Giovanni De Gennaro (born August 14, 1948 in

Reggio Calabria Reggio di Calabria ( scn, label= Southern Calabrian, Riggiu; el, label= Calabrian Greek, Ρήγι, Rìji), usually referred to as Reggio Calabria, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, is the largest city in Calabria. It has an estimated popul ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

) is

Chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

of the first Italian Defense Group

Leonardo Leonardo is a masculine given name, the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese equivalent of the English, German, and Dutch name, Leonard Leonard or ''Leo'' is a common English masculine given name and a surname. The given name and surname originate ...

(formerly Finmeccanica). He was Italy's former police chief and Undersecretary to the

Italian Prime Minister The Prime Minister of Italy, officially the President of the Council of Ministers ( it, link=no, Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri), is the head of government of the Italian Republic. The office of president of the Council of Ministers is ...

with responsibility for information services and security. He was appointed former chief of the Italian

police department The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and ...

and director of the information services and security department.

Career

De Gennaro graduated in Law at

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a Public university, public research university l ...

, and then joined the Italian Police Department. Afterwards he was moved to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

to join the narcotics unit. During his career he collaborated with

Giovanni Falcone Giovanni Falcone (; 18 May 1939 – 23 May 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian ...

, carrying out international investigations against

the Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

. In 1984 he was the lead officer during the extradition issues of the informer

Tommaso Buscetta Tommaso Buscetta (; 13 July 1928 – 2 April 2000) was an Italian mobster and a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He became one of the first of its members to turn informant and explain the inner workings of the organization. Buscetta participated i ...

from

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. In 1994 he was appointed as Prefect and on 26 May 2000 as Chief of the Italian Police Department - Director General for Public Security. He is in charge of the Italian Police during the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa, including the raid on the Diaz school. For such deeds, Italy will later be condemned by the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...

in 2015 and 2017 for not having prevented and punished acts of torture by state agents. De Gennaro was prosecuted, condemned and later cleared by Cassation for inducing false testimonies.Il Post
/ref> In 2007 De Gennaro became Head of Cabinet for the Italian Ministry of Interior, and held the position of Special Commissioner for an emergency crisis related to waste in

Campania Campania (, also , , , ) is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islands and the i ...

region. In June 2008 he became Director General of the Department of Security Information (DIS) and in 2012 he became Undersecretary to the Italian Prime Minister with responsibility for information services and security. In July 2013 Giovanni De Gennaro was appointed as Chairman of Finmeccanica (today

) by the Board of Directors with duties regarding International Relations, Institutional Relations, External Relations and Communication, Group Security and Internal Audit. In May 2014 Giovanni De Gennaro has been confirmed as Chairman by

Finmeccanica Leonardo S.p.A., formerly Leonardo-Finmeccanica and originally Finmeccanica, is an Italian Multinational corporation, multinational company specialising in Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace, arms industry, defence and Information security, securi ...

Board of Directors and again in May 2017 when he was attributed the supervision of the execution of corporate governance rules related to integrity in corporate behaviours and fight to corruption. Several politicians have opposed De Gennaro's chairmanship of Leonardo/Finmeccanica due to his past in Genoa, including the then-president of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

Matteo Orfini Matteo Orfini is an Italian politician, a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and President of the Democratic Party. Biography Matteo Orfini was born in Rome in 1974. He started his interest in politics when he attended the lyceum. In 20 ...

, who deemed it "shameful", as well as other politicians from Movimento Cinque Stelle and Sinistra Ecologia Libertà.

Honors

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:De Gennaro, Giovanni 1948 births Italian businesspeople Sapienza University of Rome alumni Italian police officers Government ministers of Italy Living people