"It was the pressing insistence of the shareholders" and of the new managing director, Enrico Cucchiani, "that made me available for this re-nomination". This was stated by the president of Intesa Sanpaolo, Giovanni Bazoli, who turned 80 last December, responding to a shareholder who during the meeting argued about the advanced age of the Bank's top management.
"My attachment to this Bank is total - said Bazoli again - and such that I would never hesitate to pass the hand to others at the first sign of difficulty that I felt in carrying out my mandate".
Bazoli defined the shareholder's concern as "reasonable". Now, however, “the important aspects of renewal that are envisaged in the governance of our society are also accompanied by some significant elements of continuity. A society that does not renew itself is dead, but a society that does not preserve its past runs the risk of adventure”.
Bazoli then referred to the theory of "scrapping which is so fashionable today and in my opinion coarse", underlining "the fact that this theory is applied without distinction would lead to the deprivation of essential people for civil and political society in Italy and in the world" .
