Bucci, the manager-scout who conquered the red Genoa and the man behind the new Morandi bridge
He was elected in Genoa in 2017, confirmed five years later. A former business executive, he worked as a manager first for 3M and then for Kodak, living for a long time abroad in Switzerland and the United States
3' min read
3' min read
Marco Bucci, 64, is the mayor of Genoa. Bucci was elected in 2017, confirmed five years later in 2022. A former business executive, Bucci has a degree in Chemistry and since the 1980s worked as a manager for 3M first and then for Kodak, living abroad for a long time in Switzerland and the United States. From October 2015 to June 2017, he was CEO of Liguria Digitale. Then the request to run for mayor and the first victory in 2017, the first centre-right mayor in the post-war period. In the first round he collected 38.80% of the consensus, going to the ballot with the centre-left candidate Gianni Crivello (33.39%). At the 25 June ballot he was elected first citizen of the Ligurian capital with 55.24% of the vote, succeeding Marco Doria. In 2022 he was confirmed by winning in the first round with 55.49% of the vote (equal to 112,457 votes), more than 17 percentage points ahead of his centre-left opponent Ariel Dello Strologo. Last June, Bucci had been admitted to Genoa's Galliera hospital and underwent surgery by the maxillofacial surgery and reconstructive plastic surgery team for a lymph node metastasis from a skin neoplasm. On 3 September, he announced via social media that he had completed the radiotherapy course.
Poisons on disease
.It was an aggressive election campaign of more or less veiled insults. With even United for the Constitution gubernatorial candidate Nicola Morra as the protagonist in one passage. The former Pentastellist parliamentarian brought up Bucci's health conditions, comparing them to those of Jole Santelli, who was struck down by cancer during her term as governor in Calabria, at the age of just 52. Words that unleashed the fury of the centre-right and the centre-left candidate Andrea Orlando himself. Morra's post, which sought to deny the content of the incriminated interview, stating that he had not said 'directly or indirectly, that an oncological or other type of patient should not or could not stand as a candidate', was useless.
“L’americano”
A manager with an international career and a youth in scouting, these are the two aces up Marco Bucci's sleeve. He is Bucci 'the American', as mentioned manager between Italy, Switzerland and the United States. His long career began with a degree in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology from the University of Genoa, then specialisation at the Universities of Minnesota and Michigan as well as at the IMD in Lausanne. In the space of a few years, he went from the presidency of Carestream Health Inc. in Rochester (USA), to the vice-presidency of SGS in Geneva, to the post of Ceo in Eastman Kodak Company between Genoa and New York, just to mention the most important ones. Nothing to do with the folkloristic local politicians that the League is wont to present from time to time. In October 2015 Bucci was called by Toti to lead Liguria Digitale, a company almost entirely controlled by the Region, to develop the technological infrastructure and digital services throughout Liguria.
Scout Training
It is said that between him and the Genoese centre-right the first relations were facilitated by the passion for the mountains shared with Edoardo Rixi, Ligurian secretary of the Northern League and regional councillor for economic development. It was the Carroccio in 2015 that wanted Bucci at the head of Liguria Digitale. And with the same force it was Rixi who paved the way for his candidacy. To Catholicism, to a scout education that along with the wonders of Genoa he never fails to remember, Bucci also combines the typical American-made spirit of service: 'I have had so much from my life, now I want to give something: I would like to do it for my city. I put myself at the service of Genoa' he repeated at every turn during his election campaign for the first mayoral election in Genoa.
The new Morandi Bridge
Six years have passed since the Morandi Bridge collapse, which occurred on the morning of 14 August 2018 at 11.36am. A date that Genoa will never forget: for those 43 victims, for the displaced, for two destroyed neighbourhoods, but also because it brought to the surface the problem of infrastructure maintenance. But also a story of rapid and effective reconstruction. On 28 August of that year, architect Renzo Piano delivered the model of the new viaduct to the Region, a 'gift' to the city. On 28 September, the so-called 'Decreto Genova' was published in the Official Gazette, giving the commissioner for reconstruction wide-ranging powers and allocating funds. On 4 October, Mayor Marco Bucci is appointed commissioner for the reconstruction of the Polcevera Viaduct. Until 3 August 2020, when in the afternoon President of the Republic Mattarella attends with Prime Minister Conte and various ministers the inauguration of the Genoa-San Giorgio viaduct, which will open to traffic the following day.
