Alexander Italianer

Alexander Italianer
Alexanter Italianer (left)
Secretary General of the European Commission
In office 1 September 2015 – 1 March 2018
President	Jean-Claude Juncker
Preceded by	Catherine Day
Succeeded by	Martin Selmayr
Personal details
Born	1956 (age 61–62)
Alma mater	University of Groningen

Alexander Italianer (1956) is a Dutch European civil servant and had been the Secretary-General of the European Commission in 2015-18.

Alexander Italianer was born in the Netherlands and completed his high school in Leiden. He graduated on econometrics at the University of Groningen in 1980, and received his PhD in economics at the same university in 1986. Between 1980 and 1985 he was an assistant at the Catholic University of Leuven. In 1985 he became a civil servant at the European Commission; first as an advisor, then as head of the administrative unit of the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs. He worked in the Cabinet of Commission President Jacques Santer during the Santer Commission (1995–1999) and became a Cabinet Head under Günter Verheugen (Enlargement). In 2002, he was promoted to Director of the Directorate-General Economic and Financial Affairs. Subsequent positions include Cabinet Head of Commissioner Pavel Telička, Deputy Cabinet Head of President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso (2004 until 2006) and Deputy Secretary-General (2006 until 2010). After being the Director-General of the Directorate-General for Competition from 2010 until 2015, he has been the Secretary-General of the European Commission since 1 September 2015.

Italianer published more than 50 articles and 3 books about the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union, Integration economics, labour, energy, macroeconomics and international trade.