Maria Pierdicchi

Born in Schio (VI) in 1957 she graduated in Economics at Bocconi University in 1982 and obtained in 1988 an MBA in Finance with honors from New York University Stern School of Business Administration. After working at Bocconi University and at the World Bank as research assistant in Banking, she developed a career in financial services. After joining Citibank as senior financial analyst in corporate finance, she became Director of Premafin, a listed diversified holding company where she was in charge of strategy and financial control of three listed subsidiaries and investor relations for the holding.

In 1999 she joined Borsa Italana where she designed, launched and developed the equity market for growth companies Nuovo Mercato, listing 45 companies and managing all promotinal activities towards investors, issuers and intermediaries.

In 2003 she became Managing Director for Standard & Poor’s Italy and later Head of Southern Europe, managing the franchise, business development and institutional outreach of the rating agency, significantly expanding its leadership in financial analytics. She also served in the Board of S&P Italy until 2018.

In 2016 she was appointed by Bank of Italy , Resolution Unit, as the sole independent director of the four banks in resolution (Nuove Banche Marche, Etruria e Lazio, Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara e Chieti).

She has been non executive Director of Luxottica (2015/20) , Autogrill (2018/2023) , Aidexa and several other companies.

Since 2018 she is member of the board of UNICREDI . She is President of ecoDa, the European Confederation of Director Associations and Honorary Chair of Ned Community, after serving as President for 4 years .

During her professional career she has served as Board Member and Vice Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce, Collegio san Carlo, and several advisory boards. She was founding member of the association Valore D and actively engaged in various project to support diversity in business organizations. For her career achievements she received the Belisario Award in 2001 and other corporate recognitions.

Maria Pierdicchi

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Maria Pierdicchi

Will Farrell

Federated Hermes
Assistant Manager, EOS
London

Will co-leads the climate change theme at EOS, the stewardship arm of Federated Hermes Limited, where his coverage includes companies in Europe and Australia, primarily financial services, energy, chemicals, and materials. Prior to joining EOS, Will worked in the energy and infrastructure investment banking team at Macquarie Capital, where he specialised in renewable energy. Before that, Will held a number of roles across the UK climate policy space, including as a parliamentary researcher for Rt. Hon. Chris Skidmore MP on climate and energy issues, and as a climate and economic policy analyst at a diplomatic institute. He was appointed as a voluntary adviser to Rt. Hon. Alok Sharma MP, President of COP26, on preparations for COP26 after co-founding a Westminster climate policy group in 2019, which engaged MPs and Members of the House of Lords to advocate for more ambition on climate action in public policy. Will has a Bachelor’s degree (1st Class Honours) in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.