Carola Bardelli has been named chief of investor relations. Bardelli was previously head of Italian equity research and MD at Deutsche Bank, where she worked from 2005 until 2018. She had previously led the start-up of the studies centres of Intesa San Paolo (from 1993 to 1995) and of Deutsche Bank in 1995.
She will be joined at TIM (or Telecom Italia) by Simone Cantagallo, who has been named as chief of institutional communication. Cantagallo was director of communication and responsible gaming policies at IGT-Lottomatica until December 2018. Previously, he was head of external relations at Banca Lombarda e Piemontese (now UBI Banca) and head of media relations and CSR at Alitalia.
The third appointment sees Carlo Nadello named as TIM chief strategic development and transformation office. Nardello joins from Alitalia Extraordinary Commissioners, where he has been chief of staff since 2017.
Nardello previously worked with Gubitosi, who became CEO of Telecom Italia at the end of last year after a board room tussle resulted in the ousting of former chief Amosh Genish, during a lng stint at Italian broadcaster RAI. He held a number of roles whilst at RAI and also has experience with Walt Disney Company and Johnson & Johnson.
It is the first chain of significant appointments for Gubitosi, a former Merrill Lynch banker, who previously ran Italian mobile company Wind and state broadcaster RAI. He was made CEO with the backing of shareholder Elliot Advisors a week after Genish was sacked while on a business trip to South Korea.
Gubitosi is well known in Italy having been previously appointed by the Italian government to manage bankrupt airline Alitalia before joining Telecom Italia. He spent a year on the TIM board before being made CEO as part of an ongoing power struggle between Elliot and French media firm Vivendi, who is Telecom Italia’s majority shareholder.
Part of that struggle revolves around the future of TIM’s network assets, including Sparkle, which has been mooted as a potential asset that could be sold off or span off into a separate entity.
