Milestones

The promoter and founder of the Association was Elisabetta Tamagnone, an executive of SAIMA, an international shipping company.

At the time of Alitalia’s inaugural flight, 1st April 1960, on the Italy-Netherlands route, Elisabetta Tamagnone meets in Amsterdam M.me Betsy Kiek Wolffers, President of the Dutch FCE - Femmes Chefs d'Enterprises, whose European founder and President was M.me Yvonne Edmond Foinant from Paris.
 Elisabetta Tamagnone, enthusiastic about the activities carried out by the FCE, gets the idea of founding a similar association in Italy. She begins a correspondence with M.me Foinant, gets in touch with the few women who then covered entrepreneurial or managerial roles in Turin. On 22 May 1961, the memorandum of association of AIDDA-Association of Women Entrepreneurs and Managers of Enterprises, is signed by: 

  • Marian Taylor Abbagnano (owner of the Taylor publishing house, which published books on philosophy, sociology and psychology)
  • Maria Teresa Abate Bellia (owner of the MTA knitwear factory)
  • Ercolina Ferraris Canavera (financial manager of CEAT tyres)
  • Albertina Cei (financial manager of Orecchia Scavarda, FIAT dealership)
  • Adelaide Forno (general proxy for Lavazza)
  • Maria Bice Laugeri (marketing director of Carpano)
  • Silvia Jona Ortona (executive of Merveilleuse)
  • Elisabetta Tamagnone (executive of SAIMA International Shipping)
  • Lidia De Barberis Testa (co-owner of Armando Testa)
  • Giovanna Colombo Zamboni (owner of Transitalia, a travel and cruise company)

Marian Taylor Abbagnano is elected President and Elisabetta Tamagnone Vice-President.

The founding members put together a statute whose purpose and goals have accompanied the life of the association ever since. In October of the same year, AIDDA organises its first conference: "The Evolution of Italian Women in Leading Roles" and already on that occasion the President Marian Taylor Abbagnano stated: "All women and particularly those in leading roles, can help to dissolve, edit or even delete, where necessary, the rigid schemes, properties and constrictive conservatism, obscurantism, fanaticism and intolerance, by taking a firm position having an awareness of their responsibilities in a society that increasingly needs their valuable contribution." The Association grew rapidly over the years and the Regional Delegations were born starting with Piedmont in 22 May 1961 to Calabria in 2003.

The Association grew rapidly over the years and the Regional Delegations were born starting with Piedmont in 22 May 1961 to Calabria in 2003.

The National Presidents from May 22 1961 until today have been 15, in chronological order:

  1. from 1961 to 1967: Marian Taylor Abbagnano
  2. from 1967 to 1968: Adelaide Forno
  3. from 1968 to 1968: Bianca Romanin
  4. from 1968 to 1969: Marian Taylor Abbagnano
  5. from 1969 to 1973: Aida Bertolotti Spadavecchia
  6. from 1973 to 1977: Lyda Levi
  7. from 1977 to 1981: Claudia Matta
  8. from 1981 to 1986: Maria Grazia Randi
  9. from 1986 to 1990: Paola Valori
  10. from 1990 to 1993: Lidia De Barberis Abeatici
  11. from 1993 to 1996: Giovanna Folchi Vici
  12. from 1996 to 2002: Etta Carignani
  13. from 2002 to 2005: Wanda Pandoli Ferrero
  14. from 2005 to 2011: Laura Frati Gucci
  15. from 2011 to 2017: Franca Audisio Rangoni
  16. from 2017 to 2020: Claudia Torlasco

  17. from 2020 to date: Antonella Giachetti