Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
company name	Bell Canada
company logo
company type	Public
traded as	,
foundation	1880, by Charles Fleetford Sise
location	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
key people	George Cope (CEO)
industry	Communications Services
revenue	$15.669 billion CAD (2010)
operating income	$3.672 billion CAD (2010)
net income	$2.159 billion CAD (2010)
num employees	50,662
market cap	$24 billion USD (2008)
homepage	www.bell.ca }}

Bell Canada, commonly shortened to "Bell", is a major Canadian telecommunications company. Including its subsidiaries such as Bell Aliant, Northwestel, Télébec, and NorthernTel, it is the incumbent local exchange carrier for telephone and DSL Internet services in most of Canada east of Manitoba and in the northern territories, and a leading competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) in the western provinces. Its subsidiary Bell Mobility (including Solo Mobile and Virgin Mobile Canada) is one of Canada's "big three" mobile telecommunications providers, while Bell TV is the country's most popular direct-to-home satellite TV provider. In a majority of its service territory, Bell Canada's principal competition is Rogers Communications. The company, which serves a total of over 13 million phone lines, is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec.

Bell Canada is the one of the main assets of the conglomerate BCE (, ), also known as Bell Canada Enterprises. In addition to its core telecommunications operations, BCE owns Bell Media, which operates media properties including the CTV Television Network. BCE ranked number 224 on the 2008 edition of the Forbes Global 2000 list.

History

Historically, Bell Canada has been one of Canada's most important and most powerful companies, and in 1975 was listed as the fifth largest in the country.

Inception

Alexander Graham Bell, who resided increasingly for most of his life in Nova Scotia, Canada, received the master patent for the telephone in the United States in 1876 (). Bell assigned 75% of the Canadian patent rights to his father, Melville Bell, who, with a friend, Reverend Thomas Henderson, leased pairs of wooden hand telephones for use on private lines constructed by the client from, for example, a store to a nearby warehouse, or from a business to an executive's residence. The two gave a licence to Hugh Cossart Baker, Jr. to lease telephones in Ontario. In 1879, Melville Bell sold the rights to National Bell Telephone Company in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and thus officially became one of the first regional operating companies of what was to become the Bell System. Charles Fleetford Sise, a Chicago businessman, was brought in as general manager, and ''The Bell Telephone Company of Canada Ltd.'' was founded in 1880. With a government-granted monopoly on Canadian long-distance telephone service, The Bell Telephone Company serviced 237,000 subscribers by 1914.

Since the early years of The Bell Telephone Company of Canada, Ltd., it was known colloquially as "The Bell" or "Bell Canada." On March 7, 1968, Canadian law renamed The Bell Telephone Company of Canada, Ltd., as Bell Canada.

Competition and territory reduction

Bell Canada originally extended lines clear from Nova Scotia to the foot of the Rocky Mountains in what is now Alberta. However, most of the attention given to meeting demand for service focused on major cities in Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritime Provinces.

Atlantic Canada

During the late 19th century, Bell sold its Atlantic operations in the three Maritime provinces, where many small independent companies also operated and eventually came under the ownership of three provincial companies. Newfoundland and Labrador joined Canada with several private companies, and a government operation that was transferred to the control of Canadian National Railways.

Bell acquired interests in all Atlantic companies during the early 1960s, starting with Newfoundland Telephones (which later was organized as NewTel Communications) on July 24, 1962. Bell acquired controlling interest in Maritime Telephone and Telegraph Company, later known as MT&T;, which also owned PEI-based Island Telephone, and in Bruncorp, the parent company of NBTel in 1966. The purchase of MT&T; was made despite efforts of the Nova Scotia legislature on September 10, 1966, to limit the voting power of any shareholder to 1000 votes. Bell-owned MT&T; absorbed some 120 independent companies, most serving less than 50 customers each. Bell-owned NewTel purchased the CNR-owned Terra Nova Tel in 1988.

Newtel, Bruncorp, MT&T; and Island Tel later merged into Aliant (now Bell Aliant which also owns much of what were Bell Canada's more rural areas in Ontario and Quebec) in the late 1990s, in which Bell continues to own a stake.

Quebec and Ontario

Independent companies appeared in many areas of Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime provinces without adequate Bell Canada service. Bell went on during the 20th century to acquire most of the independent companies in Ontario and Quebec. Quebec, however, still has large swaths of relatively rural areas served by Telus Québec (formerly Québec Telephone, later acquired by Telus) and Télébec (now owned by Bell Canada via Bell Aliant) as well as some 20 small independent companies. As of 1980, Ontario still had some 30 independent companies, and Bell has not acquired any; the smaller ones were sold to larger independents with larger capital resources.

Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan

The three prairie provinces, at separate times, acquired Bell Canada operations and formed provincial utility services, investing to develop proper telephone services throughout those provinces; Bell Canada's investment in the prairies had been scant or insufficient relative to growth, and all three had various local telephone companies. The Alberta government's Alberta Government Telephones Commission and Manitoba Government Telephones purchased the Bell operations of their provinces in 1908. Saskatchewan's Department of Railways, Telegraphs and Telephones, established in June 1908, purchased the Bell operations on October 1, 1909; all three provinces' government operations eventually acquired the independent companies.

Having achieved a high level of development, Manitoba moved to privatize its telephone utility and Alberta privatized Alberta Government Telephones to create Telus in the 1990s. Saskatchewan continues to own SaskTel as a crown corporation. Edmonton was served by a city-owned utility, EdTel, that was sold to Telus in 1995.

British Columbia

British Columbia, served today by Telus, was served by numerous small companies that mostly amalgamated to form BC Tel (the last known acquisition was the Okanagan Telephone Company in the late 1970s), which served the province from the 1960s until its sale to Telus. (The amalgamations produced one anomaly: Atlin is surrounded by the territory of Northwestel, implying that the company that established service there was acquired by a company serving territories further south.)

Northern Canada

Although Bell Canada entered the Northwest Territories with an exchange at Iqaluit (then known as Frobisher Bay, in the territory now known as Nunavut) in 1958, Canadian National Telecommunications, a subsidiary of Canadian National Railways, provided most of the telephone service in Canada's northern territories (specifically, Yukon, northern BC and the western NWT). CNR created Northwestel in 1979, and Bell Canada Enterprises acquired the company in 1988 as a wholly owned subsidiary. Bell Canada sold its 22 exchanges in the eastern region of the NWT to Northwestel in 1992, and BCE transferred ownership of the company to Bell Canada in 1999. Northwestel's operating area was in 2001 opened to long distance competition (which has materialized only in the form of prepaid card business, and service to large national customers with some operating locations in the north) and in 2007 to resale of local telephone service (which has not yet occurred).

Northern British Columbia, northeastern Ontario and the James Bay region of northern Quebec were served by independent companies, though Bell Canada eventually provided service in more far-flung reaches of Ontario and Quebec, acquired ownership interests in companies serving large swaths of northwestern Quebec and northeastern Ontario, and in Northwestel.

Divestiture and deregulation

The Bell System had two main companies in the telephone industry in Canada: Bell Canada as a regional operating company (affiliated with AT&T;, with an ownership stake of approximately 39%) and Northern Electric as an equipment manufacturer (affiliated with Western Electric, with an ownership stake of approximately 44%). The Bell Telephone Company of Canada and Northern Electric were structured similarly in Canada to the analogous portions of the Bell System in the United States; the regional operating company (Bell Canada) sold telephone services as a local exchange carrier, and Western Electric (Northern Electric) designed and manufactured telephone equipment.

As part of the consent decree signed in 1956 to resolve the antitrust lawsuit filed in 1949 by the United States Department of Justice, AT&T; and the Bell System proper divested itself of Northern Electric and Bell Canada. Northern Electric renamed itself Northern Telecom in 1976, which in turn became Nortel Networks in 1998 with the acquisition of Bay Networks.

Bell Canada acquired 100 percent of Northern Electric in 1964; starting in 1973, Bell's ownership stake in Northern Electric was diminished through public stock offerings, though it retained majority control. In 1983, as a result of deregulation, Bell Canada Enterprises (later shortened to BCE) was formed as the parent company to Bell Canada and Northern Telecom. As a result of the stock transaction used by Northern Telecom to purchase Bay Networks, BCE ceased to be the majority owner of Nortel, and in 2000, BCE spun out its share of Nortel, distributing its holdings to its shareholders.

Between 1980 and 1997, the federal government fully deregulated the telecommunications industry and Bell Canada's monopoly largely ended. Today Bell Canada itself provides local phone service only in major city centres in Ontario and Quebec.

Convergence strategy / Internet boom and bust

When Jean Monty assumed the job of CEO in 1998, he pursued a convergence strategy, attempting to combine both content creation and distribution within BCE, and to take greater advantage of the emerging Internet market. BCE Emergis was formed to market e-commerce solutions. Capitalizing on the success of its Internet service provider division, Sympatico, in 1999 BCE formed a partnership with Lycos to create an Internet portal for its customers.

Shortly after the AOLTime Warner merger, BCE purchased the CTV television network in 2000. In 2001, BCE acquired control of The Globe and Mail, and combined it with CTV and the Sympatico-Lycos portal, its other content creation assets, to form Bell Globemedia. The desired synergies did not occur and the portal was sold back to Bell Canada in 2002. Bell Globemedia was highly profitable, however, and it was spun out as a separate company in August 2006. The new company assumed the name CTVglobemedia in 2007.

In 2000, BCE acquired control of Teleglobe, an overseas carrier coveted by Bell since the early 1980s. The acquisition was a disaster as BCE lost billions of dollars financing Teleglobe. In 2002, BCE sold Teleglobe, and Jean Monty resigned. Michael Sabia subsequently assumed the position of CEO.

Post Teleglobe: Refocus on core business

Michael Sabia refocused BCE on its core telecommunications business, prompting BCE to buy back the 20% share in Bell Canada that it had sold in 1999 to Ameritech (which was subsequently acquired by SBC). BCE also spun off operating units that it did not consider to be core to its business, including Emergis in 2004, and Bell Globemedia and Telesat Canada in 2006.

On February 1, 2006, stating the need to remain competitive, Bell Canada announced job cuts of 3,000 to 4,000 employees by the end of 2006.

On April 28, BCE announced that CEO Michael Sabia was taking a 455% pay increase, his salary being raised from C$1.21 million a year to $6.71 million a year. The pay included a $1.25 million salary, a $2.2 million bonus that Sabia converted to deferred share units, a long-term incentive payout of $3 million and other compensation, the filing shows. Bell Canada also posted record revenue increases for the previous fiscal year.

Under pressure from investors, on October 11, 2006, BCE announced it would be wound down, with its remaining assets converted to an income trust. The new entity was planned to be named "Bell Canada Income Fund". As part of this restructuring, Bell Aliant offered to take Bell Nordiq private, while remaining separate from the new Bell trust. Due to announced changes in taxation law by the Canadian federal government, on December 12, 2006, BCE announced it would not proceed with its planned conversion to an income trust. It had planned to restructure, eliminating the BCE holding company, but this was put on hold due to attempts to privatize the company.

On April 30, 2007, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced its decision to allow pay phone rates for Bell Canada, Telus, Bell Aliant, SaskTel, and MTS Allstream to increase from 25 cents to 50 cents, starting as early as June 1. The CRTC also permitted local rural rates to increase by the lesser of the annual rate of inflation or five percent, and removed price caps on optional rural services, such as call display and voicemail. On June 2, 2007, Bell Canada increased the cost of a local pay phone call to 50 cents when paid in cash and one dollar when paid by calling card or credit card, Bell's first increase in pay phone rates since 1981.

Privatization target

Due to its stagnant share price, starting in April 2007, BCE was courted for acquisition by pension funds and private equity groups, including a consortium led by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts as one of the participants), a consortium led by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, and a consortium that included Cerberus Capital Management.

On June 30, 2007, BCE accepted a bid of $42.75 per share in cash, for a total valuation of $51.7 billion, from the group led by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, and including Providence Equity Partners, Madison Dearborn Partners, Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity, and Toronto-Dominion Bank. The proposed deal would have been the largest acquisition in Canadian history and the largest leveraged buyout ever. The deal was approved by BCE shareholders, Quebec Superior Court (whose ruling was overturned by the Quebec Court of Appeal, but was later upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada), and the CRTC, subject to certain conditions for its corporate governance structure to ensure that Bell remained under Canadian control.

Due to the tightening of the credit market caused by the subprime mortgage crisis, the investment banks financing the deal—led by Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland—started negotiations on May 16, 2008, to revise the terms of their loans with higher interest rates and greater restrictions to protect themselves. On July 4, 2008, BCE announced that a final agreement had been reached on the terms of the purchase, with all financing in place, and Michael Sabia left BCE, with George Cope assuming the position of CEO on July 11.

On November 26, 2008, BCE announced that KPMG had informed BCE that it would not be able to issue a statement on the solvency of the company after its privatization, one of the required conditions of the buyout. As a result, the purchase was cancelled.

Convergence and consolidation, round two

With Shaw Communications purchasing the Global Television Network, Vidéotron launching its wireless telephone network with video content as a key selling point, and the enormous popularity of wireless and Internet video and other media streams at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Bell once again sought to bring a content provider into its portfolio. In September 2010, Bell announced a deal to reacquire full control of the broadcasting properties owned by CTVglobemedia including the CTV Television Network. The other major asset of CTVglobemedia, The Globe and Mail, will be 85% owned by the Thomson family, with Bell retaining its 15% interest. Through this acquisition, Bell responded to an increasing trend away from traditional cable and satellite delivery channels and towards new distribution methods over the Internet and wireless networks. The CRTC approved the transaction in March 2011.

Criticism

Bell Canada has been criticized on its policies for bandwidth throttling, censorship, misleading prices and usage-based billing.

Services

Bell Canada provides many different types of telecommunications services.

Voice

Bell Canada provides standard Plain Old Telephone Service. They formally offered VoIP, branded as "Digital Voice".

Voicemail

Bell Home Phone and Bell Mobility provide voicemail service as an optional feature for residences and businesses.

Wireless

Bell Mobility operates a cellular network in all Canadian provinces. It also created the Solo Mobile brand, and owns the entirety of Virgin Mobile Canada.

Television

Formerly know as ExpressVu, Bell TV is a satellite television service provider. There is also an IPTV service known as Bell Fibe TV. The latter is currently only available in Toronto and Montreal.

Internet access

Bell Internet provides high speed DSL Internet service in many areas where it offers phone service. DSL is offered in various speeds ranging from 500 kbps to 16 mbps download, depending on what the local infrastructure can support.

Bell began offering Fiber-to-the-node Internet access to some subscribers in 2010. Bell markets this service under the name "Fibe 25".

Legacy

Bell used to offer Bell Home Monitoring.

Assets

BCE owns Bell Media, one of Canada's largest privately held media companies which owns the CTV Television Network, the CTV Two and Bell Media Radio, as well as other (primarily television) media assets. It also operates retail stores, as simply the Bell Store (formerly BellWorld in English Canada and Espace Bell in Quebec, and prior to 1999, the Bell Phonecentre/Téléboutique Bell).

BCE also bought The Source by Circuit City (which was renamed after the sale to The Source) and all assets of InterTAN from bankrupt Circuit City.

In July 2006, Bell and former subsidiary Aliant completed a restructuring whereby Aliant, renamed Bell Aliant Regional Communications, took over Bell's wireline operations in much of Ontario and Quebec (while continuing to use the "Bell" name in those regions), as well as its 63% ownership in rural lines operator Bell Nordiq (a publicly traded income trust that controls NorthernTel and Télébec). These are in addition to Bell Aliant's operations in Atlantic Canada. In turn, Bell has assumed responsibility for Bell Aliant's wireless and retail operations. Bell Aliant, now itself an income trust, is currently 44% owned by Bell.

Other company assets include satellite systems integrator Telesat Canada and Western Canada CLEC Bell West. All in all, BCE partially or fully owns 17 companies in the fields of telecommunications, media, and information technology. e-Business unit Emergis was spun off in 2004.

Shifting its focus to IP, Bell has in recent years deployed MPLS on their nationwide fibre ring network in anticipation of upcoming consumer and enterprise-level IP applications, such as IPTV and VoIP.

Marketing

Bell Canada created the Frank and Gordon beavers to advertise its products from 2006 to 2008.

Coinciding with its advertising campaign as part of its sponsorship of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Bell introduced a new logo and minimalist ad style, with the slogans "Today just got better" (with emphasis on the suffix "er") in English Canada and "La vie est Bell" (a pun on "La vie est belle" — ) in French Canada. The font used in Bell's marketing is a custom typeface known as 'Bell Slim', by Canadian typeface designer Ian Brignell.

Corporate governance

Current members of the board of directors of BCE are: Thomas O'Neill (chair), Barry Allen, André Bérard, Ronald Brenneman, Sophie Brochu, Robert Brown, George Cope, Anthony Fell, Edward Lumley, Jim Prentice, Robert Simmonds, Carole Taylor, and Paul Weiss.

See also

American Telephone & Telegraph, AT&T;, an earlier parent and successor to American Bell

Bell Centre, a hockey arena in Montreal

Bell Mobility, the division of Bell Canada which sells wireless services in Canada

Bell System, the Bell Telephone / AT&T-led; companies which provided phone services

Bell Tower, a skyscraper in Edmonton

International Bell Telephone Company, the Bell Telephone's early European division

National Bell Telephone Company, the very earliest parent company

Telephone Pavilion (Expo 67), also known as the Bell Telephone Pavilion

Former BCE units:

Nortel – formerly ''Northern Telecom'' and ''Northern Electric''

Teleglobe Canada Inc – now VSNL International Canada

References

External links

Bell Canada Official Website

Bell Canada Enterprises

Bell Telephone Company of Canada - public historical documents

CRTC chart of Bell Canada's assets

Bell Canada pixel art ad campaign

Operator. May I help you?: Bell Canada's 125 Years – Bell Canada's origins (illustrated with many early photographs)

Category:Companies established in 1880 Category:Bell System Category:Telecommunications companies of Canada Category:S&P;/TSX 60 Index Category:S&P;/TSX Composite Index Category:1880 in Canada Category:Companies based in Montreal

de:Bell Canada fr:Bell Canada ja:ベル・カナダ pl:Bell Canada

Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
name	La Mafia
landscape	yes
background	group_or_band
origin	Houston, Texas, United States
genre	Latin pop, Tejano
years active	1980–present
label	Urbana Records
website	http://www.lamafia.com
current members	Oscar De La Rosa - vocalistArmando (Mando) Lichtenberger Jr - accordion and keyboardsTim Ruiz - bassJoe Gonzales - drumsDavid DeLaGarza- keyboardsViktor Pacheco - guitar
past members	}}

La Mafia is a four-time Grammy Award-winning musical group. It has its roots in the Northside neighborhood of Houston, Texas and has charted a course as a Latin music band.

History

La Mafia was founded in 1980 in Houston, Tx. Vocalist Oscar De La Rosa & producer/keyboardist/accordionist Armando Lichtenberger Jr. have created an original style that has survived various changes in the music industry. The band consists of Tim Ruiz on bass, David de la Garza on keyboards and background vocals, Joe Gonzales on drums and Viktor Pacheco on Guitar in 2007. The band has won 2 Grammys & 2 Latin Grammys was most recently nominated in 2009 for a Latin Grammy for the most recent album "Eternamente Romanticos"

La Mafia, seeking to expand their musical horizons, began touring extensively in Mexico and Latin America beginning in the late 1980s. The practice of Mexican-American artists performing in Mexico on a large scale was unheard of before La Mafia. Back home, La Mafia has performed in front of three record-setting crowds at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo at the Houston Astrodome.

Discography

Since 1993, La Mafia has recorded each of its hits at its own Urbana Recording Studios, including the million-selling "''Estas Tocando Fuego''" and "''Ahora y Siempre''". The band has recorded 35 albums and CDs, not including dozens of compilation and greatest hits releases.

Awards and recognitions

La Mafia received Grammy Awards for its CDs ''Un Millón de Rosas'' and ''En Tus Manos'' and Latin Grammy Awards for its CDs "''Para El Pueblo''" and "''Nuevamente''". It also has received eight Premio Lo Nuestro Awards and 12 Tejano Music Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the latter, numerous Billboard awards and was listed in the top 10 Billboard Latin Artists for the entire decade of the 90s, ranking La Mafia as the most successful Latin artist Houston has ever produced.

La Mafia vs Kumbia All Starz

In the summer of 2008 Oscar De La Rosa, leader of La Mafia challenged A.B. Quintanilla and his group Los Kumbia All Starz to a battle of the bands. A.B. Quintanilla responded by making a video saying that he accepted and that the battle would be held at Robstown, Texas on August 2, 2008. A press conference was held in San Antonio, Texas on July 30, 2008 where both groups answered questions to the fans. The two stages were set side to side and the rules were each group had to sing 3 songs in a row. The battle began as they tossed a coin to see who would sing first. Oscar called heads and heads it was, so he elected A.B. Quintanilla to go first. For his first 3 songs he chose 3 Tejano songs he wrote and he got his two special guest singers Elida Reyna to sing the first two and Jesse Turner of Siggno to sing the third one. Then La Mafia sang "Estás Tocando Fuego" and two more 90's Billboard hits. For Kumbia All Starz's second turn, their lead singer DJ Kane and Ricky Rick performed the hit single "Shhh!" and two other songs with the dancers from DJ Kane's group when he was a solo singer, John and JD. La Mafia then performed with 3 more songs. Kumbia All Starz sang 3 more songs, then A.B. Quintanilla asked Oscar De La Rosa if they could sing one more song, and Oscar agreed, and so Ricky Rick and Melissa Jiménez got on stage and performed the hit song "Rica Y Apretadita". La Mafia then sang 3 of their biggest hits, and after that the crowd was screaming for more, so they sang one more song. At the end of the night La Mafia was declared the winner.

Members

Oscar De La Rosa - vocalist

Armando Lichtenberger Jr - accordion & keyboards

Tim Ruiz - bass

Joe Gonzales - drums

Viktor Pacheco - guitar

David De La Garza - keyboards & background vocals

Past members: Leonard Gonzales (brother of Oscar De La Rosa [Gonzales]) -guitar Robert Gonzales - guitar & bass guitar Marion Aquilina - guitar Israel (Speedy) Villanueva - bass guitar Adolf Alonso - bass guitar Rudy Martinez - bass guitar Tony Rodriguez - drums Mario Gonzalez - drums Adam Mosqueda - drums Michael Aguilar - drums Jesse Moreno - Sax Jesse Peralez - Sax Rick Patino - Sax-Trumpet

External links

Official Website

Official MySpace

Official Facebook

Official YouTube

References

Category:Musical groups from Texas Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Latin Grammy Award winners Category:People from Houston, Texas Category:Musical groups from Houston, Texas Category:Tejano musicians

es:La Mafia

Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
Name	Mario Draghi
Office	President of the European Central BankDesignate
Vicepresident	Vítor Constâncio
Term start	1 November 2011
Succeeding	Jean-Claude Trichet
Predecessor	Jean-Claude Trichet
Office2	Governor of the Bank of Italy
Term start2	16 January 2006
Term end2
Predecessor2	Antonio Fazio
Successor2	TBD
Birth date	September 03, 1947
Birth place	Rome, Italy
Alma mater	Sapienza University of RomeMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Profession	Economist }}

Mario Draghi (; born 3 September 1947) is an Italian banker and economist who has been governor of the Bank of Italy since 16 January 2006. He has been designated to succeed Jean-Claude Trichet as President of the European Central Bank by November 2011.

In his capacity as Bank of Italy governor, he is a member of the Governing and General Councils of the European Central Bank and a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements. He is also governor for Italy on the Boards of Governors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Asian Development Bank. In April 2006 he was elected Chairman of the Financial Stability Forum, which became Financial Stability Board in spring 2009.

Biography

Born in Rome, Draghi graduated from La Sapienza University of Rome under the supervision of Federico Caffè, then earned a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976 under the supervision of Nobel Laureates Franco Modigliani and Robert Solow. He was full professor at the University of Florence from 1981 until 1991.

From 1984 to 1990 he was Executive Director of the World Bank. In 1991, he became director general of the Italian Treasury, and held this office until 2001. During his time at the Treasury, he chaired the committee that revised Italian corporate and financial legislation and drafted the law that governs Italian financial markets. He is also a former board member of several banks and corporations (Eni, IRI, BNL and IMI).

Draghi was then vice chairman and managing director of Goldman Sachs International and a member of the firm-wide management committee (2002–2005). A controversy existed on his duties while employed at Goldman Sachs. Pascal Canfin (MEP) asserted Draghi was involved in swaps for European governments, namely Greece, trying to disguise their countries' economic status. Draghi responded that the deals were "undertaken before my joining Goldman Sachs [and] I had nothing to do with" them, in the 2011 European Parliament nomination hearings.

Draghi is a trustee at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey and also at the Brookings Institution, in Washington, D.C.. He has been a Fellow of the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

ECB candidacy

Draghi was frequently mentioned as a potential successor to Jean-Claude Trichet, whose term as President of the European Central Bank ends October 2011. Then, in January 2011, German weekly newspaper ''Die Zeit'' reported, with reference to high-ranking policy-makers in Germany and France, that it is "unlikely" that Draghi will be picked as Trichet's successor. However, in February 2011 the situation became further complicated when the main German candidate, Axel Weber, was reported to be no longer seeking the job, reviving the chances of the other candidates. On 13 February 2011 Wolfgang Münchau, associate editor of the ''Financial Times'', endorsed Draghi as the best candidate for the abovementioned position. A few days later ''The Economist'' wrote that "the next president of the world’s second-most-important central bank should be Mario Draghi". On 20 April 2011 ''The Wall Street Journal'' reported that "Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany's finance minister, is open to Mr. Draghi for the post of ECB President". A few days later the German newspaper ''Bild'' endorsed Draghi by defining him the "most German of all remaining candidates". Contrary to previous reports about France's position, on 25 April it was reported that Sarkozy now sees Draghi as a full-fledged and an adequate candidate for the job.

On 17 May 2011 the Council of the European Union – Ecofin – adopted a recommendation on the nomination of Draghi as President of the ECB. On 24 June 2011 Draghi's appointment was confirmed by the European leaders officially as new president of the European Central Bank. This occurred after he was approved by the European Parliament and the European Central Bank itself. Draghi will lead the Frankfurt-based institution when Trichet's non-renewable eight-year term expires on 31 October, and Draghi's term would run from 1 November 2011 to 31 October 2019. Though France long backed Draghi's candidacy, the country had held up the appointment toward the end, insisting that Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, an Italian official on the ECB's six-member board, cede his post on the board to a French representative. There were concerns that his past employment at Goldman Sachs would hinder his path to the position, although in the end this doesn't appear to have occurred.

Awards and honors

2000 Knight grand cross OMRI

2009 honorary doctor in Statistics (University of Padua)

2010 honorary doctor in Business administration (Vicenza, CUOA foundation)

References

External links

Profile (includes photo) at the European Corporate Governance Institute Website

Banca d'Italia

Financial Stability Board

|- Category:1947 births Category:Central bankers Category:Group of Thirty Category:Italian bankers Category:Italian economists Category:Living people Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Category:People from Rome (city)

bg:Марио Драги cs:Mario Draghi de:Mario Draghi el:Μάριο Ντράγκι es:Mario Draghi eo:Mario Draghi fr:Mario Draghi gl:Mario Draghi ko:마리오 드라기 it:Mario Draghi la:Marius Draghi nl:Mario Draghi ja:マリオ・ドラギ pl:Mario Draghi pt:Mario Draghi ru:Драги, Марио fi:Mario Draghi sv:Mario Draghi uk:Маріо Драґі zh:马里奥·德拉基

Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
name	Vincent Browne
birth date	July 17, 1944
birth place	Broadford, County Limerick, Ireland
nationality	Irish
known for	Presenting TV3's ''Tonight with Vincent Browne''
education	Castleknock College
alma mater	University College Dublin
employer	''The Irish Times'', ''The Sunday Business Post'', TV3
occupation	Journalist / TV Presenter
spouse	Jean Browne
children	EmmaJulia
footnotes	}}

Vincent Browne (born 17 July 1944) is an Irish print and broadcast journalist. He is a columnist with ''The Irish Times'' and ''The Sunday Business Post'' and a part time barrister.

From 1996 until 2007, he presented a nightly talk-show on RTÉ Radio, ''Tonight with Vincent Browne'', which focused on politics, the proceedings of tribunals on political corruption and police misconduct. He now presents Tonight with Vincent Browne on TV3, which broadcasts from Monday to Thursday at 11.05pm.

Early life

Born in 1944, he grew up in Broadford, County Limerick, where he attended the local national school. He spent a year at the Irish language college in Ring, County Waterford, then a year at St Mary's secondary school in Dromcolliher, County Limerick, before going to Castleknock College (1957–1962). He graduated from University College Dublin with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics and Economics – where he also founded the oldest surviving UCD newspaper, the ''College Tribune'' in 1966. (www.collegetribune.ie)

Career

He worked on RTÉ's ''Late Late Show'' for five months in 1967–68. He reported on the Soviet and Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 for ''The Irish Times'' and then edited a monthly news magazine, ''Nusight'' in 1969–1970.

He was appointed northern news editor of the Irish Press group in 1970 (working for all three newspapers in the group, ''The Irish Press'', the ''Evening Press'' and ''The Sunday Press'') and covered the most intense and violent period of the Northern Ireland conflict.

He launched ''Magill'' magazine in September 1977 with Noel Pearson and Mary Holland. Magill became Ireland's foremost investigative publication. Among its writers were Gene Kerrigan, Pat Brennan and Paddy Agnew. He remained editor of Magill until 1983, when he became involved in the relaunch of the ''Sunday Tribune'', with Tony Ryan, then of GPA later of Ryanair. A series of articles he published in Magill highlighting the links between the Workers' Party of Ireland and the Official IRA in the 1980s caused him and other journalists to receive death threats. After the publication of "The Lost Revolution: the Story of the Official IRA and the Workers' Party" it was revealed that the Official IRA had planned assasinating him by planting a bomb on his boat although the operation was called off at the last minute. He was editor of the ''Sunday Tribune'' until 1994. He has written a weekly column for ''The Irish Times'' since then and since 2000 has written weekly for ''The Sunday Business Post''. Village ceased publication in August 2008 before being relaunched under a new editor Michael Smith. Vincent Browne now writes a column for Village magazine.

He was involved in a controversy over the tapping of his telephone by the Irish state from February 1975 to February 1983. When this was disclosed by former minister for justice Seán Doherty, Browne sued the State. He made a settlement with the State in 1997 which included an agreement to publish a statement on the settlement, stating, inter alia, that the State had intercepted his telephone conversations for reasons of State security – Browne had written much about the IRA in the early- to mid-1970s – while accepting that Browne had himself never been involved in subversion or crime. On being given access to the transcripts of 81, Browne claimed that it was apparent the motivation for the interception of his telephone conversations for the eight-year period had little to do with the security of the State – it was aimed at garnering information on his work as a journalist, entirely aside from his reporting of the IRA. Browne sought to have the agreement altered to permit a public acknowledgement that the intercepts were not done for security reasons. The then government of Fine Gael–Labour Party refused. He subsequently disclosed this himself on television and later in print.

For ten years he presented to ''Tonight with Vincent Browne'' on RTÉ Radio 1. In August 2000 he filled in for John Bowman on the RTÉ Television programme ''Questions and Answers''. He also presented ''Prime Time'' on RTÉ One.

Since January 14, 2007 Browne has presented ''Tonight with Vincent Browne'', a nightly current affairs show on TV3. Despite airing on what is usually considered a graveyard slot, the show has been highly successful with on average 166,000 viewers. Browne is noted for his rather acerbic style of presenting with the The Guardian describing him as "Ireland's Jeremy Paxman".

Politics

Browne was involved with the Dublin Anti H-Block Movement during the 1981 Irish hunger strike. In 1994 Browne sought a nomination for the Fine Gael party in that years European Elections or the possible general election of that year (it was thought a general election might follow the collapse of the Albert Reynolds government). He was rebuffed by the then leader of Fine Gael and later Taoiseach, John Bruton. He became a vocal critic of the party, publishing a number of articles on corruption within it.

A staunch critic of Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, in 1982 Browne appeared on 'The Late Late Show' to discuss the effectiveness of TDs where he poured scorn on Kenny, claiming he was "purporting" to be a TD. In October 2010 Browne was forced to make a public apology to Kenny after jokingly asking whether Fine Gael was requesting that he go into a dark room with a gun and bottle of whiskey. This was in reference to Fine Gael's position in the polls, where they were in second place to Labour, and a previous leadership challenge to Kenny by Richard Bruton. Kenny refused to appear on the leaders debate hosted by Browne on TV3 in the 2011 general election campaign.

Personal life

Browne is married to Jean and has two daughters; Emma (who is a qualified barrister also) and Julia. In September 2010 it was revealed that he decided to sell his home in Dalkey.

References

External links

Village Magazine

Category:1944 births Category:Living people Category:Irish columnists Category:The Irish Times people Category:Irish journalists Category:People from County Limerick Category:Alumni of University College Dublin Category:RTÉ Radio 1 presenters Category:Irish television personalities Category:Irish television presenters