Veronafiere: Barbara Ferro appointend new Chief Executive Officer
Barbara Ferro is the new CEO of Veronafiere. The new Veronafiere Board of Directors voted for her unanimously today during its first meeting.
The new CEO was also given strategic powers that include the development and management of extraordinary transactions, such as mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and divestments finalised for the consolidation and growth of the Group. Responsibilities also include supervision of the governance of controlled companies to ensure consistency with the guidelines in the business plan and the principles of transparency, economy and effectiveness. Special attention will also be given to the ESG area, with the task of defining and monitoring the Group’s sustainability policies, integrating them into decision-making processes and ensuring that the sustainability report is drafted in line with current legislation and market best practices.
These powers are part of a context of full collaboration, discussion and sharing wherein the CEO will work in close synergy with the President, the General Manager and the entire Board of Directors.
Barbara Ferro, new CEO of Veronafiere
“I am very grateful for the trust that shareholders and the Board of Directors at Veronafiere have placed in me. They have given me the chance to contribute towards the development of a strategic reality in the national scene and, above all, in my city,” said Barbara Ferro, Veronafiere’s new CEO. The ability of a trade fair operator to generate value is judged not only by profitability but above all by the positive impact ensured for everyone who, to use the language of sustainability, we would define as “stakeholders”, starting from exhibitors through to visitors, suppliers, collaborators, local citizens and all the economic, social and cultural operators in our local area. This is why I am delighted to accept this role with great passion and motivation. The physical and demographic geographies of the world, the economic and financial geometries whose rules we once learned and knew are changing more quickly than we might perhaps have thought, at times generating confusion and a sense of impotence. I believe that in this context, trade fairs are places where people meet, get to know each other, share opinions and shake hands, thereby playing a central role in fearlessly tackling complex scenarios. At the same time, we must identify unconventional responses and new opportunities. I am certain that the new team and its varied skills and experience will be able to undertake this approach to innovation.”
Barbara Ferro with Federico Bricolo, President of Veronafiere, and Adolfo Rebughini, General Manager of Veronafiere
Barbara Ferro was born in Verona in 1967. After graduating in Statistical and Economic Sciences at Padua University, she began her professional career in the world of digital technologies and communication at Olivetti and Telecom Italia. She then gained managerial experience in the finance sector, initially as a consultant at Ernst & Young and then at Cattolica Assicurazioni as manager in charge of Planning & Control and Group Organisation. Since 2004, she has focused on strategic financial consultancy for SMEs in the Veneto region, covering various production sectors.
In 2015, she became CFO of So.Ge.Si. S.p.A., a healthcare services company with seven hundred employees, where she was later appointed CEO in 2018. From the following year until 2024, as general manager of VdV s.r.l.-Vento di Venezia Marina Resort, she dealt with a sustainable urban regeneration project and the environmental and cultural redevelopment of La Certosa island in Venice. In 2024, she was also a contract professor for the master’s course in “Strategic management of tourism and cultural enterprises” at the University of Verona. Since 2025, she has supported companies as an ESG advisor for the design and development of sustainability strategies and reporting.