MILAN — The Italian government has outlined plans to replace the CEO of state-controlled defense giant Leonardo, Roberto Cingolani, in a shock leadership shake-up, despite the group recording significant growth under his near three year tenure.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), which holds a 30.2 percent stake in Leonardo, submitted on Thursday a list of candidates for the appointment of a new board of directors, nominating Lorenzo Mariani as the company’s new head. The selection is expected to be confirmed at Leonardo’s next shareholders’ meeting, scheduled for early May. Leonardo declined to comment on the matter.
Before his stint at the firm, Mariani was previously the managing director of MBDA Italia, where he oversaw sales and business development. He has served as co-general manager of Leonardo since June 2023.
The plan to oust Cingolani came only three weeks after the official presented his ambitious 2026-2030 industrial plan in Rome, following a 15 percent rise in the Italian defense group’s new orders in 2025. Key elements of the proposal included building the Michelangelo Dome, a multi-layer defense shield project, and a target of reaching €32 billion ($37.5 billion) in orders by 2030.
His removal was strongly criticized by a number of observers, who labelled it as politically driven interference.
Among the critics was Carlo Calenda, an Italian senator and the secretary of the political party Azione, who referred to the decision as “absurd” in a post on X and called on the government for further explanations to clarify whether the motives were “reasons of security or performance.”
However, one expert speaking to Breaking Defense explained that the move was planned in advance.
Italian authorities, through the MEF, periodically renew the boards of major state-controlled firms, which generally have a three-year tenure, noted Andrea Gilli, an Italian Lecturer at the School of International Relations at the University of St-Andrews.
“The Italian government yesterday largely reconfirmed existing boards of other companies, or at least their CEOs — Leonardo is the exception, showing arguably that they expected or expect something different [from the person in this position],” Gilli said.
Italian media have reported for years on the tensions between Cingolani and Defense Minister Guido Crosetto. In 2023, the daily newspaper Domani reported that while Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni had promised Cingolani the CEO position, Crosetto considered his profile “inadequate” and instead proposed Mariani.
In a post published on Thursday on his official X account, that has since been deleted, Crosetto responded to comments on the Cingolani case, where he wrote that “politics does not judge the performance of a CEO, the numbers and the markets do.”
The Italian Ministry of Defense has not provided comments on the matter at the time of writing.
