About

Silvia Piccorossi had the chance to develop her career at Airport Guglielmo Marconi di Bologna, one of the most active and growing airports in Italy, right after being admitted to the Italian bar in 1999. ‘I’ve been very lucky in my career: I graduated in transport law in 1995 and immediately had the chance to work in a very good law firm specialised in transport items (Zunarelli & Associati)’. In 1999 she first joined Aeroporto Guglielmo Marconi di Bologna and had the oppurtunity to build a legal department from scratch to its current state. She takes pride in having carefully constructed her team to a ‘simple, very skilled and professional’ legal organisation with a combination of legal, technical and administrative staff. She is currently a member of the legal affairs group of Assaeroporti – the Italian airport companies association and also a member of the ACI policy committee Airports Council International representing over 500 airports in 45 European countries. In her role as legal and corporate affairs director she is in charge of legal affairs, commercial and administrative contracts, procurement processes, legal support to investment activities, public affairs and corporate affairs of the company. Piccorossi has participated in the active and relevant legal support in the infrastructure projects that have driven the airport capacity from two million passengers to between eight and nine million, as well as the exciting experience of a listing process that saw Bologna Airport listed on the Italian Stock Exchange, something she cites was ‘a very positive experience with a very big improvement in my experience and knowledge’. She supported the negotiations and the definition of any legal requirements for the Ryanair base in Bologna in 2007-2008, as well as the new agreement in 2016. Piccorossi believes a large part of her success as a leader and trusted business partner is due to her ability to be ‘flexible, versatile, eclectic and to have a keen eye for business and for airport operations’ combined with her smart legal solutions to complex problems, which are appreciated and effectively useful for her colleagues and for the company. Piccorossi reveals that her most important value is ethics, adding ‘I believe that the legal department represents an ethical role model for the company as a whole and I definitely want to be a testimonial of ethics management. It’s absolutely possible and successful, in my experience, and for me it’s a pleasure and an honour’. She has proved to be an excellent fit for chair of the ethics and anticorruption committee and is also a board member of one the groups’ companies, TAG Bologna, a group that manages general aviation activities.