Andrea Illy is the Chairman of illycaffè S.p.A., founded in Trieste in 1933 by Francesco Illy with the mission of offering the greatest coffee to the world. For twenty-two years he was CEO. He represents the third generation of the Trieste-based family. 
 

He is co-Chair of the Regenerative Society Foundation, created in 2020 with the goal of engaging as many businesses as possible in the journey toward a new model of regenerative socio-economic development.  
 

He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Italy since 2013  and since September 2023 he is a member of The Club of Rome. 
 

His numerous professional recognitions include: Entrepreneur of the Year (Ernst & Young, 2004), Capo d'Orlando 2013, Guido Carli 2014. In 2018 he was appointed Cavaliere del Lavoro by the President of the Italian Republic, and in 2021 he received the Leonardo Award. 
 

He received a degree in Chemistry from the University of Trieste and an Executive Master's degree from SDA Bocconi in Milan. He earned a certificate from Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He studied Total Quality Management in Japan, Innovation at MIT Boston, Exponential Technologies at Singularity University and Complexity Science at Oxford University. 
 

He published for Academic Press Espresso Coffee: The Chemistry of Quality (1995). He is the author of The Coffee Dream (Codice Edizioni, 2015). In 2018 he published Italia Felix (Piemme) and edited with Marco Fortis Altagamma: Strategies for Italy of Excellence (Skyra).