The highest academic authority
The University Rector is the highest academic authority and is appointed by the Board of Directors from among the full professors who have at least five years of seniority in Università Cattolica, from a list of five names decided by the Academic Senate on the basis of the designations expressed by the Faculty Boards.
The Rector legally represents the University, convenes and chairs the Board of Directors, the Steering Committee, the Academic Senate and the University Council. They promote the convergence of the work of all members of the university community to achieve the goals of Università Cattolica. They issue by their own decrees the Statute and the amendments to the same deliberated by the aforementioned bodies. They may appoint one or more Pro-Rectors to whom they may delegate the exercise of specific functions. They remain in office for four years and can be reconfirmed for no more than two consecutive terms.
Professor Franco Anelli
Franco Anelli, alumnus of the University and full professor of Private Law at the Faculty of Law, has been elected as Rector of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore for the third term - covering the next four-year period 2020/21-2023/24 - as unanimously confirmed by the Board of Directors on 15 July 2020.
Former Vice-Rector for the 2004/05 AY and Deputy Vice-Rector from 2010 to 2012, Professor Franco Anelli has been Rector of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore since 1 January 2013. He graduated in Law and completed his Doctoral Programme in Commercial Law at the Milan campus and was subsequently appointed as Associate Professor of Institutions of Private Law at the Faculty of Economics in 1993 and then as Principal Lecturer in the Faculty of Law of the University of Parma in 1996.
He returned to Cattolica in 1997 and he is currently full professor of Private Law Institutions at the Faculty of Law.
He is also Vice-President of the E4Impact Foundation and is sits on the Board of Directors of the “Fondazione Policlinico Agostino Gemelli” and the "Avvenire Nuova Editoriale Italiana S.p.A."
The Rectors of Università Cattolica
Professor Anelli is the eighth Rector in the history of the University founded by Father Gemelli in 1921. From the foundation to present, the position was held by Father Agostino Gemelli (1921-1959), Francesco Vito (1959-1965), Ezio Franceschini (1965-1968), Giuseppe Lazzati (1968-1983), Adriano Bausola (1983-1998), Sergio Zaninelli (1998-2002), Lorenzo Ornaghi (2002 -2012).