Andrea Ceccherini's biography
Andrea Ceccherini was born on 31 March 1974, in Florence, Italy, attended the Scientific High School in Scandicci and later read Law at the University of Florence. He has passionately pursued civic engagement since 1995 when he founded the "Movimento Progetto Città" - an organization to train future leaders and encourage young people to participate actively in their communities. He has been the President of this organization since its inception. ‘Progetto Città’ has gained recognition from the public as a broad association aimed at involving a growing number of young people in civic and social engagement.
In June 2000, Andrea Ceccherini co-founded the Osservatorio Permanente Giovani-Editori with Cesare Romiti (former President of RCS-Corriere della Sera Media Group) and Andrea Riffeser Monti (Vice-President and CEO of Poligrafici Editorial Group). He has served as President and has been at the helm of this organization since its inception. The mission of the Osservatorio Permanente Giovani-Editori is to ensure young people are informed, aware, responsible, and become free citizens by encouraging them to rely on quality information and nurture their critical thinking, thus developing an active citizenship that will set them free. To this end, the ‘Quality Information in the Classroom’ project was launched to promote media literacy and enhance critical thinking in young people, educating them to recognize and appreciate quality information whilst reducing the harm caused by the spread of fake news and propaganda. This initiative has involved 17 national and local newspapers, numerous companies, and organizations. In Italy, millions of high school students and thousands of teachers have been part of this project over the past 20 years.
Andrea Ceccherini’s work has been acknowledged with numerous accolades. In November 2007 he was awarded the ‘Gonfalone d'Argento’ by the Regional Council of Tuscany, and that same month he was presented with the Mondello Literary Prize. In October 2008, he was awarded the ‘Salomone d'Oro’ by the University of Florence.
In May 2014, he created Young Factor, an economic and financial literacy project, now a leading initiative in Italian high schools, involving over 670,000 students.
On 3 October 2019 he announced a strategic partnership between Apple and the Osservatorio Permanente Giovani-Editori aimed at developing critical thinking in the younger generation.
On 30 December 2020 he was bestowed with the Order of Merit of the Republic by the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella.
On 7 May 2021 he received the Guido Carli Award, and on 5 June 2021 he was awarded the ‘Pegaso d'Oro’, the highest institutional recognition by the Tuscany Region.
On 23 June 2022 the City of Florence awarded him the ‘Gold Florin’ for his exceptional educational achievement.
On 16 June 2022, together with the Governors of the Central Banks of France, Italy, The Netherlands, and Spain, he signed a Memorandum of Understanding sealing a strategic alliance to improve young Europeans' economic and financial literacy.
Portugal and Germany joined at a later date.
On 31 March 2023 Andrea Ceccherini launched the idea of establishing a Eurobarometer to assess young people’s skills and their level of economic and financial literacy as well as an annual European day on economic and financial literacy. These proposals were enthusiastically endorsed by the European Central Bank President, Christine Lagarde, who considered them excellent and worth exploring with National European Central Banks.