Ferruccio de Bortoli was born in Milan. He is married and has two children. After graduating in law from Università degli Studi di Milano, he became a journalist in 1975. He started as a copy editor at the Corriere dei Ragazzi–Corriere dei Piccoli in 1973. In 1975 he became a staff writer for the Corriere d’Informazione and in 1979 he began to contribute to the Corriere della Sera, first in the news section and later in the business section. He has been news editor at the Europeo and at the Sole 24 Ore, before going back to the business editor-in-chief position at the Corriere della Sera in 1987. In 1993, he becomes the deputy director of the Corriere della Sera, a newspaper he will be running twice in his career, first from 1997 to 2003 and then, later on, from 2009 to 2015, while he was also the vice president of Fondazione Corriere della Sera. In 2003, he becomes CEO of RCS Libri. He has been the president of the French publishing house Flammarion S.A. and the belgian Casterman. He is the vice president of the Italian Publishers Association (AIE), and he is on the boards of various publishing houses such as Adelphi, Skira, and Marsilio, as well as Ras-Allianz as an independent member. He was a columnist for La Stampa in 2004.

In 2005 he was made managing editor of Il Sole 24 Ore and editorial director of the Sole 24 Ore Group (Radio 24, Radiocor). He was the president of Fondazione Pier Lombardo–Teatro Franco Parenti. He is honorary president of the Shoah Memorial Foundation. Since 2015, he has chaired the Vidas Association for the care of the incurably ill. Since 2023 he has been president of the Corriere della Sera Foundation. He also holds the vice-presidency of the Dante Alighieri Society.

He has won many journalism awards and is the author of several publications, including: L’informazione che cambia (2008), Il filo sottile della Memoria (2014), Consapevoli (2014), Faccio il prete, mi piace with Pope Francis (2014), Poteri forti (o quasi). Memorie di oltre quarant'anni di giornalismo (2017), Ci salveremo (2019), La ragione e il buonsenso (with Salvatore Rossi, 2020), Le cose che non ci diciamo (2020). In 2006, he was awarded the Legion d'Honneur by the President of the French Republic, in 2009 he received the Ambrogino d’oro by the City of Milan, and in 2011 he was appointed as commander by the Italian President.