Francesco Starace was appointed Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of Enel in May 2014.
Mr Starace joined Enel in 2000, holding several executive positions. He managed the Business Power area from July 2002 to October 2005 and the Market Division from November 2005 to September 2008. In 2008, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of Enel Green Power, the Group's newly formed company specialised in renewable energies. Mr Starace led the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of the business, floating it on the Milan and Madrid stock exchanges. In May 2014 he was appointed Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of the Enel Group.
Before joining Enel, Mr Starace worked for other important companies in the energy sector. He began his career in power plant construction management, first at the General Electric Group, then at the ABB Group and subsequently at Alstom Power Corporation, where he was appointed Head of gas turbine sales worldwide. Mr Starace's international experience includes periods spent in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United States and Switzerland.
Alongside his career at Enel, Mr Starace has held various other positions: in June 2014 he was appointed to the Advisory Board of the United Nations Sustainable Energy for All initiative (SEforALL), where he served until the board's mandate concluded in 2017. In October 2020 he was appointed Chair of the Administrative Board of SEforALL, that works to accelerate and deliver the large-scale solutions required to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7) by 2030. From 2015 until 2021, he served as a member of the Board of Directors of the United Nations’ Global Compact. Since 2016 he is also Co-Chair of the Italy-Mexico Business Council. From June 2017 to May 2019, he was President of the European electricity industry union Eurelectric. The European Commission appointed him Member of the "Multi-stakeholder Platform on the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in the EU" from September 2017 to December 2019. In October 2016 he was nominated co-Chair of the B20 Germany 2017 Climate & Resource Efficiency Task Force and in January 2020 he became co-Chair of the B20 Saudi Arabia 2020 "Energy, Sustainability and Climate" Task Force and co-chair of the WEF "Net Zero Carbon Cities - Systemic Efficiency Initiative". In April 2018 he was appointed President of the Enel Group’s Internal Cyber Security Committee. From June 2020 to December 2021, he was a member of the G20 Business Advisory Board for the Italian Presidency, led by The European House - Ambrosetti. From December 2020 to December 2021, he was appointed Chair of the B20 Italy 2021 ‘Energy & Resource Efficiency’ Task Force, the aim of which is to make practical and actionable policy recommendations for sustainable progress. Since January 2021 he has been co-chair of the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance’s round table on "Renewable and Low-carbon Hydrogen Production". Since September 2021 he has been a Member of the Climate and Environment Advisory Council of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group. Since 2022 he has been member of B20 Indonesia 2022 - Taskforce on "Energy, Sustainability and Climate". In July 2022 he became a member of Global Leadership Council, an organization of Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet.
Francesco Starace was born in Rome in 1955 and graduated in Nuclear Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Milan in 1980. He is married and has two sons, and is a supporter of A.S. Roma football club. Mr Starace loves poetry and art, especially contemporary art. In his spare time, he enjoys cycling and taking part in cycling races. He strongly believes in energy as one of the main driving forces of the developing economies and as a key element for improving people's lives: this vision underpins his work at Enel.