Romano Prodi was born on August 9th, 1939 in the northern Italian city of Reggio Emilia. My father is an engineer and my mother is a teacher. Among the nine brothers and sisters, Prodi ranks eighth. Believing in Catholicism, he joined the Catholic Action Organization in middle school. 1957 After graduating from high school, he entered the Catholic University of Milan to study law. 196 1 graduated with honors and obtained a doctorate in law. His graduation thesis is entitled "Protectionism in Italian Industrial Development", and his tutor is Professor Ciro Batini. After graduation, he studied postgraduate courses at the University of Milan and the University of Bologna, and studied for a master's degree at the London School of Economics. His tutor is Basil Yamey, a professor of industrial economics. Besides, he is a visiting professor at Harvard University and Stanford University. Prodi's academic career began in the Department of Political Science of the University of Bologna. There, he successively served as teaching assistant (1963), associate professor (1966) and full professor of industrial organization and industrial policy (197 1- 1999).

While engaged in teaching, he also maintained great enthusiasm for research. The two topics he first raised later became two standard topics in industrial economics-the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and industrial zones (the development model of a high-speed growth industry: ceramic building materials was published in 1966, which was one of the first people to discuss this topic) and competition policy (dynamically published in 1967). In the international academic circles, he is as famous as giacomo Becattini, Franco Mo Migueli Yano and Paolo Vasconcelos Rabbini, and is known as the founder of Italian industrial economics school. Prodi's research has further expanded to many fields, such as the relationship between the state and the market, privatization policy, the key role of schools in promoting economic development and social unity, the process of European integration and the dynamics of "different capitalist models" after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In his two books, Sound Capitalism (published in 1995, which collected his articles published in Il Moulinot in the early 1990s) and Europe in My Eyes, he expounded his views and thoughts on the above topics.

1974 to 1978, Prodi served as the chairman of il Moulinot publishing company; 198 1 year, he founded Nomisma, one of the most important economic research associations in Italy, and served as the chairman of the scientific Committee of the association until 1995. He wrote editorials for the famous Italian daily newspapers La Corriere and 24-hour Sun, and served as editor of the Journal of Industrial Economics and Industrial Politics for many years. 1992 served as the host of the program "Decision Time-Six Economic Courses Series" recorded by Italian National Television 1. 1978165438+1October to1March 1979, Prodi became the Italian minister of industry.

From 1982 1 1 to 1989 1, he served as the chairman of IRI, the largest holding company in Italy at that time. Under his leadership, IRI has implemented a series of fundamental reform and recovery measures, making full preparations for the privatization of the group's subsidiaries. 1in may 1993, Prodi was re-elected as IRI chairman. During his tenure, he completed the privatization process of several large companies under the group, including Credit Italia and Commercial Bank of Italy. After retiring from the presidency of the European Commission in 2004, Prodi returned to Italian politics. For the first time in politics, the candidate primary election system was introduced. In 2005, Prodi was elected as the chairman of the center-left party alliance, and won 75% of the votes in the primary election of the prime minister candidate of the center-left alliance in June 5438+ 10 of the same year, and officially became Berlusconi's challenger.

In the last general election (April 9, 2006-10), he was elected as the representative of emilia-romagna constituency in the 15 parliamentary election. In April 2006, Prodi led the center-left alliance to win the Italian general election, and Italian President giorgio napolitano invited him to form a new government. From May 7, 2006 to May 8, 2008, Prodi became the 59th Prime Minister of Italy. On February 22nd, 2007, Romano Prodi submitted his resignation to Italian President giorgio napolitano. According to some Italian political analysts, the Italian government will be leaderless at present. According to the polls at that time, if the prime minister election is held again, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will win with a slight advantage. On February 24th of the same year, Italian President Napolitano asked Prodi to remain as prime minister, and Prodi agreed to stay. On March 2, Prodi continued to serve as prime minister through a vote of confidence in Congress. In June 5438 +2008 10, Prodi served as the temporary minister of justice. On October 24th, 2008, the Senate passed motion of no confidence, and Prodi resigned.

Since then, Prodi has served as the chairman of the Global Cooperation Foundation, and has served ever since. In July 2008, he was appointed Chairman of the United Nations-African Union High-level Panel on Peacekeeping.