Dino Ruta

Dino Ruta is a Professor of Practice in Leadership, Sports & Events Business at SDA Bocconi School of Management.

He engages in research and training to support decision-making processes that link human capital, strategy, and innovation, with a particular focus on the sports and entertainment context. He studies the functioning of ecosystems, the impacts and positive legacies of events, athletes' careers, and the development of a winning mindset in both sports and professional settings. He is a qualified chartered accountant, integrating an economic-financial education with managerial principles of sustainable development.

In 2013, he founded the Sport & Entertainment Knowledge Center, a research and training center at SDA Bocconi School of Management. At SDA Bocconi, he also serves as the Academic Director of the Executive Master in Business of Events (EMBE) in collaboration with the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation and the Scientific Director of the FIFA Master (International Master in Humanities, Management, and Law of Sports). Since 2015, he has been an Affiliate Professor of International Sports Management at Columbia University in New York, USA, and since 2018, an Affiliate Professor at the Josoor Institute in Doha, Qatar. He is the director of the "Management dello Sport" program and the "Management del Calcio" program in collaboration with the Technical Sector of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC). From 2024, he is the coordinator of the Milano-Cortina 2026 Impacts and Legacy project.

He has been invited to present his research in Argentina, the United Arab Emirates, Poland, Qatar, the United States, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey, and the UK. He is often called upon to interview sports personalities and Olympic medalists on Leadership and Sports Management topics, including Agassi, Buffon, Cordoba, Fontana, Phelps, Djordjevic, Leonardo, Massaro, Scola, Zanetti, and Webber. He developed a test that measures athletes' winning mindset, believing in the Olympic values of excellence, friendship, and respect as a model for sustainable behavior in professional contexts.

Dino is married to Elisetta and is the father of Lorenzo. He enjoys participating in charitable initiatives and is the president of the Sport4Talent Foundation, a social project promoting sports as an educational tool for children facing vulnerability, especially in Taranto, his hometown.