Fondazione Crt, two new additions to the board

Two new appointments, one of which will be made tomorrow at the board meeting and the second in the near future, to fill the seats left empty by the two resigning board members. Fondazione Crt is preparing to take another step in the direction taken with the rise of president Anna Maria Poggi, namely that of a clean break with the judicial events that have involved the organisation in the recent past.

Not only that, the ambition of the Foundation and first and foremost its president, with this small formal step of reorganising the board, is to at least partially rebalance the gender ratio in the body. At present, out of 22 councillors only six are women. This is also why a female profile would be chosen to take over from Giuseppe Tardivo, who resigned last January. In particular, but the last word will be up to the council on tomorrow's agenda, Chiara Landolfo would be indicated as a potential candidate. A figure perfectly consistent with the new and stringent criteria defined for the selection of the members of the steering committee. Landolofo is in fact a European civil servant with over 15 years of experience in administration and control. A relevant background that could now be put at the service of the body.

As for the second addition, he will have to replace Paolo Garbarino, who also left last Christmas as a result of the Roman strand of the 'occult pact' investigation that involved the Foundation and for which the competent prosecutor had requested an interdictory measure, i.e. suspension from holding office in companies and organisations. Garbarino, former rector of the University of Eastern Piedmont, would therefore have preferred to anticipate any possible decision by the judge, as would Tardivo. Now the vacant seat will have to be filled, but for this to happen, as it was indicated by the provinces of Biella and Vercelli, the two bodies will first have to submit a shortlist of candidates from which to choose the name to be appointed to the board. The hope, also in this case, is that at least two of the three names that will be indicated will be women in order to give a further boost to the gender rebalancing process.

In this regard, it is worth mentioning that these two changes may not be the last. Alice Colombo and Elisabetta Mazzola, who are also under investigation in the Rome proceedings on the hypothesis of obstruction of supervision, are still sitting on the board. The judge has not yet ruled on the prosecutor's request, but even if he should not grant the interdiction order, the picture would remain delicate. In fact, in the background remains the risk of an indictment. This would not lead to disqualification from holding office, but would nevertheless further compromise an already complex scenario.

Developments will certainly become clearer in the coming weeks. What is certain is that these last governance steps for Fondazione Crt represent a key step towards definitively putting the investigation into the alleged 'hidden pact' denounced more than two years ago by Fabrizio Palenzona and Andrea Varese (former president and former secretary respectively) behind us. A chapter that, once archived, will give even greater comfort to an institution with significant assets and that in the coming years, at least on paper, will be able to count on increasingly important dividend flows. One of the key assets in the portfolio is UniCredit, which just a week ago guaranteed 50 billion in coupons to shareholders over five years.