Board of Directors

Graduated from the Bocconi University, she builds her professional career with a great knowledge in financial issues, control and Corporate Governance. This thanks to her managerial experiences in multinational companies, to those as an entrepreneur and thanks to her active participation in the Boards of Directors of the most important “Made in Italy” companies.

In her CV she has been a Director and Chairperson of several companies such as Pirelli, Recordati, Telecom Italia, Italo, FILA, the University of Milan and FSI SGR. She has also held the role of Statutory Auditor in Sea and Whirpool EMEA. Her experience in the banking sector includes roles in Intesa Sanpaolo (as Statutory Auditor and Supervisory Director), Banca Cr Firenze (as Chairperson of the Board of Statutory Auditors), and Banca Primavera (now Banca Generali, as Director).

She is currently Chairperson of illimity, Director of the Luisa Spagnoli Group, Director of Autogrill and Chairperson of the Board of Statutory Auditors of Eni.

During her career she served the State dealing with the Privatization Committee, following the sale process of important investees such as Eni, Enel and Telecom. To this she has added the outreach activities, with the publication of volumes on the topics of controls and risks, and journalism on important newspapers such as “Corriere della Sera” and “L'Espresso”. She also founded Nedcommunity, the first association in Italy aimed at developing the figure of independent members of the BoD and corporate control bodies.

Corrado Passera was born in Como, Italy, into a family of entrepreneurs. Following a degree in Business Administration from Bocconi University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, he began his career at McKinsey. Inspired by innovation and challenge, his career path took him from Olivetti to Poste Italiane S.p.A., Intesa Sanpaolo and the Italian Government. At Olivetti, he was challenged by the shift from traditional IT to ICT, which led to two extremely successful start-ups: Omnitel and Infostrada.

At Poste Italiane, between 1998 and 2002, he succeeded in transforming an inefficient public entity into a modern postal service provider, and one of the most successful postal banks worldwide. The creation of Poste Vita, which then gained national leadership, dates to this time. In the banking sector – where he served first as CEO of Ambroveneto, then of Banca Intesa and finally of Intesa Sanpaolo – he helped build one of the most solid European banks.

Among the startup worth mentioning at the time, there was Banca Prossima, a bank dedicated to social entrepreneurship and impactful financing and remains one of the most effective models of its kind worldwide. As the Minister of Economic Development, Corrado introduced start-up-friendly legislation, revolutionising the incentive to innovate. In 2018, he launched a bank start-up via Spaxs, the largest special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in Europe, with deposits of €600 million. The objective was to create a new “paradigm bank” specialising in SMEs that face challenges in accessing loans, as well as digital and mobile banking services for SMEs and families. The new bank illimity, of which he is CEO, has been listed on the STAR segment of the Borsa Italiana from September 10th 2020. Corrado is married to Giovanna and they have five children: Sofia, Luigi, Luce, Giovanni and Eugenia.

After graduating in Business Economics from Bocconi University, he earned his PhD in Commercial Law and then became a university researcher specialising in commercial law. After this, he took the next step in his academic career by lecturing in Law at various universities, including the Carlo Cattaneo University in Castellanza, Bologna University and Bocconi University.

He is founder and general partner of the Annunziata & Conso network and, over the years, he has been involved as the official liquidator in numerous insolvency proceedings for financial and non-financial entities, including Nuova Breda Fucine S.p.A., Borgonuovo Sim S.p.A., Oto Breda Finanziaria S.p.A. and Bregliano SIM S.p.A. He has also sat on numerous boards of directors and auditors at banks, financial brokerages and asset management firms.

He is currently an Associate Professor of Financial Markets Law at Bocconi University and Co-Director of the Rules Research Unit at the Baffi-Carefin centre at Bocconi University in Milan. He is an Academic Board Member of the European Banking Institute in Frankfurt and the author of multiple papers and articles on financial market law that have been published in leading international journals. He also teaches musicology at Milan State University and has authored numerous papers in the field of Law and Humanities.

Ivana Bonnet Zivcevic

Director

After earning his degree in Business and Economics with honours from Verona University, he began his career at EY, where he spent 37 years, rising to become the Head of the North East Area for the financial services sector. Having specialised in auditing, he has been the lead auditor on numerous appointments at listed banking groups (including Banca Generali, Banco Popolare and Banca IFIS) as well as at some leading unlisted Italian banks (such as the various credit cooperatives in the north east of the country of the ICCREA Group), although he has continued to auditor the accounts at a number of major Italian industrial groups as well.

His extensive experience in the financial industry has also seen him successfully tackle various accounting change projects, securitization transactions, IPOs, due diligences, mergers, capital increases and bond issuances.

Over the years, he has also authored many publications on the IAS/IFRS accounting standards, spoken at numerous seminars on accounting and auditing topics and, since 2011, been a contract professor at the University of Verona to teach Corporate Auditing and Control Systems.

He graduated in Business Economics from Bocconi University in Milan, before beginning his career as an analyst with Tamburi & Associati and as an auditor with Ernst & Young. Between 1997 and 2002, he was Vice-President for the M&A area at Société Générale Investment Banking.

In 2002, he held managerial positions at Euromobiliare Corporate Finance and in 2004 at Abaxbank. Starting from 2006, his career became more international as he was the Managing Director for Fredericks Michael & Co in the New York and London offices.

He has gained extensive expertise in corporate development, Investment Banking, corporate planning and finance and venture capital.

He was on the Board of Directors of SPAXS and Ca' Zampa, and Board Chairperson of Tetis. He is currently a member of illimity's Board of Directors.

Holding a degree in Economics from La Sapienza University in Rome, he began his career at Cassa di Risparmio di Roma, before moving to the Bank of Italy for many years, holding roles of increasing importance and also becoming its representative in working groups at the European Monetary Institute.

He worked as a Qualified Auditor and then as a consultant for banks and financial institutions and he has been the Chairperson of the Board of Statutory Auditors and of the Supervisory Board at many Italian banks, such as Cassa di Risparmio di Fano, Banca di Credito Cooperativo di Tarsia, BCC di Recanati e Colmurano, Banca Emilveneta-Modena.

At illimity he is a member of the Board of Directors and the Audit and Internal Control Committee.

He received a special award from the Italian president "for the merit of the Republic".

She graduated with honours in Business Economics from Bocconi University in Milan. She then became a qualified accountant and auditor in 1994 and subsequently started her career in investment banking, first with Citibank in Milan and next in London.

In 1998, she joined Goldman Sachs where she held different positions in Leverage Finance, Advisory and Financing. She successfully managed funding transactions involving venture capital, debt and M&As for the corporate sector and private equity clients. In 2009 she was a founding partner of Ondra Partners, an advisory boutique, where she worked until 2016.

Until 2020 she was a member of the Board of Directors of GEDI Gruppo Editoriale.

She is currently a member of illimity's Board of Directors and executive director at UK Government Investments Ltd, providing advisory services in the field of corporate governance and corporate finance to support the various departments of the British government.

She graduated with honours in Economics from La Sapienza University in Rome and went on to work as a researcher with the School of Commercial Law at La Sapienza from 1986 to 1988. She started her professional career with Arthur Andersen in 1989 as a junior tax consultant and she spent time abroad working in their international offices. She became a partner in 2003, when Arthur Andersen merged with Deloitte & Touche.

She has worked as a qualified accountant specialising in consulting and helping major Italian and international groups on corporate, tax and financial statement issues, M&As, listings and re-organisation and workout plans.

Since 2017, she has been a member of the "Banks and Insurance Companies" Committee of the Rome Board of Accountants and Accounting Experts. She has been a member of many Supervisory Authorities and Boards of Statutory Auditors including Poste Italiane S.p.A., Cassa Depositi e Prestiti Immobiliare S.p.A. and AXA Assicurazioni S.p.A., Moncler S.p.A., Terna Reti S.p.A e Invitalia Global Investment.
At illimity Bank, she is currently a member of the Board of Directors and the Audit and Internal Control Committee.

She graduated in Business Economics from Bocconi University, where she has been a professor of Corporate Finance since 1996. She previously taught in the MBA at SDA Bocconi postgraduate management school and she is currently in charge of two degree courses. In 1994, she became a qualified accountant and auditor in Milan.

She worked as a consultant initially with Brugger & Associates (1982-2005), as project and team leader, supporting the top management of industrial companies. She then became an Independent Consultant at AlixPartners (2005-2012) specialising in Financial Advisory Services and Corporate Turnaround, even holding temporary management roles (CEO of Dianos S.p.A - an IT company focussing on finance - from 2003 to 2005).

She has been on management and supervisory boards at many industrial companies (also listed on regulated markets), such as an independent director at Fullsix S.p.A., Servizi Italia S.p.A., Banca Popolare di Milano, Banco BPM S.p.A., Banca Akros S.p.A. and Silver Fir SGR, as well as a Standing Auditor at Tamburi Investment Partners S.p.A.

She has written books and articles for scientific publications.

Her curriculum vitae includes several roles as Director, such as for Fondazione Dr. Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital, Unieuro, and Mondadori. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of illimity and an Independent Director in illimity SGR.

After obtaining a masters in Engineering from the Politecnico of Milan, she kicked off her Investment Banking career at JPMorgan in M&A and Structured Finance. She joined Goldman Sachs in 2005, where she held various senior management positions across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, both within the firm’s Investment Banking and Securities Divisions, focusing primarily on structured financing strategies.

Since 2013, she has devoted her career to executive coaching, and she is now a Senior Partner at the Alexander Partnership. She coaches the C-suite, partners, boards and executives across many industries, with a particular focus on professional and financial services, tech ventures, luxury, entertainment & media companies, spanning all geographies

In 2021, she joined the Board of Directors of illimity.

He graduated in Economics from La Sapienza University in Rome, before continuing his studies at Columbia University and Princeton. He started working as an economist with the Bank of Italy where he focused on monetary policy, financial markets and financial intermediaries.

In 1998, he joined the World Bank where he spent the next 12 years, climbing the career ladder to become the Executive Director for Italy, Portugal, Greece, Albania, Malta, East Timor and San Marino. In 2010, he returned to the Bank of Italy to head up the Risk Management office. From 2014 to 2015, he worked at the Ministry of the Economy and Finance as a member of the Scientific and Technical Committee of Experts and the Ministerial Cabinet for the organisation and management of the Italian Presidency of the EU. At the end of this mandate, he returned to the US as Head of the Bank of Italy delegation in New York, responsible for the North American economies.

Alongside his policy-making activities, he has published books and articles on monetary policy, financial regulations and risk management, both for professionals and the general public. He has also worked with the Italian financial daily IlSole24Ore.

He joined illimity's Board of Directors in 2021.

He graduated in Law from the University of Cagliari. In 1993, he joined Studio Tremonti & Partners, becoming a partner in 2000. He is enrolled in the Milan Board of Lawyers and is a qualified auditor.

He has worked as a transaction partner in complex Leveraged Buyout transactions, mainly in the energy and real estate industries. He has also been involved in many key IPO securitisation transactions. During his career, he has been a Court-Appointed Administrator and Legal Custodian for different companies, having been appointed by both the Bari and Milan Courts.

He has consulted on a range of extraordinary transactions, funding operations and issuances of tier one securities and bonds for Ardian, Citibank International PLC, Banca Intesa S.p.A., Pirelli Real Estate, Telecom Italia, Olivetti and many others.

He currently sits on the Boards of Directors and of Statutory Auditors for various Italian industrial and financial companies, including illimity.
Over the years, he has served as a member of the Board of Statutory Auditors and the Board of Directors of several Italian industrial, banking and financial companies. Currently he is a member of the Board of Directors of illimity.