How can regional airports make the most of opportunities open to them? Lessons learned from Bologna Airport’s experience

Author's Biography

Nazareno Ventola is CEO and Managing Director at Bologna Airport. Nazareno joined Aeroporto G. Marconi di Bologna in January 2000 having previous experience in the energy and consultancy industries. In 2002, he became Planning & Control Director, with responsibilities on the corporate planning and management control process, and on economic regulation. In 2011 he was appointed Strategy and Corporate Performance Management Director, focusing on monitoring corporate performance and strategic business development. In 2013 he was appointed Managing Director and in July 2015 CEO, leading Aeroporto G. Marconi di Bologna to a successful landing at the Italian Stock Exchange, Borsa Italiana, opening the majority of the company’s shareholding to private investors. He has since helped the airport move to a new phase, developing a ‘passenger focused’ strategy based on state-of-the-art technologies in order to build a knowledge base aimed at providing better services for the airport’s customers. He holds a degree cum laude in chemical engineering from the University of Trieste.

Nazzarena Franco is Strategy Planning and Investor Relations Director at Bologna Airport. She is responsible for developing and reviewing the strategic plan of the company and monitoring its execution. She is also in charge of the financial communication to investors and analysts and the process for regulated price setting. As IR Director, Nazzarena represented the company in the national and international financial community during the road show of the Initial Public Offering of Bologna Airport on Milan Stock Exchange, which successfully completed in July 2015. At the same time, she led the consultation with airlines for the definition of the new regulatory charges for the period from 2016 to 2019. She has previous experience within Bologna Airport group as planning and control manager; she dealt with the spin-off and the turnaround of the handling sister company and followed some merger and acquisition (M&A) deals. Prior to joining the company, Nazzarena worked as a consultant for a strategic management consulting firm. She holds a degree in business economics and an executive master in finance from Bologna University Business School.