Born in 1947. After graduating from the University of Rome, he received his Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and served as Professor of Economics at the University of Florence from 1981 to 1991.
From 1984 to 1990 was an Executive Director of the World Bank. Later he was Director General of the Italian Treasury (1991-2001) and Chairman of the European Economic and Financial Committee. He was appointed Chairman of the Italian Committee for Privatisations in 1993.
During his time at the Treasury, he chaired the committee that revised Italian corporate and financial legislation and drafted the law that governs Italian financial markets. From 2002 to 2005 he was Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs International.
He was Governor of the Bank of Italy from 29 December 2005 to 31 October 2011. In April 2006 he was elected Chairman of the Financial Stability Forum, which became the Financial Stability Board in spring 2009.
Since 1 November 2011 Mario Draghi is President of the European Central Bank. From February 2012 he is Governor Emeritus of the Bank of Italy.