Public transport Between 1995 and 2000, he was a member of a project team set up by
Ansaldo Trasporti to build
Copenhagen's automatic
metro. In the mid-1990s, when Mazzoncini was 26, a
gas leak caused the apartment complex where he lived to explode. As a spokesperson for the complex, he arranged to have the apartments demolished and rebuilt. The owner of the construction company in charge of the project also owned Autoguidovie, a public transport company specialising in road transport. After their contact due to the gas leak, he was offered a job as team leader. In 1998, he became
director of the same company. While he directed Autoguidovie, the company acquired holdings in various public transport companies owned by local authorities. Among these was the
Reggio Emilia Public Transport Authority, whose mayor at the time was
Graziano Delrio,
Italy's Minister of Infrastructure and Transport. In 2012,
Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A introduced a new company called Busitalia, which aimed to expand the group's role in the public road transport sector.
Mauro Moretti, at the time
CEO of the group, asked Mazzoncini to head this new holding. He accepted, at the condition that he would be
CEO and
Director-general of every new company held by Busitalia. The first acquisition he made while at Busitalia was Azienda Trasporti Area Fiorentina, the public transport network operator in
Florence. While restructuring ATAF, he met
Matteo Renzi, who at the time was mayor of
Florence and would go on to become
Prime Minister. Their partnership reportedly started with a quarrel: a raise in the prices of bus tickets prompted a very heated reaction from an infuriated Renzi, who phoned
Mazzoncini while he was skiing in
Northern Italy. After meeting in person, the two reportedly got along much better. In 2014, Busitalia and Autoguidovie formed a joint venture, giving rise to the biggest local public transport player in the country.
Government positions In 2015, he became CEO of
Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A, replacing Moretti. He stated that
Renzi and Delrio, at the time respectively Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructures and Transports, offered him the role because both of them had previously experienced first-hand his abilities as CEO.
Later career He was appointed as a Professor in Mobility: Infrastructure and Services at the
Polytechnic University of Milan. In 2018, Mazzoncini was elected as
CEO and
COO of
Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A. On 25 July 2018, Renato Mazzoncini stepped down from his roles in
Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A, accusing the government of operating a "spoils system" after the new Transport Minister,
Danilo Toninelli, dismissed the entire board of the company. On 13 May 2020, Mazzoncini became CEO and Managing Director of Italian energy business
A2A ==References==