From his unassuming manner you would never guess that Alberto Albertini is one of the most influential figures in Italian finance. But when he decided to study economics at Milan's prestigious Bocconi university in 1974 he was embarking on a well-worn family path. His father had been a prominent stockbroker since the 1950s and in the early 1970s started the family business, now called Albertini & Compagnia, one of Italy's most well known and successful independent brokerages.
After periods working in New York and London with Kleinwort Benson and Salomon Brothers (among others), Albertini junior joined his father's firm in 1975. His first post in the family firm was as an analyst-trader on the domestic money market, and over the next two decades he worked his way up. Was he tempted to stay with the bulge-bracket firms in the US and the UK? "I'll be frank, it was much easier to start with my father, but I always tried to learn in London and New York," says Albertini.
The business thrived as the Italian stock exchange grew and by the 1980s Studio Albertini (as it was then known) was one of the few brokerages known outside Italy.