Giorgio Rosso Cicogna is an Italian diplomat and international official born in Trieste on May 7, 1945.
In 1971 Giorgio Rosso Cicogna joined the Italian Foreign Ministry for a diplomatic career of over twenty years. During his activity there he held the following positions: Assistant to the Diplomatic Advisor to the Prime Minister, Head of the Secretariat of the Foreign Minister and Advisor for International and European Affairs to the Ministers for Science/Technology and for Public Holdings, as well as several positions within the Economic Department of Italian Foreign Ministry. He also served as Consul in Vienna, Counsellor and Chargé d' Affairs in New Delhi and Alternate Head of the Italian Delegation to the CSCE.
After his retirement from government service, in 1991, Rosso Cicogna started a new career in the private sector as Director General of the Italian Federation of Industries for the Trieste region. In 1998 he joined TELIT (the only producer of cellular and satellite phones in Italy) as Executive Vice-president for corporate planning and for international, institutional and public affairs; being later consultant to the top management of several companies.
In 2008 he was appointed Managing Director of the International Centre for Science and High Technology (ICS) of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). Since June 2010 until 2013 he served as Central European Initiative Alternate Secretary General. From 2013 until 2016 Rosso Cicogna acted as a Special Advisor to the CEI Secretary General. Currently, he holds the position of Senior Advisor to the Director-General of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.
Education
He got a High School Diploma in classics (“Maturita Classica") in Trieste and completed the undergraduate studies at Davidson College (North Carolina, USA, 1964–65).
Bachelor/Master's Degree (“Laurea”) in Political Sciences was conferred to Rosso Cicogna by the University of Trieste in 1970. A Post-graduate degree at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies followed shortly (Bologna 1970–71.)
In 1971 he attended preparatory course sponsored by the Italian Foreign Ministry for the diplomatic service examination.
Employment
Rosso Cicogna started his professional career, while still studying at the university, as a free-lance journalist for several newspapers and magazines (1968–1971). In 1971 he joined Italian diplomatic service, where he served for two decades. He acted within Foreign Ministry's Department of Economic Affairs - Office of Energy Resources and Technology (1971), Prime Minister's Office, as an Assistant to the Diplomatic Adviser to the Prime Minister (1972–1974), Foreign Minister's Cabinet, as the Head of Secretariat (1974–1975). In 1975 Rosso Cicogna was appointed as Consul of Italy in Vienna with accreditation to the Vienna-based International Organisations (as First Secretary in charge of personnel affairs). From 1979 till 1984, he served as Counsellor, then Chargé d'Affaires, at the Italian Embassy in New Delhi, India.
After returning to Italy and short activity within the Department of Economic Affairs, Middle East Desk of the Foreign Ministry (1984) he got an assignment as an Adviser for International and EEC Affairs to the Minister for Scientific Research and Technology and Head of the relevant Department (1985–1987). In this capacity the main tasks were: Italian Representative in the EEC Committee for Science and Technology (CREST), member of the Committee of Senior Officials of EUREKA, Italian Representative on the European Synchrotron Board, coordinator of the National Committee for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, coordinator of the National Committee for Advanced Physics Facilities, coordinator of the National Committee on Advanced Materials, co-ordinator for the Trieste Synchrotron Project, National Coordinator for the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, representative of the Italian Government to the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (IAEA/UNESCO). His activity was instrumental in establishing Trieste- based international S&T organizations.
Being Adviser for International and EEC Affairs to the Minister for Public Holdings (1987–1988), he was Italian delegate to the EEC Committee of Directors-General for Industry, Italian Representative to the EEC Group on Iron and Steel, negotiator for Italy with the EEC Commission on the restructuring of the steel public sector and on public aid relevant to Italian public holdings and their subsidiary companies