Andrea Vecci is a social entrepreneur and innovator who has devised and guided the launch of many social enterprises.

Born in Milan in 1974, he studied ecology at the State University there. He is vice-president of EStà, the think tank on research, training and strategies for integrated sustainability. He has been behind various social-cooperative start-ups in the fields of tourism, social housing, urban regeneration, personal social services, landscape management, environmental education, and cemetery management. In 2011, he contributed to the drafting of Serbia’s social-enterprise law, working with the Unicredit Foundation.

He is a co-founder of Welfare Milano, one of the first private medical centres providing healthcare at social prices. He is vice-president of the social cooperative Il Giardinone, with which he has founded branches abroad, exporting the Italian social-enterprise model to Senegal.

For CGM Group, the largest network of Italian social cooperatives, he has led the national Family Audit study, the model of work-family reconciliation policies sponsored by the Autonomous Province of Trento and by the Office of the President of the Council of Ministers. He has contributed to the work of the Italian Advisory Board for the international Social Impact Investment Task Force (G8 SIIT). He also writes a column and a blog on social innovation for Valori, the social-economy, ethical-finance and sustainability magazine.