Lorenzo Sassoli de Bianchi

Lorenzo Sassoli de Bianchi (born in 1952) is an Italian businessman and philanthropist, currently President of Valsoia,[1] an Italian health food company. He is president of the Italian Advertisers Association (Utenti Pubblicità Associati - UPA) and holds board-level positions on a number of regional industrial associations and charities. On 22 May 2015, Sassoli de Bianchi was honoured for his services to enterprise with the Italian knighthood of Cavaliere del Lavoro, presented by the President of Italy His Excellency Sergio Mattarella.

Education and early career

Born in Paris, Sassoli de Bianchi graduated in medicine at Bologna University in 1977, where he subsequently worked as a neurologist specialising in sleep diseases, including a residency at Stanford University in the USA. He simultaneously studied for a master's degree in Art History and Criticism, which he received from the UIA University in Florence in 1981.

In 1986, Sassoli de Bianchi joined the Board of Directors of distillers Buton, the makers of Vecchia Romagna brandy, where he was appointed Chief Executive Officer later in the year.

Valsoia

Sassoli De Bianchi combined his industrial and medical knowledge to found the health food company Valsoia in 1990. The company went public in 2006.[2] In 2009 the company share price increased 91.38%.[3] In 2014, Valsoia's turnover was €114m and on 30 June the share price had risen to over 600% of the initial listing price.[4]

Other responsibilities

Sassoli de Bianchi was appointed President of the UPA in June 2007 and subsequently reappointed for a further 3 years in 2009,[5] 2012[6] and 2015.[7]

Past responsibilities saw him acting as Vice Chairman of Bologna’s Business Association (Unindustria) from 2004 to 2007, and as a Board Member of the Bologna development agency Promo-Bologna from 2003 to 2007, of UniCredit Bank[8] from 2012 to 2015 and of the Bologna Film Library from 1995 to 2000.

He was appointed President of the Bologna Museum of Modern Art in 1995, 2009 and 2013. In 2015, when the Museum - together with many others in the city - came under the control of the newly formed Bologna Musei,[9] the body responsible for 13 of Bologna's museums, including the Bologna Museum of Modern Art (MAMbo),[10] the Morandi Museum and the Bologna Archaeological Museum,[11] Sassoli de Bianchi was appointed President of this body. From 2001 to 2015 he was also Vice Chairman of the Emilia Romagna Region Ministerial Commission for Culture and the Arts, and has since 1990 been a Member of the Governing Board of the Bologna Festival Musical Association. On 30 November 2016, he stood down as President of Bologna Musei. On 12 December 2016, he was made an acting member of the Bologna Academy of Art (Accademia Clementina di Belle Arti).

Charitable Commitments

Sassoli de Bianchi’s charitable commitments include board-level positions on two eminent charities, the Fondazione del Monte (from 2002 to 2012), which provides support in the areas of social solidarity, community development, scientific research and the arts and culture, and the Centro San Domenico cultural association (from 2005 to the present).[12]

Art Criticism

An art lover and critic, Sassoli de Bianchi has published widely on modern and contemporary art, with essays on, amongst others, Raul Dufy, Salvator Dalí, Giorgio Morandi, Julian Schnabel, Zhang Xiaotao and Feng Zhengjie. Among the first to bring Chinese contemporary art to the attention of the West, he is the author of the books China: contemporary painting (2005), From Heaven to Earth (2008) and Pu Jie (2009). He also contributed the introduction and two essays to the book Primary [13] on the artist Feng Zhengjie.

Sassoli de Bianchi was the curator of the 2009 Pu Jie exhibition in Beijing.[14]

Honours

Italian knighthood of Cavaliere del Lavoro presented for services to enterprise by the President of Italy, His Excellency Sergio Mattarella, on 22 May 2015.[15]

References

  1. ↑ Trend Online: 23 April 2014 - Valsoia: Sassoli reappointed President
  2. ↑ Business Online: Valsoia: excellent stock exchange debut
  3. ↑ Stock market performance information from the newspaper Il Corriere di Bologna
  4. ↑ Valsoia stock market performance analysis at Evaluation.it
  5. ↑ Lorenzo Sassoli de Bianchi reappointed President of the UPA
  6. ↑ Lorenzo Sassoli de Bianchi confirmed President of the UPA
  7. ↑ Lorenzo Sassoli De Bianchi unanimously reelected for third term
  8. ↑ UniCredit Board Members Meeting Attendance
  9. ↑ Istituzione Bologna Musei Board of Directors
  10. ↑ Lorenzo Sassoli de Bianchi President of MAMbo elected President of the UPA
  11. ↑ Full list of Bologna Musei museums
  12. ↑ Centro San Domenico Board of Directors
  13. ↑ Singapore Art Museum Publications List
  14. ↑ Pu Jie: Look Ahead Look Back
  15. ↑ 2015 Cavalieri del Lavoro

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