Dino Ruta

Dino Ruta is Professor of Practice in Leadership at SDA Bocconi School of Management, where he is also a member of the Research Division Committee and Director of the Sport & Entertainment Knowledge Center, which he founded in 2013. Since 2024, he has served as the Rector’s Delegate for the Olympic Movement at Bocconi University and, since 2026, as the University’s representative on the CRUI4SPORT Commission of the Conference of Italian University Rectors (CRUI). Among his main institutional roles, since 2023 he has been Academic Director of the Executive Master in Business of Events (EMBE), and since 2008 he has served as Scientific Director of the Management module of the FIFA Master, the International Master in Humanities, Management and Law of Sports. Since 2021, he has also been Academic Director of the FIGC Football Management program and, since 2020, of the 1to1 Academy in Management and Entrepreneurship, designed for athletes and artists.

Since 2024, he has coordinated the Impacts & Legacy Study for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. At Bocconi University, he is Course Director of Sport Business and Management and created the Bocconi Sport Talents program, which supports the academic and sporting careers of student-athletes competing at national and international levels.

In 2002, he was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and, in 2008, a Visiting Professor at Rutgers University. Since 2015, he has also taught International Sports Management at Columbia University in New York.

He joined SDA Bocconi in 2004 as Assistant Professor of Organization and Human Resource Management. In 2013, he became Associate Professor of Practice and, since 2018, he has been Professor of Practice in Leadership, Sports & Events Business.

His research and teaching focus on leadership and human capital development, with a particular focus on sports ecosystems. His main areas of interest include sustainable value creation, sports infrastructure, the impact and legacy of major events, and athletes’ performance and professional development.

His research has been published in international academic journals including Human Resource Management, The 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 and Management. His books and other contributions have been published by Bocconi University Press, Egea, Edward Elgar, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Emerald, Routledge, and Wiley. In 2025, Egea published his book Colori Olimpici. Lo sport e i giochi come scintilla di benessere e sviluppo.

He received Bocconi University’s Excellent Research Award in 2004 and 2008 and its Excellent Teaching Award in 2009, 2011, and 2022. In 2012, he received the Ghirelli Award for International Book of the Year for Management in Football, an award promoted by the FIGC.

His professional and advisory experience includes projects spanning several areas of the sports and events industry. In recent years, he has served as Advisor for the following initiatives: the infrastructure legacy of the Taranto 2026 Mediterranean Games; the UEFA Academy Career Transition Program; the Stadio Flaminio project on behalf of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP); and Trentino’s bid to host the 2031 UCI Cycling World Championships. He has also provided advisory services to the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), FIFPRO, Juventus FC, RCS Sport, and the Autonomous Province of Trento. He has also collaborated with the FIGC, the Italian Football Federation, and UEFA on the UEFA club licensing system and Financial Fair Play.

Since 2010, he has interviewed prominent athletes and leading figures from the world of sports on performance and leadership, including Andre Agassi, Felix Baumgartner, Niccolò Campriani, Iván Córdoba, Sasha Djordjevic, Arianna Fontana, Gianluigi Buffon, Michael Phelps, Luis Scola, Javier Zanetti, and Mark Webber.

Alongside his academic and professional activities, he is the founder and President of the Sport Impact Foundation and, since 2011, has served as a member of the Board of Directors of Consorzio Vero Volley.

He graduated from Bocconi University in 1999 and earned his PhD from the University of Bologna in 2003.