Roberto Zanni is a Senior Executive with more than forty years of experience leading multinational consumer goods companies, including Japan Tobacco International, Jacob Suchard, Unilever, Kraft General Foods, as well as many medium and small companies belonging to these multinational groups.
He founded his own tailored management consulting firm, through which he has personally supported many entrepreneurs in their business challenges, helping them achieve their goals.
He is currently a Professor at several international universities, where he teaches younger generations his expertise in management consulting.
Born in Parma in 1953, he graduated summa cum laude in Economics from Bocconi University and earned a Master in Business Management at INSEAD in Fontainebleau.
After graduation, he started his first experience at Unilever, the first step in a long journey through large companies and multinational corporations. This marked the beginning of a rapidly rising career focused on building successful national and global brands.
After two years, he decided to join Kraft, which, thanks to Giulio O. Gorla, was taking its first steps in Italy and later became the major food group we all know. Roberto Zanni’s career, characterized by great passion and leadership, translated into transformation, growth, and positive results for the Group.
Within a few years, Roberto Zanni reached the position of Vice President of Marketing & Sales for Europe at the Lausanne Headquarters, which represented one of the first models of brand and business globalization.
In 1985, Roberto Zanni returned to Italy to relaunch the company, continuing his story of successes.
He became General Manager for Marketing and Corporate Group at Kraft Italy, responsible for the brands and product portfolios of Kraft, Invernizzi, Osella, Simmenthal, Fini, and Negroni.
In the 1990s, seeking new challenges, Roberto Zanni embarked on a successful journey with Jacobs Suchard.
He was appointed Executive President for Southern Europe for the Group, recently acquired by Philip Morris.
Roberto Zanni and his team were responsible for a major restructuring of the business, which returned the various Southern European companies to profitability.
After leaving the Suchard Group in 1994, Roberto Zanni continued to work in the Italian food industry as President and CEO of a leading frozen food company.
The company no longer exists, as its brands were sold to various companies due to the shareholders’ financial decisions.
He oversaw highly successful brands and products such as: Mare Pronto, Brina, Arena Surgelati, and Häagen-Dazs ice cream, successfully introduced to the Italian market.
After his experience in frozen foods, to broaden his skills outside the food markets, Roberto Zanni joined Sin&rgetica, an Italian consulting firm.
As Senior Advisor, he carried out a total re-engineering of several companies within the Fininvest group, particularly Mondadori, Milan, and Medusa.
In 1998, Roberto Zanni re-entered the international circuit by joining JTI, Japan Tobacco International, at the Geneva Headquarters. His leadership and business vision had a highly significant and successful impact on the performance of the brands and the overall positioning of the company.
In an industry with a highly restrictive legal framework, where building brand equity is extremely challenging, the process led by Roberto Zanni—revitalizing all brands combined with a new approach to global sales—enabled JTI to maintain the status of “top performer” worldwide in the tobacco sector for 10 years.
Roberto Zanni, previously global head of the Camel brand and Chairman of Worldwide Brands Inc. (a major high-end fashion corporation using the Camel brand), was co-opted into the Global Board and promoted to Senior Vice President of Consumer and Trade Marketing Worldwide.
In his role as Global Leader of Marketing, Sales, and Strategic Planning, Roberto Zanni successfully renewed these corporate functions, restoring competitiveness and leadership that were at risk of being lost. Under his guidance, JTI transformed a highly decentralized business into a more focused model, adopting a more sophisticated and centralized approach, while simultaneously renewing brands and ways of operating with a broader, global market perspective.
Promoted to Executive President for Europe, Roberto Zanni successfully managed one of the most complex and profitable regions of Japan Tobacco for several years.
Simultaneously, he was also responsible for motorsport sponsorships: F1, MotoGP, and Superbike.
Even in the sponsorship sector, he achieved significant sporting—and especially commercial—successes, setting new guidelines in this complex field.
In 2010, he founded his company, Zanni & Partners, offering companies the expertise of a team of consulting professionals under his direction. After a long period of successes, Z&P naturally evolved into RZ Consulting, a boutique consultancy for international companies and entrepreneurs.
After leaving the corporate world, he also devoted himself to university teaching, aiming to share his hands-on business experience within the academic sphere.
2017 - Honorary Degree
In September 2017, Roberto Zanni received an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration from the University of Business and International Studies (UBIS) in Geneva.
2018 - Best Teacher Award
In 2018, he was named Best Professor of the Year by the same university.
Roberto Zanni teaches management courses at several European and international universities while simultaneously leading a project to support primary school access for children in Uganda.
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