Chicco Testa (born 5 January 1952) is an Italian politician. Born in

Bergamo Bergamo ( , ; ) is a city in the Alps, alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from the alpine lakes Lake Como, Como and Lake Iseo, Iseo and 70 km (43 mi) from Lake Garda, Garda and Lake ...

, he graduated in philosophy at the Università Statale in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

(1976). He lives in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

and has two sons.

Environmentalist and politician for PCI and PDS

From 1980 to 1987, Testa was national secretary and then national president of

Legambiente Legambiente is an Italian environmentalist association with roots in the anti-nuclear movement that developed in Italy and throughout the Western world in the second half of the 1970s. Founded in 1980 as part of the ARCI, it later became a stand- ...

environmentalist association. As such, Testa leads the environmentalist mobilization in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

after the

Chernobyl disaster On 26 April 1986, the no. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine), exploded. With dozens of direct casualties, it is one of only ...

, reaching its high in the manifestation of 10 May 1986 with more than 200,000 people. More than 1 million signatures are gathered to present a 1987 anti-nuclear referendum, following which Italian nuclear plants were decommissioned. From 1987 to 1994, for two legislatures, he was elected to the

Italian Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies () is the lower house of the bicameral Italian Parliament, the upper house being the Senate of the Republic (Italy), Senate of the Republic. The two houses together form a perfect bicameral system, meaning they perform ...

in the lists of the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...

(PCI) in 1987 and of the Democratic Left Party (PDS) in 1992, seating in the parliamentary commission for the environment and the territory. From 1994 to 1996, he was Chairman of the Board of ACEA (Rome’s Electricity and Water Co.).

Management activities

From 1996 to 2002, he was chairman of the board of

Enel Enel S.p.A. is an Italian multinational manufacturer and distributor of electricity and gas. Enel was first established as a public body at the end of 1962, and then transformed into a limited company in 1992. In 1999, following the liberali ...

, the most important Electrical Italian Company. During this period, Enel was

privatized Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

(Europe’s largest-ever IPO of 15 billion Euro) and in 1997 there was the start-up of

Wind Wind is the natural movement of atmosphere of Earth, air or other gases relative to a planetary surface, planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heatin ...

, the third TLC Italian Company in which Testa was elected member of the Board of Directors. From 2002 to 2004, he was member of the board of directors of the Riello group, Italian leader company in heating systems and appliances. From 2002 to 2005, he was member of the advisory board of Carlyle Europe, affiliate of

The Carlyle Group The Carlyle Group Inc. is an American multinational company with operations in private equity, alternative asset management and financial services. As of 2023, the company had $426 billion of assets under management. Carlyle specializes in ...

(Private Equity), chairman of the board of directors of STA Spa (The Mobility Agency of the City of Rome) and Chairman of the Kyoto Club (non-profit organization whose purpose is the achievement of the objectives set by the

Kyoto Protocol The was an international treaty which extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that global warming is oc ...

). At present, Testa is

managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Rothschild Rothschild () is a name derived from the German ''zum rothen Schild'' (with the old spelling "th"), meaning "to the red shield", in reference to the houses where these family members lived or had lived. At the time, houses were designated by signs ...

Spa. Also he is member of the board of directors of

Allianz Allianz SE ( , ) is a German Multinational corporation, multinational financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Its core businesses are insurance and asset management. Allianz is the world's largest List of largest insurance ...

Spa,

chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

of the board of Telit Communications Plc and chairman of the board of E.V.A. – Energie Valsabbia – a company developing hydropower generation plants. He has been also chairman of the organising committee of the 20th World Energy Congress, promoted by

World Energy Council The World Energy Council is a global forum for thought-leadership and tangible engagement with headquarters in London. Its mission is 'To promote the sustainable supply and use of energy for the greatest benefit of all people'. The idea for the fo ...

and held in Rome in November 2007.

Journalistic and academic activities

Testa is a

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and he contributes to some of the most important daily and weekly Italian

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

s. He was lecturer at the LUISS School Management in Rome (MBA Program Economics and Management in Public Utilities) and he was

Lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...

at the Universities of

Macerata Macerata () is a city and ''comune'' in central Italy, the county seat of the province of Macerata in the Marche region. It has a population of about 41,564. History The historical city centre is on a hill between the Chienti and Potenza (ri ...

and

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

Economic An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

and Environmental subjects. Together with Fabio Corsico and Gianni Lo Storto, he's member of the board of "Formiche" (Ants), a printed and online cultural and editorial magazine dealing with politics, economics, geographic, environmental and cultural issues, established in 2004 by Paolo Messa.

Lobbyist for the return to nuclear power in Italy

In 2008, he wrote a book ''Tornare al Nucleare?, L'Italia, l'energia, l'ambiente'' (''Back to Nuclear Energy? Italy, Energy, Environment''), published by Einaudi. Since July 2010, Testa is Chairman of the ''Forum Nucleare Italiano'' (FNI, or Italian Nuclear Forum): a non-profit organisation comprising industrialists and universities, with the aim of reviving the public opinion debate about nuclear energy, to which Italy renounced in 1987 after a referendum. All the major energy industries, as well as some universities and a pair of centrist trade unions, are taking part in the FNI:

Alstom Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...

power, Ansaldo nucleare,

Areva Areva S.A. was a French multinational group specializing in nuclear power, active between 2001 and 2018. It was headquartered in Courbevoie, France. Before its 2016 corporate restructuring, Areva was majority-owned by the French state through t ...

Confindustria The General Confederation of Italian Industry (), commonly known as Confindustria, is the Italy, Italian small, medium, and big enterprises federation, acting as a private and autonomous chamber of commerce, founded in 1910. The association netwo ...

E.On E.ON SE is a European multinational electric utility company based in Essen, Germany. It operates as one of the world's largest investor-owned electric utility service providers. The name originates from the Latin word '' aeon'', derived from ...

, Edf, Edison,

, Federprogetti, Flaei- Cisl,

GDF Suez Engie SA (stylised in all caps as ENGIE) is a French multinational electric utility company, headquartered in La Défense, Courbevoie. Its activities cover electricity generation and distribution, natural gas, nuclear power, renewable energy ...

, Politecnico di Milano,

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a Public university, public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is ...

, SOGIN, Stratinvest Energy,

Techint Technical intelligence (TECHINT) is intelligence about weapons and equipment used by the armed forces of foreign nations. The related term, scientific and technical intelligence, addresses information collected or analyzed about the broad range ...

Technip Technip S.A. was a company that carried out project management, engineering and construction for the energy industry; in 2017 it completed a merger with FMC Technologies to form TechnipFMC. Its headquarters were in the 16th arrondissement of Par ...

, Tecnimont, Terna, Uilcem, Università di Genova, Università di Palermo, Università di Pisa, Westinghouse.Sole 24 Ore
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Notes

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20090711162351/http://www.chiccotesta.it/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Testa, Chicco 1952 births Living people Italian bankers The Carlyle Group people