Romano Minozzi

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Romano Minozzi (born 1935) is an Italian billionaire businessman. He studied economics at the University of Bologna and began his career at a bank in Modena, where he developed an interest in the stock market. In 1961, with a 300‑million‑lira loan from Mediobanca, he bought a struggling ceramics company and renamed it Iris. Iris grew and expanded internationally, making bathroom tiles and wall slabs. In the early 2000s he acquired a minority stake in Mediobanca and served three years on Ferrari’s board. In 2010 he bought 4.2% of Terna, Italy’s transmission system operator, for about $173 million and sold it three years later for around $465 million. In 2016 he acquired about 3% of Snam for roughly $660 million and gained Italgas shares after Snam’s spin-off. He stepped back from daily Iris management in 2017, appointing his daughter Federica as CEO. In 2020 he appeared on Forbes’ World’s Billionaires list.