Noborn in Florence, Maura Latini has been the CEO of Coop Italia since 2019. You started working at 15 during the school holidays. “I was helping my family and I wanted economic independence.” At the age of 20 you became a cashier in a Coop supermarket. «I worked a lot and, along the way, I prepared myself, I wanted to grow in order to have autonomy in doing things. I have climbed all the rungs of the organizational ladder of a store. The social elevator worked in the 80s». Today, as CEO, Maura Latini is responsible for spreading the values of the brand, branded products and negotiations with big industry. She loves animals, she loves to paint, read and travel.
Maura Latini, managing director of Coop Italia.
6 o’clock
«The alarm rings early, I’m a commuter: I live in Florence and work in Casalecchio di Reno, near Bologna. Breakfast at home with yoghurt and lots of seeds – pumpkin, sesame – and dried fruit – walnuts, almonds – and off we go by car, always on the phone with the speakerphone with collaborators or friends».
8.30
«First coffee of the day with colleagues. I dedicate half an hour to planning the day and to whoever comes looking for me to exchange ideas. Then off to the official meetings: boards of directors and commercial management. Together with our cooperatives we deal with market trends, analyze the results of promotions and plan them, look at sales data to match them with consumer requests and update the offer. Coop pays attention to the environment and respects animals, values in which I have always believed».
The church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, the city where Maura Latini lives.
1.30 pm
«Lunch in the canteen and I take the opportunity to meet people, but we have pledged not to talk about work. If we don’t finish meetings on time, we ask for sandwiches and eat them at the desk. But we don’t like it.”
Maura Latini oversees Coop’s social projects, such as the Iranian protest support campaign.
2.15 pm
“THEI meet the working groups, depending on the themes we want to develop. Every two weeks, the predominantly female team responsible for the Close the Gap campaign (to close the gender gap, launched in 2021) meets. This year the focus is on “Parents #allapari”, which supports the online petition to increase paternity leave to three months. To encourage cultural change that supports the path towards equality, every year we reward our most virtuous suppliers in proposing actions to support women. Here at Coop, employees are 70 percent of the total, and the percentage of those in management roles is 34.7 percent. In the same direction the initiative “Donna. Life. Libertà”, which has just been concluded, in support of the Iranian people: to express solidarity with the Iranian mobilisation, around two million postcards were sent to the Iranian embassy in Italy. At the end of the day, alone, I summarize the work done and write down memos».
19.00
«I expect an hour and a half by car to get home, if the traffic is not too heavy. I take advantage of it for the latest business phone calls and to hear from friends. I’m never alone.”
In relaxation, Maura Latini devotes herself to reading. Among the latest titles chosen: “Michelangelo. A restless life” by Antonio Forcellino.
8.30 pm
«In the evening I’m with my partner, who thinks about dinner. But on Sundays in the kitchen I prepare some “semi-finished products” and fill the fridge, so we are ready for the first days of the week. I have five cats, a large terrace full of plants and another dedicated only to succulents of which I am very proud: we bought the two-metre tall cacti small, they grew up with us. I don’t love TV, I’ve always read (not as much as I’d like) two books at the same time. I started Leadership by Henry Kissinger (Mondadori) e Michelangelo. A restless life by Antonio Forcellino (Laterza)».
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