Marinella Soldi

Marinella Soldi is non-executive chairman of the Vodafone Foundation Italy.

As a life choice in the last 12 months she has transitioned from a busy high achieving operational career to non-exec roles that enable impact and learning while allowing space and curiosity for new adventures. She is currently non-executive director and chairman of the nomination and remuneration committees for Nexi (Mib100), Ariston Thermo (family owned) and Talent Garden (scale up).

Marinella was CEO of Discovery Networks Southern Europe (Italy, Spain, Portugal and France) for 10 years, until October 2018, and in addition Chief Strategy Officer for Discovery International for the last 18 months of her time there.

Under her leadership Discovery Southern Europe completely transformed its business model from pure linear pay to a diversified portfolio of linear pay, fta/broadcast and OTT avod.

Through innovative content, courageous business models and highly talented teams, in 2017 Italy became the biggest country for revenue and overall audience outside of the USA. in Italy, Discovery has become one of the most important media companies in Italy with a 14 channel portfolio across all platforms, establishing itself as the third national television editor for overall share.

Marinella was born in Italy and grew up in London. Before joining Discovery she worked for leading international brands in the technology and media sectors as a leadership coach for nine years founding her consultancy Soldi Coaching/Glitz srl in 2003.

Prior to her career in coaching she spent five years in senior roles at MTV Networks Europe, including SVP Strategic Development in London and GM, MTV Italy in Milan. She began her career at McKinsey Company working as a strategy consultant for three years in London and Italy.

Marinella holds a BSc in Economics from The London School of Economics, and an MBA from INSEAD. She is a qualified executive coach (200 hours CoachUniversity) and attended the Customer Focused Innovation executive program at Stanford Graduate School.