Richard Hodges

President of LoveItaly

Dr. Richard Hodges is currently President of the American University of Rome. He studied archaeology and medieval history at Southampton University, where he also gained his PhD in 1977 on the trade and ceramics of the North Sea region. He has taught at the Universities of Sheffield (1976-95), Siena (1984-87; 2008), Copenhagen (1988), and East Anglia (1995-) where he holds a professorship. He has been Director of the British School at Rome (1988-95), Director of the Prince of Wales’s Institute of Architecture (1996-98), Scientific Director of the Butrint Foundation (1994-12), and Williams Director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (2007-12).

He is a board member of the Packard Humanities Institute (2004-present). Dr. Hodges has worked in Italian archaeology since 1978, participating in the Biferno valley survey (1978-79), the San Vincenzo project (1980-98) and the Montarrenti project (1982-87). Amongst his publications are (with Riccardo Francovich) Villa to Village (2003), (with John Mitchell) San Vincenzo Maggiore and its workshops (2011), (with Sauro Gelichi) From One Sea to Another. Trading Places in the European and Mediterranean Early Middle Ages (2012) and Dark Age Economics: a New Audit (2012). He was awarded the Order of the British Empire by the Queen in 1995.

Tracy Roberts

Vice President of LoveItaly

After graduating in Linguistics from University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Tracy went on to live in Rome, Italy where she started her own business (1984 to 2011) called the English Yellow Pages, a directory of English-speaking professionals, businesses and services in Italy. In 1988, Tracy co-founded Interazione, a public relations firm. Her primary role in the company focused on development and management of clients’ relations with the international press as well as government and institutional relations.

From 2002-2006, Tracy was the Executive Director of The Rome Chamber Music Festival and participated in the creation of what is considered one of Rome’s most important annual musical events. She was responsible for overseeing all aspects of the organization, including international fundraising, corporate sponsorship, management and public relations.

Gloria Arditi

Gloria is an architect who works in various fields of architecture. She was born in Milan and studied architecture at the Università La Sapienza, in Rome where she graduated with honors in Architectural Composition under the tutelage of Paolo Portoghesi. She later worked in the Studio of John Outram Associates and participated in two competitions to design buildings in London.

Gloria worked on the New York restoration project for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and studied at Columbia University where she wrote a thesis on the Restoration of the Edifices of the Modern Movement and published a book on Gio Ponti: Venti Cristalli di Architettura. Gloria received a PhD in Technology of Architecture from the University Ludovico Quaroni, La Sapienza.
Gloria curated, edited and wrote for two prestigious design publications: Disegno Industriale/Industrial Design, DIID, which was nominated for the Compasso D’Oro, and for IL PROGETTO, dedicated to architecture, art, communications and design.

Gloria conducted in-depth research and the appraisal of fine artwork together with Denis Mahon and Ferdinando Bologna. Their efforts resulted in the display of the work in an exquisite exhibition in 2004 at the Capodimonte Museum in Naples.

In 2006 she was appointed Vice President of the Palatina- Istanbul Association, UNESCO Agency – and wrote a proposal for the restoration of Villa Tarabya (a masterpiece of the Deco’ Italian Architecture in Istanbul) for the Italian Foreign Ministry.  With Studio Gentiloni Silveri, she participated in the restoration of various historical buildings in Rome. For the Celebration of S. Paul’s Nativity, Gloria helped find financing for urgent works of the Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.
Gloria’s ancestor, Michele Arditi was the founder and director of the Archeological Museum of Naples and under his guidance, the city of Pompeii was fully discovered. He invented the concept of ‘Open-Air Excavations’ with thousands of people working in the same site at the same time.

Giovanni Storto

Giovanni Lo Storto is the General Manager of LUISS University of Rome. After serving as an administrative official in the Army, he then worked as a branch manager of Bartolini in the Italian Reinsurance Union and in the office of the CEO at Swiss Re. From 1997 until 2005 he worked as a teaching assistant, and later as an adjunct professor, in Economics of Insurance Company Management at LUISS Guido Carli and the University of L’Aquila. In 2015 he was appointed independent board member for doBank SpA where in 2016 he became president of the risk committee. He is also co-founder of the accelerator LUISSEnlabs. He translated into Italian the book Jugaad Innovation for Rubbettino Editore.