Born in Genoa in 1945, Paolo Clerici is married and has two children.
After studying in Italy and Switzerland, in 1967 he joined the Coeclerici Group – at that time called Coe & Clerici – where he began dealing with the marketing of oil products.
In 1972 he founded his first company, SAIF, operating inter alia as agent of Thyssen Carbometal Inc and Koch Carbon.
In 1980 he sold his shares in SAIF to his business partner Franco Zucchi and started Compagnia Mercantile Internazionale importing coal, scrap metal, chemical products and foodstuffs.
He returned to Coeclerici in 1983 as Managing Director of SIRCO Trading SpA (joint venture between Sears World Trade Inc, IRI and Coe & Clerici). He was also appointed member of the Board of Directors and also the Executive Committee of Coe & Clerici SpA.
In 1986 he was appointed Managing Director and a year later Deputy Chairman of the holding company Coeclerici SpA where he has played a fundamental role in the international expansion of the group of which he became chairman in 1992.
Since 2001, after the conclusion of his second mandate as Chairman of the Italian Shipowners’ Association (Confitarma), he decided to devote himself full-time to the development of the Coeclerici Group.
In June 2003 he was awarded the title of Cavaliere del Lavoro (‘Knight of Labour’) by the then President of the Italian Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.
On 29 November, the University of Genoa awarded him an Honorary Degree in Administration, Finance and Control, as an “…academic acknowledgement of Cavaliere Paolo Clerici’s efforts in the field of entrepreneurship at both local and national level, which have given an international dimension to the group’s activities and bear witness to the synergy established between the University and the economy” (Paolo Comanducci, Rector of the University of Genoa).