Carlo Calenda

Carlo Calenda (born 9 April 1973) is an Italian business executive and politician. On 2 May 2013, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Economic Development in the government of Enrico Letta, and was later confirmed in that post in the cabinet of Letta's successor, Matteo Renzi. On 20 January 2016, Renzi appointed him Italy's Permanent Representative to the European Union, an office he took up on March 21 that year. This appointment was criticised by both the opposition and Italian diplomats, because the office of Permanent Representative had always been held by a diplomat and not by a politician such as Calenda. Early life and business career Calenda was born in Rome in 1973. He is the son of Fabio Calenda, a journalist, and Cristina Comencini, a film director and screenwriter, and the grandson of Luigi Comencini, a popular director of Italian comedy movies, and Giulia Grifeo di Partanna, descended from an ancient aristocratic family from Sicily. In 1984, at the age of eleven years, he played the lead role in the Italian television miniseries Cuore, directed by his grandfather, Luigi Comencini; his voice was dubbed by Giorgio Borghetti. During his adolescence, his aristocratic background did not prevent him from joining the Italian Communist Youth Federation (FGCI).