Marialuisa Gavazzeni Trussardi |
Wharton Speaker >> Biography
Ms. Trussardi is the President of Finos S.p.A., the financial holding of Trussardi Group. After graduating with a Business Administration degree from Università Cattolica in Milan, she worked alongside her husband, Nicola Trussardi, developing and expanding the family company which started out as a manufacturer of fine leather gloves in 1911. Between the late eighties and early nineties, she helped consolidate the company and became its Vice President in 1992. She collaborated on the creation and launch of the first women’s collection in 1983 and the first men’s collection in 1984. She also worked on expanding existing product lines. She is a Permanent Board Member of Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, which was established in 1997 and has its offices in Palazzo Trussardi Alla Scala that was restored in the nineties to become a multipurpose center and the brand’s institutional headquarters. A recipient of the Knight Grand Cross of the Italian Republic, she also received the “Premio Città di Porto Ferraio” Award for her creativity and success, as well as the “Donna Dieci e Lode” Award and the L’Ambrogino” Award that the Province of Milan gives to prestigious citizens of Milan. Ms. Trussardi taught “Fashion Economics” at Università “La Sapienza” in Rome between 2004 and 2008. In 2004, she was appointed President of the “Amici del Centro Dino Ferrari” Association, a non-profit organization with headquarters in the Department of Neurological Sciences of Università degli Studi di Milano - Policlinico, which studies neuromuscular and neurodegenerative diseases.