President and Secretary General

President of the Port Authority

Appointed President of the Venice Port Authority on 11 June 2008, Paolo Costa's previous positions include his terms as President of the EU Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism, Mayor of Venice, Minister of Public Works and a post as Ordinary Professor at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

The President's tasks

The President of the Port Authority is chosen from a shortlist of experts in Port and Transport Economics. The President is appointed for four years and can only be reconfirmed once.
The President of the Port Authority also Chairs the Port Committee: tasks include co-ordinating initiatives conducted in the port by the public.

Paolo Costa, President of the Port Authority

Paolo Costa

Paolo Costa was born in Venice in 1943 and graduated in Economics at Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

University appointments include positions as Ordinary Professor in Urban and Local Economics at the Venice University Institute of Architecture (1980-1982) and as Ordinary Professor of Political Economy (1982-1984) and Economic Planning (1984-1995) at Ca' Foscari University of Venice; he was Rector (1992-1996) of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

He was Minister for Public Works from 1996 to 1998.

In 1999 and again in 2004 he was elected to represent the north-eastern Italian constituency in the European Parliament where he chaired the Committee on Transport and Tourism from 2003 to 2009.

He was elected Mayor of Venice and held office from April 2000 to April 2005.

Since September 2009 he has been a member of the International Transport Forum Advisory Board. Since the same date he has also been Chairman of Expert Group 4 “Ten-T and connections outside the EU” and since February 2010 he has been member of Expert Group 5 “Ten-T Funding and Financing Prospects” established by the European Commission to review the European transport networks.

He is Venice Port Authority's President since 1 July 2008..

The Secretary General of the Port Authority

Franco Sensini is the Venice Port Authority's Secretary General. First appointed in July 2004, his office was reconfirmed in 2008.

The Secretary General's tasks

The Secretary General ensures the smooth running of the technical and operational issues falling under the responsibility of the Port Authority. Amongst other tasks, the Secretary General follows up the procedures necessary for the President and the Port Committee's decisions to come into force, prepares the port planning document and keeps contacts with the other public administrations involved in the port management to coordinate respective activities.

Franco Sensini, Secretary General of the Port Authority

Franco Sensini

Having graduated in Economics and served as an Executive in the Veneto regional administration, Franco Sensini was first appointed Secretary General of the Venice Port Authority in 2004 and was reconfirmed in 2008.

The development of the Port of Venice

During is spell atthe Venice Port Authority he took a leading role in all the major projects involving the Port of Venice: the development of the channel dredging plan, the initiatives to extend the commercial port, the identification of new areas for logistics operations, the promotion of the Sea Highways initiative.

Hewas also directly involved in the reorganisation of the existing and the establishment of new directly held companies to facilitate the achievement of the port's development aims.

Management

The new organisational model that he recently introduced in the Venice Port Authority envisages, amongst others, new result assessment tools, management control procedures, management by objective strategies and the yearly presentation of statutory information.

This new approach has enabled the Venice Port Authority to certify its Quality Management System under UNI ISO 9001:2008 and its Environmental Management System under UNI ISO 14001:2004.