Renato Soru (born 6 August 1957) is an Italian politician and entrepreneur. He is the founder of the internet service company

Tiscali Tiscali S.p.a. () is an Italian telecommunications company, based in Cagliari, Sardinia, that provides internet and telecommunications services to its domestic market. It previously had operations in other European nations through its acquisitio ...

, based in

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

. ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'' listed Soru as one of the world's richest people, with a net worth of over $4 billion (US) as of September 2001.

Early life and career

Soru was born in

Sanluri Sanluri ( sc, Seddori, la, Sullurium) is a comune in Sardinia, Italy. It became part of the Province of South Sardinia, following the creation of that local unit in 2016. The territory of Sanluri comprises an area of . In 1436, Sanluri was ele ...

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

, in 1957. He holds a University degree from the

Bocconi University Bocconi University ( it, Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, ) is a private university in Milan, Italy. Bocconi provides education in the fields of economics, finance, law, management, political science, public administration and computer sci ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. In 2004, Soru was elected the

president of Sardinia This is the list of presidents of Sardinia since 1949. ;Elected by the Regional Council (1949–1994) ;Directly-elected presidents (since 1994) {{DEFAULTSORT:Presidents of Sardinia * Politics of Sardinia Government of Sardinia Sar ...

with the

centre-left coalition The centre-left coalition ( it, coalizione di centro-sinistra) is an political alliance, alliance of list of political parties in Italy, political parties in Italy active, under several forms and names, since 1995 when The Olive Tree (Italy), Th ...

with an audacious program to reinvigorate the economy within the island by introducing external investors. On 28 November 2008, he resigned from his position. He ran again for president of Sardinia in the February 2009 election but was defeated by the right-wing

Popolo della Libertà The People of Freedom ( it, Il Popolo della Libertà, PdL) was a centre-right political party in Italy. The PdL, launched by Silvio Berlusconi on 18 November 2007, was initially a federation of political parties, notably including Forza Italia a ...

candidate

Ugo Cappellacci Ugo Cappellacci (born 27 November 1960 in Cagliari, Italy) is an Italian Sardinian politician and member of the Forza Italia (FI) political party. Cappellacci, a center-right, politician, was elected President of Sardinia in the 2009 regional el ...

. On 20 May 2008, Soru bought the

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

newspaper ''

l'Unità ''l'Unità'' (, lit. 'the Unity') was an Italian newspaper, founded as the official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1924. It was supportive of that party's successor parties, the Democratic Party of the Left, Democrats of the ...

''.

Controversies

On 5 May 2016, Soru was sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion that amounted to about 2.6 million euro and was connected to a loan made by the company Andalas Ldt to Tiscali. The sentence was reversed by the Italian court of appeal on 8 May 2017. Out of five counts, he was cleared from the third "because the fact is not a crime" and from the two "because the fact did not happen".

References

External links

* Bernhard, Marcella
"Forbes Faces: Renato Soru"
''Forbes'', 1 Oktober 2001
Forbes listing from "World's Richest People"
(archived 2011) * 1957 births Living people Presidents of Sardinia Bocconi University alumni Italian mass media owners Internet company founders Italian newspaper publishers (people) Italian billionaires People from the Province of South Sardinia MEPs for Italy 2014–2019 21st-century Italian politicians Soru 21st-century Italian criminals Italian people convicted of tax crimes Italian politicians convicted of crimes Heads of government who were later imprisoned {{Italy-MEP-stub