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Biographies
 Lucio Stanca
Minister for Innovation and Technologies, was born in Lucera, Foggia, and lives in S. Fermo della Battaglia, Como, with his wife Francesca and his daughters Benedetta and Isabella.
After the University degree in Economics and Commerce completed at Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi in Milan, and having served military service as part of the Grenadiers of Sardinia, he joined IBM Italy in Milan in 1968.
He has been working in IBM up to March 2001 holding various positions in Italy as well as the United States amongst which: Chairman and Ceo of IBM Italy, Member of the World Wide Management Committee and Vice-President of the group. In the last few years he has been IBM's Chairman and Director General located in Paris, holding the responsibility of operations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
As Minister for Innovation and Technologies he has been delegated by the Prime Minister with the responsibility to co-ordinate and give direction to Government politics in matters of development and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) throughout the Country, with particular focus on central and local Public Administration, on families and on businesses, so as to promote the development of the "Information Society". For these reasons he also chairs the Ministers' Committee for the Information Society.
He is in charge of the program "e-Government for development", aimed to help emerging Countries to modernize their Public Administration systems through ICT.
Mr Stanca is also a member of the board of directors of Bocconi University, of Gateway Foundation (World Bank subsidiary in ICT in support of developing Countries) and is Vice-President of Aspen Institute, Italy.
In 2004 The University of Camerino conferred him a doctorate "honoris causa" in computer science.
 Letizia Moratti
Minister of education, Universities and Research in the Berlusconi government since June 2001.
Assistant in 1972-73 for European Community Law at the University of Milan, she was President of RAI Italian Radio and Television between 1994-1996. Letizia Moratti is today one of European's most well known entrepreneurs, having devolved numerous international activities in the field of finance, insurance, communications and new media during the past 25 years. In addition, she has been responsible for operative control in important Italian and foreign groups engaged in complex projects of restructuring and development.
She actively participates in numerous humanitarian and social assistance projects.
 Bill Gates
William (Bill) H. Gates is chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corporation, the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft had revenues of US$36.84 billion for the fiscal year ending June 2004, and employs more than 55,000 people in 85 countries and regions.
Born on Oct. 28, 1955, Gates grew up in Seattle with his two sisters. Their father, William H. Gates II, is a Seattle attorney. Their late mother, Mary Gates, was a schoolteacher, University of Washington regent, and chairwoman of United Way International.
Gates attended public elementary school and the private Lakeside School. There, he discovered his interest in software and began programming computers at age 13.
In 1973, Gates entered Harvard University as a freshman, where he lived down the hall from Steve Ballmer, now Microsoft's chief executive officer. While at Harvard, Gates developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer - the MITS Altair.
In his junior year, Gates left Harvard to devote his energies to Microsoft, a company he had begun in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Guided by a belief that the computer would be a valuable tool on every office desktop and in every home, they began developing software for personal computers. Gates' foresight and his vision for personal computing have been central to the success of Microsoft and the software industry.
Under Gates' leadership, Microsoft's mission has been to continually advance and improve software technology, and to make it easier, more cost-effective and more enjoyable for people to use computers. The company is committed to a long-term view, reflected in its investment of approximately $6.2 billion on research and development in the 2005 fiscal year.
In 1999, Gates wrote Business @ the Speed of Thought, a book that shows how computer technology can solve business problems in fundamentally new ways. The book was published in 25 languages and is available in more than 60 countries. Business @ the Speed of Thought has received wide critical acclaim, and was listed on the best-seller lists of the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and Amazon.com.
Gates' previous book, The Road Ahead, published in 1995, held the No. 1 spot on the New York Times' bestseller list for seven weeks.
Gates has donated the proceeds of both books to non-profit organizations that support the use of technology in education and skills development.
In addition to his love of computers and software, Gates is interested in biotechnology. He sits on the board of ICOS, a company that specializes in protein-based and small-molecule therapeutics, and he is an investor in a number of other biotechnology companies. Gates also founded Corbis, which is developing one of the world's largest resources of visual information - a comprehensive digital archive of art and photography from public and private collections around the globe. He is also a member of the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which invests in companies engaged in diverse business activities.
Philanthropy is also important to Gates. He and his wife, Melinda, have endowed a foundation with more than $27 billion (as of March 2004) to support philanthropic initiatives in the areas of global health and learning, with the hope that in the 21st century, advances in these critical areas will be available for all people. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed more than $3.2 billion to organizations working in global health; more than $2 billion to improve learning opportunities, including the Gates Library Initiative to bring computers, Internet Access and training to public libraries in low-income communities in the United States and Canada; more than $477 million to community projects in the Pacific Northwest; and more than $488 million to special projects and annual giving campaigns.
Gates was married on Jan. 1, 1994, to Melinda French Gates. They have three children. Gates is an avid reader, and enjoys playing golf and bridge.
 Umberto Paolucci
Born in Ravenna on November 28th, 1944, lived his childhood and youth in Cattolica, attended high school in Rimini and graduated in Electrical Engineering in Bologna in 1969.
After serving as a professor in Technical High Schools in 1969/70, and joining the Italian army as Lieutenant in the NBC Corps (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical defense) in 1970/71, he has spent his professional life in the world of Information Technology, with Hewlett Packard first and then with General Automation (Anheim, California) where he became General Manager. In 1985 he established the Italian subsidiary of Microsoft as Managing Director.
After taking over relevant international responsibilities, in 1998 he became Vice President of Microsoft Corporation and, in February 2003, Senior Chairman of Microsoft Europe Middle East and Africa. He always kept the role of President of the Italian sub.
Rotarian, Past President in 1997/98 of the Milan South East Club, Paolucci was awarded in 1998 a Degree Honoris Causa by the University of Bologna in Business Statistics and Information Technology.
On June 2nd, 2002, the Italian President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi named him Cavaliere del Lavoro, an honour conferred each year (since 1901) to 25 citizens who distinguish themselves in business and social responsibility.
In 2003 he received the Gold Keys of his home town, Cattolica.
Paolucci serves on the boards of several companies, Associations and Foundations in Italy and Europe. In May 2004 he became Vice President for Innovation at Confcommercio, the Italian Confederation of Trade, Services and Medium and Small businesses.
On November 25th, 2004, H.E. the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, Mons. Dionigi Tettamanzi, awarded Umberto Paolucci with the Degree Honoris Causa of the College of the Ambrosiana Library, in the occasion of the beginning of the celebrations (2204-2009) of the 400th anniversary of the prestigious institution founded in 1607 and inaugurated in 1609 by Cardinal Federico Borromeo.
 Davide Bassi
Born in Genova (Italy) on September 30th, 1948, Davide Bassi is Rector of the University of Trento and professor of Experimental Physics at the same university.
He graduated in Physics at the University of Genova in 1971, discussing a thesis in which the first evidence of orbiting collisions between atoms was shown. In 1975, after a brief period at Genova, Davide Bassi joined the University of Trento where, under the initial supervision of Giacinto Scoles, he established a new Molecular Beam Laboratory. In 1987 Davide Bassi was named professor of Electronics (now Experimental Physics) at the University of Trento.
The research activity of Davide Bassi includes the following topics: elementary interactions of hydrogen in the gas phase; spectroscopy of atoms, molecules and clusters; reaction dynamics of ion/neutral systems; ion and neutral beams, traps, mass spectrometry.
Part of this work has been carried out in cooperation with external laboratories (Department of Chemistry, University of Waterloo (CND); Institut für Ionenphysik, Leopold Franzens Universität, Innsbruck (A); Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers, Université Paris Nord, Villetaneuse (F); LURE, Centre Universitaire Paris-Sud, Orsay (F); Dipartimento di Chimica, Università di Perugia (I); Elettra, Gas Phase Beam Line, Trieste (I); Departament de Química Física, Universitat de Barcelona (E).
During the last decade, he has been Director of the Department of Physics, coordinator of the Physics "laurea" degree programme, President of the Internal audit committee of the University of Trento, and Dean of the Faculty of Science.
Since November 2004 he is Rector of the University of Trento.
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