Milanese, born in 1956, he graduated with honors in Economics and Business from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan in 1979.

Since 2000, he has been a Full Professor of Statistics at the University of Milano-Bicocca, where he teaches in the Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods. After earning his PhD in Methodological Statistics in 1986, he taught at the universities of Brescia, Milan, and Milano-Bicocca.

He played a key role in establishing and directed the Interuniversity Research Center on Public Utility Services (CRISP) from 1997 to 2005, and he currently serves as a member of its Scientific Committee.

He is the founder and president of the Foundation for Subsidiarity, a think tank established in 2002 with the aim of promoting subsidiarity as a shared cultural value and a driving force for social, economic, and institutional initiatives. The foundation conducts research, educational, and publishing activities on socio-economic topics and publishes the annual Report on Subsidiarity.

He is also among the organizers of the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples (Meeting di Rimini), one of the most attended summer events in Europe, featuring discussions, debates, exhibitions, and cultural, musical, literary, and sports events.

Additionally, he founded and presided over Compagnia delle Opere, a business association inspired by the Social Doctrine of the Church, until 2003.

He has authored numerous articles and essays on socio-economic topics, particularly focusing on subsidiarity, welfare, social enterprises, and human capital.

In 2005, he was awarded the Gold Medal by the National Commission for the Promotion of Italian Culture Abroad.

On December 7, 2020, he received the Ambrogino d’Oro.