Giuseppe "Beppe" Sala (born 28 May 1958) is an Italian manager and politician, currently mayor of Milan. He was CEO of

Expo 2015 Expo 2015 was a World Expo hosted by Milan, Italy. It opened on May 1 at 10:00 CEST and closed on October 31. Milan hosted an exposition for the second time; the first was the 1906 Milan International. The Bureau International des Expositi ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

from 2010 to 2015. He became mayor of Milan in 2016, supported by the centre-left coalition, and he was confirmed for a second term in the 2021 municipal election.

Business career

Expo 2015

In 2015,

hosted the

Universal Exposition A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...

; the themes were technology, innovation, culture and traditions concerning food. Participants in the Expo included 145 countries, three international organisations, several civil society organisations, several corporations and

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...

s (NGOs). The participants were hosted inside individual or grouped pavilions. In June 2010 Sala was appointed CEO of the Expo, which led to the nickname "Mr. Expo" in the following years. The opening of the Expo on 1 May 2015 was marred by protest from anti-austerity activists, black bloc, and anarchists which caused criminal damage, resulting in the police using

tear gas Tear gas, also known as a lachrymator agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial aerosol, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears. In ...

. Expo also created some tensions with the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...

and the Italian government; in fact

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013 ...

condemned the concept of Expo, saying that it "obeys the culture of waste and does not contribute to a model of equitable and sustainable development". As

Vatican City Vatican City (), officially the Vatican City State ( it, Stato della Città del Vaticano; la, Status Civitatis Vaticanae),—' * german: Vatikanstadt, cf. '—' (in Austria: ') * pl, Miasto Watykańskie, cf. '—' * pt, Cidade do Vati ...

invested €3 million to obtain its own pavilion at the event before his appointment to the papacy, Francis said that, although it is a good thing that the Church is involved in causes that battle hunger and promote cleaner energy, he stated that too much money was wasted on the Expo itself by Vatican City.

Mayor of Milan (2016–present)

On 22 March 2015, the incumbent mayor of Milan, Giuliano Pisapia, announced that he had chosen not to run for re-election in 2016 for a second term in office. Following Pisapia's decision, the ruling center-left coalition decided to call an open primary election to choose a new single mayoral candidate. Sala and three other people registered to be candidates in this election. The other candidates were Francesca Balzani, the then deputy mayor of Milan, responsible for the Budget in

's municipal government and a former

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

; Pierfrancesco Majorino, then responsible for Social Equalities in the municipal government of Milan; and Antonio Iannetta, the former president of UISP. The election took place on 6–7 February 2016 and Sala won with 25,600 and 42.3% of the vote. On 5 June, in the first round of the municipal election Sala gained 41.7% of first votes; on 19 June, in the second round, he defeated the centre-right candidate Stefano Parisi with 51.7% against 48.3%. On 16 December 2016 Sala suspended himself from office after learning that he was named in an investigation regarding the Expo 2015. He then retired that suspension a few days later. On 7 December 2020 he chose to run for re-election in 2021. On 11 March 2021 Sala joined the European Green Party, after years of political independence in the centre-left area. Sala won in October 2021 a second term with almost 60% of the total popular vote.

Other activities

* EAT Foundation, Member of the Advisory BoardAdvisory Board
EAT Foundation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sala, Giuseppe 1958 births Living people Italian businesspeople Democratic Party (Italy) politicians 21st-century Italian politicians Mayors of Milan