Francesco Mele

Chief Financial Officer and Head of Central Functions

Biography

A Bocconi-educated economist, his career began at the City of London where he held key M&A and corporate finance positions, initially at Banca Commerciale Italiana and then at Goldman Sachs for 14 years, where he was the Managing Director in charge of the Italian market. In 2001, he left London to return to Italy, continuing with Goldman Sachs and then moving to Nomura in 2010, where he headed the investment banking operations.

In 2016, he joined Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in the bank’s most delicate phase: here he played a key role in recapitalising the bank and pursuing the most extensive securitisation of non-performing loans ever attempted in the world.

After completing the main extraordinary operations related to the MPS restructuring, in 2018 he joined the SPAXS project as the CFO, also taking over all the central functions of the new bank. At illimity, he applies his gentle firmness to managing the numbers and the people who work at this beyond oriented bank. Francesco is married to Giovanna and they have two daughters: Rebecca and Penelope