FLORENCE.- The Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi is gearing up for a change at the helm. Lorenzo Bini Smaghi is to leave his post as president of Palazzo Strozzi after ten years marked by a series of hugely successful achievements. He will be replaced by Matteo Del Fante, currently the CEO of Terna, who will be taking on the role of President of the Foundation as of 28 April 2016.

“I would like to thank Lorenzo Bini Smaghi for his ten years' work in support of the Fondazione”, said Arturo Galansino, Director General of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, adding: “In all these years Palazzo Strozzi has shown that culture, even in Italy, can be a financially sustainable proposition. I am certain that Matteo Del Fante's appointment marks a continuity in this direction and that thanks to his energy and experience the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi can address whatever challenges that the future may hold.”

Lorenzo Bini Smaghi was appointed President of the Fondazione on 26 April 2006 with the aim of bringing an international approach to the organisation of artistic events in Florence, offering a platform for cultural experimentation and creating an area for debate and discussion capable of inducing a growing number of people to return to Florence even after having visited its most famous museums and galleries. That goal has been more than abundantly achieved over the past ten years with a totally new thrust being imparted to Palazzo Strozzi, turning it into a fully-fledged "city workshop," a driving force behind research and creativity thanks to its major exhibitions and to its broad range of initiatives and events.

Since the Fondazione was first set up, Palazzo Strozzi has hosted such enormously successful and internationally acclaimed exhibitions as Cézanne in Florence (2007), Bronzino (2010), The Springtime of the Renaissance (2013), Pontormo and Rosso (2014), Picasso and Spanish Modernity (2014–15), Divine Beauty from Van Gogh and Chagall to Fontana (2015–16) and From Kandinsky to Pollock. The Art of the Guggenheim Collections, which is still running, proving that it is possible to create economic value through culture.

The success of the Fondazione under Dr. Bini Smaghi's guiding hand is due primarily to two factors, merit and stringency, but also to an independent form of governance that has allowed the Fondazione to plan ahead on a three-year basis and given it economic and financial solidity thanks to the unflagging support of both public- and private-sector partners.

The Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi would like to thank Lorenzo Bini Smaghi because what has been achieved in these past ten years shows that it is possible to create an institution of excellence in Italy, capable of making a name for itself on the cultural scene. In fact, Palazzo Strozzi has become something of a trademark, a brand recognised at the local, national and international levels, associated with a new way of producing exhibitions and kindred events.

Matteo Del Fante, who will be taking over as President of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi on 28 April 2016, is a Florentine born in 1967, and he holds a degree in Political Economics from Milan's Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi. He has been the Managing Director and Commercial Director of Terna S.p.A since May 2014, and in June 2015 he was appointed to the post of Vice-President of ENTSO‐E, the European Network of Transmission System Operators. He began his professional career with JP Morgan in 1991, and had risen to the rank of Managing Director by the time he left in 2003. He went on to join the Cassa depositi e prestiti S.p.A. (CDP) in 2004, shortly after it was privatised, becoming Director General of the company in June 2010 and holding the post until his appointment with Terna. In his early years with CDP, after initially being in charge of Finance and M&A, he developed the company's venture into the real estate business, being appointed Managing Director of the group's savings management company CDP Investimenti SGR S.p.A. in 2009. He has also been on the board of numerous companies in which the CDP Group holds a stake, including STMicroelectronics (2005–11), the European Energy Efficiency Fund (EEEF, 2011–13) and Terna (2008–14).

"I am very honoured to have this opportunity" said Matteo Del Fante, the newly-appointed President of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, "for which I would like to thank the Fondazione's outgoing President, its shareholders and its supporters".