Piero Bassetti was born in Milan in 1928, graduated in Economics and Business from the Bocconi University in Milan, and completed his studies as a Fulbright scholar at Cornell University (USA); he subsequently specialized in Economic Sciences at the London School of Economics.

Councilor and Assessor of the Municipality of Milan from 1956 to 1970. First President of the Lombardy Region from 1970 to 1974, Member of Parliament from 1976 to 1982; from 1982 to 1997 he was President of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Milan as well as President of the Union of Italian Chambers of Commerce (Unioncamere) from 1983 to 1992. From 1993 to 1999 he was President of the Association of Italian Chambers of Commerce abroad (CCIE).

He is President of the Giannino Bassetti Foundation and of the association Globus et Locus.

His prolific writing includes "The Reins of Power" with Giacomo Corna Pellegrini (Ceschina 1959), "Ovest Scomodo (Vallecchi 1978), "Italy is broken" (Laterza 1996), "Milanesi senza Milano" (Mursia 1999), "Globali and Locali!" (an interview conducted by Sergio Roic) (Giampiero Casagrande, 2002), "Svegliamoci Italici!" (Marsilio 2015) and "Alice Beyond the Looking Glass. Governing innovation through Epochal Change" (Guerini e Associati Editore, 2020).

Many scholars have focused on this production, summarizing its features both in the book "Milan between reconstruction and globalization: From the papers of the Piero Bassetti archive" (Rubbettino, 2011) and in "Guardare Oltre" by Francesco Samorè (Carocci Editore, 2019 ).

(January 2021)