Private Equity & Entrepreneurship

Ronald P. Spogli
U.S. Ambassador to Italy

Ambassador Ronald P. Spogli was born in Los Angeles, California in 1948. He graduated from Stanford University with an A.B. in History in 1970 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year. He went on to receive his M.B.A. from Harvard University in 1975.
In 1983, together with Bradford M. Freeman, Ambassador Spogli founded Freeman Spogli & Co., one of the leading private equity investors in the United States. Based in Los Angeles, Freeman Spogli & Co. has invested in 36 businesses. In the course of his activities with the company, Ambassador Spogli has served on the board of directors of over twenty different companies.
Between 1968 and 1973, Ambassador Spogli spent nearly three years in Italy working on various activities sponsored by Stanford University. In particular, from September 1968 to March 1969, he studied at Stanford's Florence campus, while from June 1970 to July 1971 he was the assistant to the Directors of the Florence program. Finally, from June 1972 until August 1973, he lived in Milan where he was lead researcher for a project studying the social impact of labor migration from Southern Italy to the Italian industrial north.
Ambassador Spogli holds a great personal interest in international education and international relations and has undertaken various projects in this regard. Since 2001, he has been a member of Stanford's Overseas Studies Council, a faculty/alumni body that advises on Stanford's International studies programs . In 2000, he became a member of the Board of Visitors of Stanford's Institute for International Studies, the University's primary forum for interdisciplinary research on key international issues and challenges.
Continuing in this commitment, Ambassador Spogli has endowed two university positions: first, The Gesue and Helen Spogli Professorship in Italian Studies; second, The Spogli Family Overseas Studies Director position at the Florence, Italy campus.
In 2002, he was appointed to the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship board by President George W. Bush.
He is married to Georgia Beth Caudle and has two children.