Tommaso Padoa Schioppa graduated from the Bocconi University, Milan, Italy, in 1966 and received a Master of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1970. He joined the Bank of Italy in 1968.
He was Director-General for Economic and Financial Affairs at the Commission of the European Communities (1979-1983).
He was Deputy Director General of the Bank of Italy between 1984 and 1997. During part of this period, he served as co-rapporteur to the Delors Committee for the study of European Economic and Monetary Union (1988-1989); Chairman of the Banking Advisory Committee (BAC) of the Commission of the European Communities (1988-1991); Chairman of the Working Group on Payment Systems of the Central Banks of the European Community (European Monetary Institute) (1991-1995); Chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) (1993-1997). He was also special adviser to the Guigou Committee (1989), and member of the Italian delegation during the negotiations of the Treaty on European Union (1990-91).
He was Chairman of Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB) between 1997 and 1998. During this period, he was Chairman of the European Regional Committee of International Association of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) (1997-1998) and Chairman of the Forum of the European Securities Commissions (FESCO) (1997-1998).
He was a Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB) from 1998 to 2005. During part of this period, he chaired the G10 Committee on Payments and Settlement Systems (CPSS) between 2000 and 2005.
He was the Chairman of the International Accounting Standard Committee (IASC) Foundation in 2005-2006.
He was Minister of Economy and Finance in the Italian Government from 2006 to 2008.
He has been a Member of the Group of Thirty since 1979. When he died, he was still President of Notre Europe in Paris.
He holds five honorary degrees and is Cavaliere di Gran Croce della Repubblica Italiana.
He is the author of numerous publications. Recent books include The Euro and its Central Bank (MIT Press, 2004), Regulating Finance (Oxford University Press, 2004) and Europe, a Civil Power (The Federal Trust, 2004), The Road to Monetary Union in Europe : The Emperor, the Kings, and the Genies (Oxford University Press 2000).