Pier Francesco Forleo: Rai’s Sports Rights Director Passes Away at Age 51

Rai, and more generally the world of television, woke up in shock this morning: Pier Francesco Forleo died suddenly at the age of 51il Sports Rights Director of Raiknown in the gossip chronicles for being the companion of Elisabetta Ferracinithe daughter of Mara Venier. The news began to circulate among insiders shortly after dawn and the confirmation arrived mid-morning from Andrew Vianello, journalist and TV face, appointed a few days ago General Manager of San Marino RTV. “Waking up with the terrible news that a great manager of Rai, good, respectable and full of life, Pier Forleo, is no longer there. He was a friend. We called him the Prince, due to his natural elegance. Knowing how to live and how to work: a talent of few. Close to Elisabetta”, wrote the former director of Radio Rai1.

Born in Florence in 1962, graduated in Economics and Commerce, Pier Francesco Forleo has built his entire career in the telecommunications sector, starting in Datamat SpA, to then move on to the Planning and Control Directorate of IRI, until ’97. After teaching Business Economics at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, in 2004 he joined Rai in the Finance and Planning department as Head of the Radio and Staff structure. And from there begins his climb to success. In September 2006 he was appointed Director of Purchasing, from 2010 he coordinates the application of Public Procurement Code in corporate purchasing processes while from March 2015 he held one of the key roles in the company: becomes the head of the Director of the Sports Rights Department.

Since April 2015 he has also been a member of the Sports Rights Committee and the Sports Right Assembly of the EBU. “The loss of Pier Francesco Forleo leaves us dismayed”, declared the president of Rai Marinella Soldi and the managing director, Roberto Sergio. “An impeccable professional, with a solid and varied professional experience, he has been a point of reference for years in the crucial sports rights sector of our company. We will miss not only his great ability to analyze and manage complex financial and managerial aspects, but his special human figure. Affable and elegant, Pier Francesco Forleo was always capable of a profitable team game, to the great benefit of the company and all of his colleagues, whose best features he was able to bring out, motivating them and helping them to grow. Our thoughts and condolences to our family and those of the entire company”.