Marco Bulgarelli

Marco Bulgarelli has spent his entire career inside the Italian cooperative (Legacoop) movement, which he joined in 1981. After a degree in Economics (Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia) and a brief spell as a university researcher, he began by directing the Research Office (Ufficio Studi) of Legacoop Emilia-Romagna, then served as Vice-President/CEO of ICIE and spent roughly a decade as economic adviser to the National President of Legacoop in Rome.

He subsequently spent five years in Rome as President of the national association of service and tourism cooperatives — the largest of Legacoop's sector associations by number of cooperatives and employees. For twelve years he was Chief Executive Officer of Coopfond S.p.A., the mutual-development fund of Legacoop, and he also served as President of the labour agency Obiettivo Lavoro. An acknowledged expert on start-ups and cooperative enterprise, he has written numerous articles and edited a 2007 volume (published by Il Mulino) on his experience with cooperative promotion.

Since 2008 he has been Amministratore Delegato (CEO) of Cooperare S.p.A., a Bologna-based risk-capital vehicle owned by the main financial companies of the Legacoop system, member cooperatives across sectors, and some banking groups. Cooperare acquires minority stakes to support extraordinary/development operations of mid-to-large cooperatives; by late 2013 its financial endowment had reached roughly €268 million with active investments in about nine cooperative companies valued at around €303 million.

Alongside the Cooperare role he holds several board and system positions, including Director of the Lega Nazionale delle Cooperative e Mutue, Director of Cooperativa Muratori & Cementisti (C.M.C.) di Ravenna, and General Manager of Cooperare Sviluppo S.p.A. As CEO of Cooperare he also sat on the board of Koru, the vehicle formed by several cooperatives that acquired ~24 million Unipol shares (~3.34% of the insurer's capital).

• Invests institutional risk capital on behalf of the Legacoop cooperative system, not personal angel money — the goal is to support the growth and extraordinary operations (mergers, acquisitions, capital strengthening) of member cooperatives.
• Takes minority equity stakes, typically in deals from ~€2–3 million upward, targeting cooperatives with operations from a minimum of ~€4–5 million.
• Pursues a return objective of roughly 10% IRR, combining dividends and value creation over the holding period.
• Concentrates on the sectors where large cooperatives are active: insurance/finance, agri-food, energy, facility management, and construction/real estate.
• Acts as a "financial integration" tool between territorial cooperative finance companies to give mid-to-large cooperatives a development-support service.