Born in Crema, Severgnini graduated in law at the University of Pavia. His father is a retired notary. His career in journalism began when, aged 27, he joined the Milan daily newspaper Il Giornale, headed by Italian journalist Indro Montanelli; he soon distinguished himself as a writer and became the paper's London correspondent. For Il Giornale, in the period leading up to the fall of communism, he worked as special correspondent from Russia, China and several Eastern European countries. When Montanelli left Il Giornale to found La Voce, Severgnini followed him. He was also seconded to The Economist in London then served as correspondent for La Voce from Washington. He was a correspondent from Italy for The Economist between 1996 and 2003, for which he still occasionally writes. Following the failure of Montanelli's project at La Voce, in 1995 Severgnini joined the Corriere della Sera, Italy's biggest newspaper, for which he currently is an op-ed columnist. Since 1998, he hosts a daily column for the online edition of the Corriere della Sera called Italians, originally targeting Italian expatriates; it has steadily grown in popularity since, eventually becoming one of the most read regular features of the newspaper's website. An enthusiastic soccer fan, he also wrote for the popular sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport from 2001 to 2011. Severgnini appears regularly on radio and TV programs, on RAI, NPR and the BBC, and was the host of a talk show on SKY TG24 from 2004 to 2011. Beppe Severgnini taught at the Walter Tobagi graduate School of Journalism at the University of Milan. He has been a research fellow/writer in residence at MIT/Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a visiting fellow at Ca’ Foscari Venezia ; he has taught also at Middlebury College Vermont, and at the universities of Milan-Bocconi, Parma and Pavia, which elected him ‘Alumnus of the Year’ in 1998 and 2011. Beppe Severgnini was made Officer of the Order of the British Empirein 2001 by Queen Elizabeth II. He was also made Commendatore of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic by PresidentGiorgio Napolitano in 2011.
