Alberto Forchielli

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Alberto Giacomo Forchielli
Alberto Forchielli.jpg
Alberto Forchielli
Born (1955-12-28) December 28, 1955 (age 69)
CitizenshipItalian
Education University of Bologna (BA), (MSc) Harvard University (MBA)
Occupations
  • Entrepreneur
  • Commentator
  • Politician
Known forInternational affairs commentary, with focus on Asia, the United States, and Germany

Alberto Giacomo Forchielli (born 28 December 1955) is an Italian entrepreneur, political commentator, and politician. He is known for commentary on international affairs with a particular focus on Asia, the United States, and Germany. He has also been a consultant for multinationals, state-owned enterprises, and the World Bank, [1] [2] as well as the founder of a private equity firm. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Early life and education

His father Paolo was a magistrate and then a professor of civil law and private law at the University of Ferrara and University of Bologna. His maternal grandfather, Giacomo Dal Monte Casoni, a lawyer, was a Christian Democratic deputy in the first legislature of the Italian Republic. [5]

In 1978, Alberto Forchielli graduated in Economics and Commerce from the University of Bologna, [2] and in 1981, he obtained a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School in Boston, [2] [6] thanks to a scholarship from the Istituto Bancario San Paolo di Torino. [7] [8]

Career

Just after obtaining his master's degree, he began working as managing partner/consultant with MAC Group, [2] [8] a strategic consulting firm, which led him to found its Italian branch. [9] From 1992 to 1994, for the Ministry of the Budget, he contributed to the liquidation of the Cassa del Mezzogiorno and was a consultant on the restructuring program for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Furthermore, he worked for the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction as secretary general for privatizations. [10] From 1994 to 1998, he was president of Finmeccanica in the Asia-Pacific region. [2] [11]

He was a Senior Advisor for the World Bank in Washington from which, in 2000, he was seconded to Luxembourg at the European Investment Bank [2] to oversee the financial restructuring of the private sector and infrastructure development in the Balkans. In 2004, he founded Osservatorio Asia with the aim of analyzing and promoting economic relations between Italy and Asian markets. [12] He has founded, worked for, and served on the board of directors of various Italian and foreign companies. In 2007, he founded Mandarin Capital Partners (now Mindful Capital Partners [2] [3] [4] [13] ), a private equity fund that invests in European companies. [4] [14] [15] Additionally, he founded Cleantech in Imola, a company active in the renewable energy sector with a particular focus on large photovoltaic plants. [16] In 2014, he led and financed the establishment in Italy of the Roland Berger Foundation, which provides individual support for talented students from disadvantaged backgrounds. [17]

Logo of Ora! ORA! - logo, background (Italy, 2025).svg
Logo of Ora!

He has been a guest on numerous television broadcasts, [18] such as Matrix , Omnibus , Otto e mezzo , Piazzapulita , Non è l'Arena , L'aria che tira , and Tagadà . Maurizio Crozza has frequently imitated him on the program Fratelli di Crozza starting in 2019. [19] Forchielli maintains his own blog in Italian and is the curator, with Fabio Scacciavillani, of the YouTube channel and podcast Inglorious Globastards, which deals with economic and political topics. In the past, he also kept a blog in Chinese [20] and collaborated with the economic-financial dissemination site "Piano Inclinato". [21] Forchielli and Scacciavillani collaborated on the creation of the animated series Clay Economy, distributed on RaiPlay in May 2023. [22]

Political career

In September 2024, together with Michele Boldrin, he founded a political association called Movimento Drin Drin, as a preparatory step for the creation of a future political party. [23] [24] [25] One year later, by which time the movement had surpassed 14,000 members, [26] it was announced that the party's name would be Ora!. [27] Forchielli was then elected president of the new party during its founding congress in October 2025. [28] [29]

On December 10, 2020, Forchielli was investigated by the Milan prosecutor's office for alleged tax evasion of 3.9 million euros between 2014 and 2018. [30] On May 14, 2022, he was acquitted of all charges because "the fact does not subsist" (no case to answer). [31]

Works

References

  1. Aldo Baietti (2001-04-01). "Private Infrastructure in East Asia - Lessons Learned in the Aftermath of the Crisis" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-11-07. Retrieved 2024-11-07.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Alberto Forchielli - Founding Managing Partner, Mandarin Capital Partners Sca Sicar" . Bloomberg . Retrieved 2025-11-09.
  3. 1 2 Benecchi, Luca (2024-05-14). "'Asia belongs to the Asians, it is becoming increasingly difficult for SMEs to invest'". Il Sole 24 Ore . Archived from the original on 9 Nov 2025. Retrieved 2025-11-09.
  4. 1 2 3 "Mandarin diventa Mindful Capital Partner - Il rebranding nasce dal cambio di strategia" [Mandarin becomes Mindful Capital Partner - The rebranding stems from a change in strategy]. AIFI (Associazione Italiana del Private Equity, Venture Capital e Private Debt) (in Italian). 2022-04-11. Archived from the original on 2025-11-09. Retrieved 2025-11-09.
  5. "Giacomo Dal Monte Casoni e la città di Imola" (PDF) (in Italian).
  6. "Alumni and Faculty Books for March 2017". Harvard Business School. 2017-03-01. Archived from the original on 2024-11-07. Retrieved 2024-11-07.
  7. Claudio Del Frate (28 January 2019). "Chi è Alberto Forchielli, nuova star dei talk show. Il web e la Cina chiavi del suo successo" [Who is Alberto Forchielli, new star of talk shows. The web and China are the keys to his success]. Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Archived from the original on 3 February 2019.
  8. 1 2 "Quando conviene il 'Master'" [When the 'Master' is worth it]. la Repubblica (in Italian). 2 March 1986.
  9. "Operazione tedesca per Gemini" [German operation for Gemini]. la Repubblica (in Italian). 12 November 1992.
  10. Marco Patucchi (3 December 1993). "L'IRI a corto d'ossigeno" [IRI short of oxygen]. la Repubblica (in Italian).
  11. "Forchielli: "Quando Andreatta fece evadere un italiano arrestato in Pakistan"" [Forchielli: "When Andreatta broke an Italian arrested in Pakistan out of jail"]. Il Sole 24 Ore (in Italian). 5 June 2022.
  12. "Nasce Osservatorio Asia regole per il business in Cina" [Osservatorio Asia is born, rules for business in China]. la Repubblica (in Italian). 23 October 2004.
  13. Carlo terzano (8 April 2022). "Mindful Capital, ecco come Forchielli si smarca dalla Cina" [Mindful Capital, here's how Forchielli distances himself from China]. Start Magazine (in Italian).
  14. "Un fondo di private equity che colleghi l'Italia con la Cina" [A private equity fund that connects Italy with China]. la Repubblica (in Italian). 1 May 2006.
  15. "Forchielli il mandarino "Niente paletti alla Cina ma adesso l'Europa deve farsi rispettare"" [Forchielli the mandarin "No barriers to China, but now Europe must be respected"]. la Repubblica (in Italian). 24 March 2014.
  16. Samuel Shen; Stephen Jewkes (6 August 2012). "Italian road to China's Suntech fraud was paved with warnings". Reuters.
  17. "Sponsor" (in Italian). Archived from the original on 2 October 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  18. Giorgio Velardi (17 October 2014). "Alberto Forchielli, il profilo del manager" [Alberto Forchielli, the manager's profile]. Lettera43 (in Italian).
  19. ""Ironico e cattivo Crozza tira fuori il meglio di me"" ["Ironic and mean, Crozza brings out the best in me"]. la Repubblica (in Italian). 3 February 2019.
  20. "傅格礼的博客" [Fugeli's Blog] (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 10 January 2012.
  21. "Alberto Forchielli" (in Italian).
  22. ""Clay Economy"". Rai Ufficio Stampa (in Italian). 26 May 2023.
  23. "L'economista youtuber Alberto Forchielli fonda il Movimento Drin Drin: "Tra un anno saremo un partito né di destra né di sinistra: di sopra"" [The economist youtuber Alberto Forchielli founds the Drin Drin Movement: "In a year we will be a party, neither right nor left: above"]. la Repubblica (in Italian). 2024-09-06. Retrieved 2024-09-07.
  24. Sebastiani, Luca (2024-09-06). "Boldrin e Forchielli fondano il movimento Drin Drin, entro un anno il partito: "Al centro non c'è concorrenza, Renzi va nel M5s e Calenda è bollito"" [Boldrin and Forchielli found the Drin Drin movement, the party within a year: "There is no competition in the center, Renzi is joining the M5s and Calenda is boiled"]. Il Riformista (in Italian). Archived from the original on 2024-11-07. Retrieved 2024-11-07.
  25. "Boldrin e Forchielli fanno sul serio" [Boldrin and Forchielli are serious]. Pagella Politica (in Italian). 2024-11-05. Archived from the original on 2024-11-07. Retrieved 2024-11-07.
  26. "Drin Drin verso la trasformazione in partito: mobilita al voto il 75% degli iscritti, in maggioranza giovani" [Drin Drin towards transformation into a party: mobilizes 75% of members to vote, mostly young people]. Quotidiano Nazionale (in Italian). 2025-07-05. Retrieved 2025-10-06.
  27. Drin Drin (2025-10-01). "È arrivata l'Ora!" [The Hour (Ora) has come!] (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-10-06.
  28. "Boldrin-Forchielli, da "Drin Drin" nasce ad Abano il partito "Ora!"" [Boldrin-Forchielli, from "Drin Drin" the "Ora!" party is born in Abano] (in Italian). 13 October 2025. Retrieved 13 October 2025.
  29. "Come nasce un partito di "estremo centro"" [How an "extreme center" party is born] (in Italian). 13 October 2025. Retrieved 13 October 2025.
  30. Luigi Ferrarella (10 December 2020). "Indagato Alberto Forchielli: "Finta sede all'estero per evadere le tasse"" [Alberto Forchielli investigated: "Fake headquarters abroad to evade taxes"]. Corriere della Sera (in Italian).
  31. Benedetta Centin (14 June 2022). "Evasione fiscale, Alberto Forchielli prosciolto, le motivazioni: "Era tutto in regola"" [Tax evasion, Alberto Forchielli acquitted, the reasons: "Everything was in order"]. Corriere della Sera (in Italian).