Istituto Marangoni appoints first female chief executive

Istituto Marangoni, the school of fashion, design and art, part of Galileo Global Education Italy has appointed its first female chief executive in its 80-year history.

Stefania Valenti has been appointed to succeed Roberto Riccio, who will move on to lead the Galileo Global Education Italy Group as its chief executive.

As the fashion school’s chief executive, Valenti will manage the entire Marangoni Group, consisting of nine schools present in 3 continents - in Milan, Florence, Paris, London, Mumbai, Miami, Shanghai and Shenzhen. A group that has more than 4,000 students of 107 different nationalities, and has trained more than 45,000 professionals in the fashion and luxury sectors, including Domenico Dolce, Franco Moschino and Stefano Sartori.

In a statement, the fashion institute said that Valenti’s key focus will be on “nurturing and expanding the academic offering” as well as extending the capillarity of Istituto Marangoni.

Commenting on the appointment, Roberto Riccio said in a statement: "After ten years of considerable commitment and great satisfaction, I am happy to pass on Istituto Marangoni’s lead to a professional like Stefania Valenti, who I am sure will optimise her rich managerial experience with this new challenge, bringing a new vision and guiding the group into a solid and successful journey.”

Valenti added: “My main commitment will be continuing to guarantee the success of a Group that invests on excellence at multiple levels (teaching, innovation and student experience across) by way of ambitious and challenging development goals.”

With a degree in Foreign Languages and Modern Literature at the Cà Foscari University of Venice and a masters degree at the Sorbonne in Paris, Valenti has served at the top of leading fashion brands including Elite Model Management, La Perla, MSGM and Les Hommes Group.

Image: courtesy of Istituto Marangoni