After a full life, Pasquale Pistorio, CEO and President of the semiconductor company STMicroelectronics until 2007, died in Milan on September 26, 2025 at the age of 89.
Pistorio was born in 1936 in the rural town of Agira in Sicily. After graduating in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic University of Turin, the engineer began his career at Motorola in Italy in 1967 as a transistor salesman, rising within ten years to become CVP of the company based in Phoenix (Arizona, USA), where he was responsible for the international semiconductor division. In 1980, he returned to Italy and became President and CEO of the SGS Group, the only Italian microelectronics company. In 1987, he oversaw the successful merger of SGS Microelettronica with the French company Thomson Semiconducteurs.
As President and CEO of the newly formed company, later renamed STMicroelectronics, Pistorio developed a diverse product portfolio based on high-growth applications and a network of strategic alliances, making the company one of the top five semiconductor companies by 2001. During these years, the company went public on the New York Stock Exchange, the Bourse de Paris (Euronext) and the Borsa Italiana. From a state-owned, nearly bankrupt company with sales of $100 million, Pistorio created a major competitor that ranked third in the world at the time of his departure in 2005, with sales totaling $9 billion.
Commitment to corporate responsibility
Pasquale Pistorio helped to create a strong corporate culture characterized by integrity, the pursuit of excellence and a commitment to social and environmental responsibility. As early as 1993, he introduced a company-wide environmental decalogue with quantitative targets to achieve carbon neutrality, making the company a pioneer in environmental responsibility within a few years and winning numerous awards, including the prestigious 'US Environmental Protection Award' for two years and the European Quality Award. Pistorio received the 'Green Hero Lifetime Achievement Award' from 'AnalogZONE' magazine and was voted one of the top 50 'Stars of Europe' by Business Week magazine in 2002 and ranked number 1 in Time magazine's 'Top 25 Movers and Shakers' list.
As a member of the UN ICT Task Force under UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Pistorio founded the ST Foundation in 2001 to provide IT skills and access to computer technology to the most marginalized communities in countries where his company operates. Computer rooms were set up in public spaces and train-the-trainer courses were offered. Today, the STFoundation has over 100 computer labs and 260,000 trainees in 25 countries.
After retiring as President and CEO of STMicroelectronics in 2005, he established the Pistorio Foundation to give children in need back their inalienable rights to education, health, safety, security and life. In 2012, he was awarded the 'Ellis Island Medal of Honor' for his philanthropic commitment.
Pasquale Pistorio was Chairman of Telecom Italia in 2007 and Vice President for Innovation and Research of Confindustria, the association of Italian industrialists, from 2005 to 2009. He was a member of the Board of Directors of Fiat and Telecom Italia for ten years. In addition to countless awards, he has received eight honorary doctorates from the universities of Genoa, Malta, Pavia, Catania, Palermo, Benevento, Bicocca in Milan and Bristol in the United Kingdom.
