Irene Tinagli, is the Chair of the Economic and Monetary Affairs committee in the European Parliament. In February 2013 she has been elected as a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. Tinagli received her PhD in Public Policy and Management from the Heinz School of Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where she also earned her Master of Science in Public Policy. A former student and long-time collaborator of creativity guru Richard Florida (University of Toronto), she is the first scholar to apply Florida’s theories on creative class and regional development to European regions and cities. Her work has been featured in international journals and newspapers such as Harvard Business Review and the Financial Times. Tinagli also serves as an Expert for the European Commission on Creativity and Innovation and has been a consultant for the Department of Social and Economic Affairs of the United Nations, co-authoring the publication Understanding Knowledge Societies. On March 2010 she was appointed Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. She has been a contributor to newspapers and magazines such as La Stampa, El Pais, Wired Italy, la Repubblica, Il Sole 24 Ore, l’Espresso.

She is the author of Talento da svendere. Perché in Italia il talento non riesce a prendere il volo (2008), an essay that dismantles the myth of the Italian creativity, showing the potential of a new generation of talents and Un futuro a colori (2014). Her most recent book is La grande ignoranza (2019).