Roberto Colaninno was born in Mantua (Italy) on 16 August 1943.

He is chairman and chief executive officer of Piaggio & C. SpA and chairman of IMMSI SpA, the company that controls the Piaggio Group. He is chairman of Alitalia-Compagnia Aerea Italiana.
After his early experience in Italian auto components maker Fiaam, of which he became chief executive officer, in 1981 Mr Colaninno founded the Sogefi company in Mantua. Under his leadership, Sogefi expanded on to the international markets, becoming one of Italy’s primary auto components players and a stock-listed company. In September 1996, Mr Colaninno was appointed chief executive officer of Olivetti, at a time when the Ivrea-based company was in a serious crisis. Thanks in part to international agreements, he rapidly transformed Olivetti into a telecommunications holding with controlling shares in Omnitel and Infostrada and minority interests in the Information Technology business. In February 1999, he led Olivetti in a public tender offer for Telecom Italia worth more than 60 billion euro, the largest takeover bid ever made in Italy at the time. Olivetti acquired approximately 51% of Telecom Italia and Mr Colaninno was appointed chairman and chief executive of the company, as well as chairman of TIM, holding these posts until 31 July 2001. In September 1998 he established Omniaholding SpA, the family-owned financial company of which he is chairman. In September 2002 he joined other partners to form Omniainvest SpA, a holding in which Omniaholding currently owns 79.55%. In November 2002, through Omniaholding and Omniainvest, he acquired IMMSI SpA, a stock-listed real estate holding company. Beginning in February 2003, IMMSI acquired shareholdings in industrial and services companies, notably control of the Piaggio Group, the Rodriquez Cantieri Navali Group and the Aprilia Group.
In 2008 IMMSI SpA was one of the founders of CAI (Compagnia Aerea Italiana), the company that acquired the Alitalia and Airone airlines and of which Roberto Colaninno is chairman.
Mr Colaninno has been a member of the Confindustria Management Committee since 2005. In 2001 he was awarded an honorary degree in economics and commerce from the University of Lecce.

Chairman IMMSI SpA
Chairman Piaggio SpA Group
Chairman Omniaholding SpA
Chairman Alitalia - Compagnia Aerea Italiana