Born in Switzerland, she arrives in Milan in 1973 and spends 34 years with Francesco Pasquinelli, Milanese entrepreneur with a passion for culture, music, art. When he dies in 2011, she creates Fondazione Pasquinelli to honor his memory. She does not want to confine the role of the organization to art collection to pursue social goals in education, training, culture and addressing the activities to all people in physical, economic, social disadvantage that for their talent and potential can put the foundation's assistance at the best use.

After graduating in law in 1987, he is ordered in Milan diocesi by Archbishop Carlo Maria Martini in 1989. During the years he takes different roles as member of the Council for Economic Affairs in the Seminario Arcivescovile di Milano (from 1997 on) and board member of church organizations and private foundations  (Lambriana, Opera Diocesana, Opera Pia Case e Chiese parrocchiali povere, Acli). From 2001 to 2016 he is president of Fondazione Istituto Sacra Famiglia - Onlus. He also performs different roles as President of Fondazione Alessandro e Vincenzo Prati Morosini (from 1995), of Fondazione Aletti, Beccalli Mosca Onlus (from 2013), Vice-Presidente of Fondazione Pedroli-Dell'Oca Onlus (from 2012) and of Fondazione "Ester Barbaglia di Carlo Maria Ester Verri Barbaglia" Onlus (from 2014).

Giacomo Boesso is full professo in Economics at  Università degli Studi di Padova and in charge of Corporate Planning and Economics courses. His research scope goes from foundations governance to voluntary disclosure of listed companies. On these issues he authored several scientific publications with Giappichelli e McGraw-Hill  (a Economia & Management, Il Risparmio e Azienda Pubblica) and abroad (e.g. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Management Decision, Journal of Management and Governance e Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management). He directs the International Summer Program in Management in Michigan (USA) an the Master in Business and Management in Padova in partnership with Paris Chamber of Commerce. He curated the first national research on "Foundations Governance" collecting and analyzing inputs from 122 presidents, and the second on"Governance processes and activities supporting Strategic Philanthropy" by involving 144 leading players.

Pharma chemical with an MBA at SDA Bocconi in Milan, she has been working for over 20 years in the family business Chiesi Pharmaceutics, working on international marketing and strategic planning. Since 2015 she is Director of Corporate Social Responsibility to define social activities and community development of the business, identifying goals and indicator for social impact assessment. From 2010 she is also Coordinator of Chiesi Foundation, working to support young researchers, promoting scientific research and the diffusion of biomedical knowledge, and implement international cooperation initiatives in the field of neonatology.

Graduated in Economics at Bocconi University, since 2009 he is CEO of Banca Esperia. He begins his career in Interbanca. In 1989 he takes part to the start-up of Banca Internazionale Lombarda, the first Wealth Management organization in the Italian market where he is in charge of Financial Planning and then Private Banking.  In 1996 he is hired by UBS Italia as Deputy General Director to develop and manage the private banking teams. In 2002 he joins the Board of UBS Italia as Vice-President. In 2005 he becomes Head of Commercial Direction of UBS Italia for key clients in Italy, and in 2006 for South Europe, Middle East and Africa. In 2008 he takes the role of CEO of UBS Italia.

Fernando is Manager of Strategic Alliances for Europe in Fundación Avina. He is M.A.in political science and sociology at Universidad Complutense in Madrid. He is an expert in international cooperation and has worked for over 20 years as a consultant, analyst, researcher, and project manager for national and international organizations, as well as for foundations and private institutions. Fernando worked at Fundación Alternativas as the Director of the Center for Culture and Communication, and now serves as a member of the advisory board. Prior to that he worked for AECID (the Spanish international cooperation agency), the Organization of Iberoamerican States, and the European Commission, carrying out dozens of missions in Latin America and Europe in collaboration with institutions such as UNESCO, the Council of Europe, SEGIB, OIF, CPLP, IADB, among others. Fernando joined Avina in September 2015. Fernando is interested in the social changes produced by the digital revolution and the social impact of arts and cultures.

Secretary General of Fondazione Lang Italia since 2013, she manages the strategy and development of philanthropy advisory activities for grant-makers and philanthropists and the annual Lang Philanthropy Day. She began her career as and advisor on corporate social responsibility in 1997 at Gruppo Vita. She contributed to the creation of the first donor advised fund in Italy. For twenty years she has been a lecturer on corporate philanthropy and giving strategies for the community. She is member of the Advisory Board of Ashoka Italy and national councillor of Assifero. Graduated at Bocconi University, she was born in Milan in 1971.

Goffredo Modena was born in Bologna in 1938, graduating in Electronic Engineering and joining Telettra (now Alcatel). in 1982 he becomes an entrepreneurs buying 15% of Forem spa with all its family savings. Forem being in serious economic turmoils, Modena implements a strong strategic revolution by expanding the presence of the company from the sole Italian market to the European ones, growing the annual turnover from 1 billion Lire to 260 billions, and employees from 30 to 350. In 2000 he decide to realize his philanthropic project creating Fondazione Aiutare i Bambini, now Fondazione  Mission bambini, to help poor, sick, uneducated kids who experience physical or moral violence and grant them the opportunity of a life. Today Mission Bambini supports initiatives in 71 Countries and helped more than 1.250.000 kids from its inception.

She is a senior lecture in Strategy and Entrepreneurship at SDA Bocconi School of Management, professor of Strategy of Family Business and research associate at the Cattedra AIdAF-EY at Università Bocconi, and professor in e professore Management e Family Business at Università dell’Insubria. She is focused on corporate and family governance, successions, strategic and organizational change, women leadership. From 2004 she is board member of Rubelli spa and from 2014 Independent Councillor at Banco Popolare. She has authored many national and international publications such as: The Family Constitution. Agreements to Secure and Perpetuate Your Family and Your Business", Palgrave 2011, with John Ward; “Continuità generazionale e accordi familiari. Principi e regole per l’impresa, la proprietà e la famiglia”, EGEA 2009; “Fratelli e sorelle in azienda. Come fare della relazione più lunga della vita un punto di forza dell’impresa e della famiglia proprietaria”, EGEA 2013.

Paolo Palmerini is the Director of  CIAI, managing the organization in Italy and in the 12 foreign countries where the organization is present.  He previously covered the roles of India Country Representative, Territorial Director of South Asia, and Referent for the Cooperation Area. He graduated in physics at Florence University and has a Ph.D. in  Computer Science at Venice Università Ca’ Foscari. He worked as researched at CNR in Pisa from 1997 to 2002. He has been visiting scholar at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Albany, NY). Always interested in the role of ICT in developent, he promoted several initiatives to reduce the digital divide. He worked for UNESCO in Maroc, Mauritania, Algeria, Tunisia e Libia, for different Italian NGOs in Albania, Marocco, and India.

Andrea Pernigo joins the family business Just Italia Spa in 1993 where he is CFO from 2010. His entrepreneurial career brings him to become CEO of Natural Just d.o.o, partner and board member of In Job Spa, and from 2005 CEO of Blu541 Srl.  Active at the territorial level, he has been president of the group of young entrepreneurs in Confindustria di Verona, founder of Univendita, and since 2015 territorial councillor of Banco Popolare Spa. 

From 2015 he is Corporate Social Responsibility Assistant at Chiesi Pharmaceuticals, after a period in 2014 at Chiesi Foundation Onlus, corporate foundations created in 2005. She currently supports  both the management of scientific research programs, training of young researchers and international cooperation initiatives of Chiesi Foundation, and the  coordination of CSR initiatives promoted by Chiesi Pharmaceuticals for the local community.  Cecilia graduated at Università L. Bocconi a Milano, with two periods as visiting student at Queen Mary University in London and Lee Kuan Yew - School of Public Policy in Singapore, getting a master degree in Economics and Management of Public Administration and International Institutions.

A pioneer of post-war reconciliation in the late 1990's, Zoran Puljic emerged from the last decade with an innovative approach to community development. A visionary integration of entrepreneurship, reconciliation, economic and social development led the Mozaik Foundation to become a leading hybrid organization in central and eastern Europe. Puljic has served as a member and chairperson of numerous domestic and international boards, including the German Marhall Fund (Balkan Trust for Democracy), European Foundation Centre (Grantmakers East Forum), the Resource Alliance and others. He founded the first Bosnian think-tank, Populari, and currently serves on two for-profit management boards in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was a Duke University Fellow in Civil Society, INSEAD Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship and BoardSource Fellow in non-profit governance. He holds an MBA and an MA degree in Development, and is also fluent in English, German and Spanish.

Christine Rhomberg was born in Dornbirn/Austria. After primary school and high school in Dornbirn she studied at Innsbruck University (Prehistory and European Ethnology) and graduated in 1985 (Ph.D.). From 1985 until 1998 Christine Rhomberg was an employee of the Culture Department of the Government of Vorarlberg/Austria and worked as a curator as well as in the field of marketing for different museums and exhibition projects, among them the County Museum of Vorarlberg as well as the Kunsthaus Bregenz. Having been a board member and vice-president of the Bregenz Festival since 1987, Christine Rhomberg became the festival’s Fundraising Director in 1998. Five years later she changed to the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, where she became Director of Sponsorship and Development. During these years she also supported the Hilti Foundation as a freelance consultant for cultural issues. In 2012 Christine Rhomberg joined the Hilti Foundation as Head of the Cultural Department, since 2013 she is one of the two General Managers of the foundation.

Managing Director of Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo, the seventh in Italy in terms of endowment and active in the fields of education, welfare, arts and culture, local development and innovation. Graduated in Management Engineering, he has a professional background in business advisory with 8 years passed in Accenture and in the organizations of macro-events as for the Turin 2006 Winter Olympic Games. After those he dealt with projects to convert facilities in new poles of attraction before moving to the field of institutional philanthropy. He is member of the welfare and scientific research commissions in ACRI, of the Nomination Committee in EFC, of the Regional Foundations Forum, and of different working groups on capacity building.

Founder and President of AMI Trustee, Tiziano Tazzi has worked for thirty years as a manager in the financial and banking sector. He graduates in 1977 at Bocconi University and subsequently achieves an MBA at SDA bocconi. In 1982 he joind Citibank, then enters Eptaconsors as M&A Director in 1985.  In 1987 he joins the BNL Group as Director of the Participatory Service. From 1995 to 1999 he is Director of Planning and Organizational Development in BNL Investments SIM, leaving it to found Natam SpA, an Internet start-up specialized in systems of data analysis and comparison. In 2010 he creates AMI Trustee, specialized in the management of internal trusts, and becomes trustee of the Lang Trust (internal non profit trust) that in 2011 gave birth to Fondazione Lang Italia.

Raphaela Toncic-Sorinj works for Ashoka Austria and CEE and is the Director of the Ashoka Visionary Program as well as the Changemaker Initiative in Austria, a special initiative aimed at further supporting Social Entrepreneurs with game changing potential. She was born in Salzburg, grew-up in Strasbourg, France, studied Political Science, History and Social Psychology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany, and holds a certificate from the Johns-Hopkins-University, School for Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy. She started her professional career as a Business Consultant with Ernst & Young and later Capgemini in Process-, Organization- and Change Management and led numerous projects in this field. After seven years as a Business Consultant, she changed her career path to help building-up the WU Executive Academy, the Business School of the Vienna University of Economics. Besides becoming its Deputy Director, she was responsible for Business and Program Development of the School that grew considerably during those years, not only by people and turn-over, but also by successful programs launched. After taking a short sabbatical with her youngest daughter, she contributed as a freelance consultant to numerous projects in the field of Change Management and Training and also lead efforts to build-up the International Anti-Corruption Academy in Laxenburg, Austria. Raphaela is happy that the strings of her professional life came together through the opportunity to found the Ashoka Visionary Program in Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation as well as the Changemaker Initiative in Austria and CEE.