Claudio Dematté: a legacy of value

Honoring Claudio Dematté, on Tuesday, March 19, SDA Bocconi School of Management celebrates its founder (in 1971), Director (1984-1989 – today we would call him Dean), and President (from 1996 until his passing in 2004). However, it also celebrates one of those “larger than life” figures who, through their academic work, leave an indelible mark on the economy and society.

Born in 1942 in Trento and graduated in Economics and Commerce from Bocconi in 1966, Dematté was one of the few scholars of his generation to have the courage to cross the Ocean to obtain an MBA at Harvard in 1970.

In those years, Bocconi was reconsidering its education offer for managers, and in 1970, the “Corso per dirigenti” (“Executive Program,” an evening program lasting two years, launched in 1955) was suspended, as it could no longer meet the needs of an economy that was modernizing rapidly.

The offer was successfully renewed in 1971 with the foundation of SDA Bocconi School of Management, which was immediately characterized by active teaching methods and case studies, elements that Dematté had encountered at Harvard. Still, it presented itself to the market as an original model, not as a mere copy of Anglo-Saxon schools.

Dematté was able to give SDA Bocconi not only an organizational but also a values-based imprint. He repeated his desire for a school capable of “serving the community,” operating in the constant tension between “the need to prepare for the practice of a profession” and the “search for more just economic and organizational structures.” These concepts directly inspire the current school motto: “Value and values.”

Those who worked with him in academia remember his habit of evaluating research activities based on their potential impact on business and society. Thanks to this approach and extraordinary managerial skills, he held numerous prestigious roles in banks and companies.

After presiding over the Banca di Trento e Bolzano and Banca CARIME, he became well-known to the general public through the presidency of RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana (from January to June 1994 in a short but decisive season for the future of the organization) and Ferrovie dello Stato (1998-2001).

Dematté was also the President of AIFI, the Italian Association of Private Equity, Venture Capital, and Private Debt, which shares the celebration of March 19 with SDA Bocconi, twenty years after Dematté's passing. 

SDA Bocconi School of Management