Giorgio Squinzi

Cefic President and Chairman of Federchimica 

Giorgio Squinzi was born in 1943 and is married with two children. Mr Squinzi obtained his degree in industrial chemistry at the Università degli Studi of Milan and was awarded the laurea ad honorem in chemical engineering by Milan Politecnico in 2002.

Together with his father, he established in 1970 Mapei S.n.c., expanding a business started in 1937 and becoming responsible for the company’s research and development activities.

Mr Squinzi has served continuously since 1984 as chief executive officer of the company. The industrial group today is composed of 63 subsidiaries, with 57 production plants, which operate in 26 countries, in all the five continents. The Mapei Group’s aggregated turnover in 2010 was €1.8 billion, five per cent of which is re-invested in research and development. To date, the Group employs over 7000 employees. During his career as head of Mapei, the company has never reduced its workforce or used public funds for financial assistance with reductions in working time.

He has written several technical articles published in Italian and international technical reviews and speaks fluent English, French, German and Spanish. Mr Squinzi is a member of the executive board of Confindustria, the leading industry group representing Italian companies in the manufacturing and services sectors. He previously served as the group’s vice chairman and led technological innovation and research.

He has served since May 2010 as president of the Committee for Europe. He was elected in June 2009 for the sixth time as chairman of Federchimica, the National Federation of Chemical Industries. Mr Squinzi was elected for a two-year term on October 1, 2010 as president of Cefic, the European Chemical Industry Council. He previously served as vice president of Cefic from 2006 to 2008.

He was also a member of the high-level group established by the European Commission on the competiveness of the chemical industry.