Giovanni "Gianni" Letta is an Italian journalist and politician. He was a close advisor of Silvio Berlusconi and is a member of the advisory board of Goldman Sachs International.
Occupation
journalist, politician, lawyer, jurist
Position held
Secretary of the Council of Ministers, Secretary of the Council of Ministers, Secretary of the Council of Ministers, Secretary of the Council of Ministers
Giovanni "Gianni" Letta (born 15 April 1935) is an Italian journalist and politician. He was a close advisor of Silvio Berlusconi and is a member of the advisory board of Goldman Sachs International.
Biography
After graduating in law, he started working as a journalist for several daily newspapers, as well as RAI and ANSA.
He was editor-in-law of Il Tempo from 1973 to 1987; that year, he left the newspaper in order to enter into the Fininvest group owned by Silvio Berlusconi. He hosted a number of TV programmes, especially on Canale 5.
After Berlusconi's entry into politics, Letta became undersecretary of the first government led by Berlusconi in 1994, an office he took again from 2001 to 2006, and from 2008 to 2011. In 2010 CNN referred to Letta as "Berlusconi's right-hand man." Among Letta's duties for Berlusconi include co-ordinating the Italian government's activities with the Holy See. Gianni is an extremely close associate of Berlusconi, and was the best man at Berlusconi's wedding to Veronica Lario at the Palazzo Marino in 1990.
