Twist at the top of Unicredit, the second Italian bank which today met its board to examine the accounts for the quarter and the state of the art of the selection of candidates for the renewal of the presidency. Surprisingly, the candidacy of the former Economy Minister, Pier Carlo Padoan, was immediately co-opted as an independent director on the bank's board of directors and designated president in view of the spring meeting which will be called to formalize the appointment and renew the entire board.
Padoan's designation is actually the result of a mediation between the CEO, Jean-Pierre Mustier, who initially sponsored other candidates, and his critics who underlined the importance of a President who is not hostile but wholly independent of the CEO.
Former Secretary General and chief economist of the OECD and then Minister of Economy in the Renzi and Gentiloni governments and currently a member of parliament of the Democratic Party, Padoan enjoys wide credit both in Italy and abroad for the high positions he held first at the International Monetary Fund Washington, where he was Director, and then at the OECD in Paris.
It remains to be understood how Padoan's appointment will affect the future of the CEO, Jean Pierre Mustier who is expiring like the entire board and has not yet decided whether or not to accept a third mandate. Much will also depend on whether or not Unicredit top management approves Mustier's project to spin off foreign assets and group them into a subholding to be listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, moves that could herald a merger with Bnp Paribas or new horizons in Italian consolidation .
