The International Peace Foundation

Keynote Speaker

Professor Romano Prodi has been the Prime Minister of Italy twice and the President of the European Commission. During his term in office as Italian Prime Minister he privatized telecommunications and reformed the government's employment and pension policies. During his five-year term as President of the European Commission, the EU expanded beyond its western European roots to include Malta, Cyprus and eight eastern and central European members enlarging the European Union to 25 countries with an effective and strong neighborhood policy. He is also credited as overseeing the introduction of the euro.
A trained economist, Professor Prodi served as Italy's Minister for Industry and was a professor of economics at the University of Bologna, a visiting professor at Harvard University and the Stanford Research Institute and a researcher at the London School of Economics. An expert on European industrial policy, he twice served as chairman of the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (IRI), Italy's state holding company, and is today the President of the Foundation for World Wide Cooperation.

Romano Prodi's academic career began at the department of economics and at the faculty of political science of the University of Bologna, where he worked as an assistant professor (1963), associate professor (1966) and lastly professor of industrial organization and industrial policy (1971-1999). While lecturing, Professor Prodi actively pursued his research work, initially in areas which have since then become mainstream topics in industrial economics: the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and industrial areas. In the international literature Professor Prodi's name features as one of the founders of the Italian school of industrial economics. Professor Prodi subsequently broadened his research interests to include the analysis of the relationships between the state and the market, privatization policies, the key role played by education systems in promoting economic development and social cohesion, the process of European integration and, following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the dynamics of the different capitalist models.

From 1974 to 1978 Professor Prodi was chairman of the publishing house Società Editrice Il Mulino, and in 1981 he founded Nomisma, one of the leading Italian economic consultancies, of which he chaired its scientific committee until 1995. Professor Prodi has written editorials for main Italian newspapers, such as Il Corriere della Sera and Il Sole 24 Ore. He was for many years the editor of the journal L'Industria - Rivista di economia e politica industrial, and he presented the television program Il tempo delle scelte on RaiUno.
From November 1978 to March 1979 Professor Prodi was Italy's Industry Minister, and from November 1982 to October 1989 Chairman of the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (IRI), at the time Italy's largest holding company with a collection of more than 100 state enterprises. Under his chairmanship he turned huge losses into profit with IRI undergoing a far-reaching reorganization and preparing its subsidiaries for privatization. Called back to the helm of IRI in May 1993 Professor Prodi successfully saw through the privatization of large companies like Credito Italiano and Banca Commerciale Italiana.

In February 1995 Professor Prodi founded the Ulivo centre-left coalition, which appointed him as its candidate for the premiership. Ulivo won the April 1996 general election and was invited to form the new government. Remaining in office until October 1998, one of the achievements of the Prodi Government was to secure Italy's place in the first wave of countries adopting the euro. It also won passage of budgets that significantly reduced the government deficit.

In March 1999 Professor Prodi was appointed President of the European Commission by the European Council, and he remained in this post until 2004 when he returned to Italian politics. Professor Prodi was designated as head of the center-left coalition in October 2005 by the primary in which he obtained 74.1% of the votes. He received the mandate to form the government which he led from May 17, 2006, until May 8, 2008.

On September 12, 2008, Professor Prodi was appointed by the UN Secretary-General as President of the African Union-UN peacekeeping panel. He has also been a Professor-at-large at Brown University (USA) since 2009 and a Professor at CEIBS (China Europe International Business School) in Shanghai since 2010. During his academic and institutional career, Professor Prodi has been awarded numerous recognitions including over 30 honorary doctorate degrees from major universities around the globe.

SCHEDULE

Monday, March 18, 2013

14:00Keynote speech and dialogue hosted at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam in Hanoi (Vietnam)
Information and free seat reservation:
phone (098) 379-0302, email tienphong32@gmail.com

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

10:00Dialogue with high school students at the International School of Bangkok (Thailand)
(not a public event)

14:00Keynote speech and dialogue hosted at Stamford International University in Bangkok (Thailand)
Information and free seat reservation:
phone (02) 769-4000 ext. 1230 (for Thai), fax (02) 769-4098, email reservation.bridges@stamford.edu

Please go to this URL for the live webcast:
https://welcome.webex.com/welcome/j.php?ED=219160142&UID=1532467357&RT=MiM0NA%3D%3D

20:00Speech and Dialogue at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand
Information and free seat reservation:
phone (02) 652-0580-1, fax (02) 652-0582 or email info@fccthai.com