Monti, Mario, 1943–, Italian economist and political leader. After studying at Bocconi Univ., Milan, and at Yale, he taught economics at the Univ. of Turin (1970–85) and then at Bocconi Univ., where he later was rector (1989–94) and president (1994–). From 1995 to 2004 he also served on the European Commission, first as internal markets, financial services, and taxation commissioner and then (from 1999) as competition commissioner; in the latter post he was involved in several prominent antitrust cases. In 2011, amid an Italian debt crisis, he was named premier of a government of technocrats formed to restore confidence in Italy's finances; he also became finance minister (2011–12). His government resigned in Dec., 2012, after it lost former premier Berlusconi's support. His coalition placed fourth in the subsequent elections (2013), and disagreements over the direction of the Civic Choice party that Monti headed led to his resignation as party leader later in 2013.
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