Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. has today announced the appointment, with immediate effect, of Mario Maiocchi as chief executive of Mondadori Direct S.p.A., a company of the Mondadori Group – led by chief executive Ernesto Mauri – that operates in the retail sector.

Mondadori Direct, which operates across the country through a chain of over 550 shops – either wholly owned bookstores, of which 8 are multicenters, or franchised outlets – and online with the inMondadori.it site, which in 2012 generated total revenues of €245 million.

The board of directors of Mondadori Direct S.p.A. has at the same time appointed Mario Resca as chairman. Resca who, among other things, boasts an extensive and consolidated experience in Italian and international retailing was the man behind the McDonald’s phenomenon in Italy.

Maiocchi, 57, who was born in Bolzano and has a degree in economics and business administration from Milan’s Bocconi University, has had a significant career in different companies, both in Italy and abroad. He began his career at 3M Italia, moving in 1985 to Control Data Corporation, then Nashua and, in 1990, EMI Music. From 1998 Maiocchi occupied a series of positions with growing responsibility at the Metro Group, until 2008 when he was appointed chief executive of Unieuro, part of the European Dixons Retail Group where, in 2010, he was appointed managing director for South Europe.

Mondadori warmly thanks Renato Rodenghi, who leaves his operating responsibilities after having, in a long career in the Group, made a significant contribution to the development of Italy’s largest bookshop chain and the birth of a multi-channel system for the offline and online sale of mainly media products.