Roberto Quarta

Roberto Quarta (born 1949) is an Italian-American businessman.

Background

The son of a tailor, Quarta grew up in Italy and the USA. He graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in 1971 and currently serves on the College's Board of Trustees.

Career

His initial industrial management career was with BTR plc, where he rose to serve on the board. In 1993 he moved to become chief executive of BBA Group, where he executed strong performance improvement and portfolio change, producing a major increase in shareholder value. He later became chair of BBA (which was renamed BBA Aviation following the demerger of Fiberweb in November 2006), stepping down in 2007.

He is a partner of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, a private equity group. He is on the board of two CD&R businesses, Rexel SA and Italtel. He is Chairman of IMI plc. He has served on the boards of PowerGen plc, BAE Systems plc and Equant NV. He is expected to become chair of Smith & Nephew in 2014.

Criticism

Quarta has been described as impatient and ruthless, but these attributes have enabled him to make decisive change and are seen as positive by analysts.

Personal life

Quarta is separated from his first wife, with whom he has a son and a daughter.

Quotes

'He's a man of extreme intelligence and extreme vitality. Unusually he also has the ability to listen and he struck me as a decent human being. Vanni Treves, BBA chairman "Bob is dedicated and numerate and good at selecting and using people. He has learnt over the years to hold back against his natural impatience - he does like things to move." Sir Owen Green, former chairman of BTR

Quarta has referred to management as "a calculated adventure". With reference to changing people, he has said "As well as identifying people who can help you push forward change, you are also trying to remove those who are so entrenched in the old culture that they are not going to change."

External links

• Youtube interview 2010