Born in 1973 in
Neuilly-sur-Seine, a wealthy suburb of
Paris, Giuliano da Empoli grew up in several European countries, graduated in law at
Sapienza University of Rome and obtained a master's degree in political science at the
Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). He has been Deputy Mayor for culture in
Florence and a senior advisor to Italian Prime Minister
Matteo Renzi. He has also been an executive board member at the
Venice Biennale and the chairman of the
Gabinetto Vieusseux in Florence. From 2006 to 2008, he served as Senior Advisor to Italy's Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Culture,
Francesco Rutelli, establishing the first Italian Design Council in
Milan. In 2016, he founded the think tank Volta, a member of the Global Progress network. He has been a guest speaker at numerous conferences around the world (including
São Paulo's ESPM,
Geneva's Finance Foundation, Paris' Foundation Ricard and
Zürich's Club
Baur au Lac) and is a member of The Travellers Club in Paris.
Writer and political essayist Since 1996, he has been a regular contributor and columnist for the country's leading printed media, including
Il Corriere della Sera,
La Repubblica,
Il Sole 24 Ore and
Il Riformista. He also hosted a weekly talk radio show on Italy's main financial news radio,
Radio 24. As an author and social commentator, he has been regularly appearing on all of the main Italian TV channels. At the age of twenty-two he published his first book
"Un grande futuro dietro di noi" about the problems faced by the Italian youth, which sprung a national debate and led the newspaper
La Stampa to designate him "Man of the year". In 2022, he published his debut novel
Le mage du Kremlin (
The Wizard of the Kremlin), whose main character is modelled on
Vladimir Putin's advisor
Vladislav Surkov. The novel was awarded the 2022
Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française. The novel was a finalist for the 2022
Prix Goncourt. The novel lost to
Brigitte Giraud's
Vivre vite after fourteen rounds of voting ended in a stalemate, leading the president of the Goncourt Academy to cast the deciding vote, choosing Giraud over Giuliano da Empoli. == Books ==