidence vote in 1998. From 1999 to 2004 he was President of the European Commission, a period that included the 2004 enlargement of the European Union.

Leading the Union coalition, he narrowly beat Silvio Berlusconi in 2006 and became prime minister again, but lost a Senate confidence vote in January 2008. He was the founding president of the Democratic Party in 2007, was defeated as a candidate for the presidency in 2013, and later served as a UN envoy for the Sahel.