Dino Ruta

Dino Ruta is a Professor of Practice in Leadership, Sports & Events Business at SDA Bocconi School of Management. He engages in research and training to support decision-making processes that link human capital, strategy, and innovation, with a particular focus on the sports and entertainment context. He studies the functioning of ecosystems, the impacts and positive legacies of events, athletes' careers, and the development of a winning mindset in both sports and professional settings. He is a qualified chartered accountant, integrating an economic-financial education with managerial principles of sustainable development.

Dino earned his Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Università Bocconi in 1999 and his Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Bologna in 2003. In 2007, he completed the International Teachers Program (ITP) at IMD in Lausanne. He served as a Visiting Professor at Rutgers University (New Jersey, USA) in 2008.

In 2004, he started as a professor of Human Resources, and over time, his interests and research expanded to sports management. He has developed a strong know-how, a global network, and a series of high-impact initiatives based on his innovative approach to sports and management, where these two dimensions positively influence each other, creating value.

In 2013, he founded the Sport & Entertainment Knowledge Center, a research and training center at SDA Bocconi School of Management. At SDA Bocconi, he also serves as the Academic Director of the Executive Master in Business of Events (EMBE) in collaboration with the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation and the Scientific Director of the FIFA Master (International Master in Humanities, Management, and Law of Sports). Since 2015, he has been an Affiliate Professor of International Sports Management at Columbia University in New York, USA, and since 2018, an Affiliate Professor at the Josoor Institute in Doha, Qatar. He is the director of the "Management dello Sport" program and the "Management del Calcio" program in collaboration with the Technical Sector of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC). From 2024, he is the coordinator of the Milano-Cortina 2026 Impacts and Legacy project.

At Università Bocconi, Dino teaches Sport Business and Management and created the Bocconi Sport Talents program to support students' academic and sports careers. He served as the Director of the Master in Organization & Personnel from 2009 to 2014. He is the Faculty representative for the Sport topic in the Bocconi Alumni Community (BAC), collaborating with Frank Leenders (Topic Leader BAC).

At SDA Bocconi, he has taught the Managing People in Organizations course in the full-time MBA, created the Advanced HR Management Program, and coordinated the HR Leader pathway. His works have been published in various international journals, including Human Resource Management, International Journal of Human Resource Management, International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital, Social Enterprise Journal, Strategic HR Review, European Business Review, and Sport, Business, Management: an International Journal. He received the Excellent Research award in 2004 and 2008 and the Excellent Teaching award in 2009, 2011, and 2022 from Università Bocconi. In 2012, he won the Ghirelli award for the "International Book of the Year for Management in Football" organized by FIGC.

Dino has worked on innovative projects in the sports and events world, supporting initiatives such as the managerial career of Javier Zanetti, athletes as brands for the National Basketball Players Association in the USA, career transition for football players for UEFA, managerial development for technical figures in Italian football for the Technical Sector of FIGC, development trajectories for women's football for FIFPro, impact measurement for the Giro d'Italia, integrated development of sports in the Trento Province, human capital development strategies for the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy Qatar 2022, growth strategies for the Golf Club Castello Tolcinasco, organizational criteria expert for UEFA licensing for FIGC, and board member of the Vero Volley Consortium.

He has been invited to present his research in Argentina, the United Arab Emirates, Poland, Qatar, the United States, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey, and the UK. He is often called upon to interview sports personalities and Olympic medalists on Leadership and Sports Management topics, including Agassi, Buffon, Cordoba, Fontana, Phelps, Djordjevic, Leonardo, Massaro, Scola, Zanetti, and Webber. He developed a test that measures athletes' winning mindset, believing in the Olympic values of excellence, friendship, and respect as a model for sustainable behavior in professional contexts.

Dino is married to Elisetta and is the father of Lorenzo. He enjoys participating in charitable initiatives and is the president of the Sport4Talent Foundation, a social project promoting sports as an educational tool for children facing vulnerability, especially in Taranto, his hometown.