Standing at six feet, four inches tall and dressed in a sharp black suit, Ronald Spogli ’70, former U.S. Ambassador to Italy and San Marino, appeared a firm, powerful character. But his warmth emerged as he fondly recalled his time on the Farm and its profound impact on his life.

 

Spogli was a first-generation college student and is a third-generation Italian-American. He was raised in an English-speaking household in Los Angeles and knew no Italian before arriving at the Farm.

 

“We had a lot of Italian customs, but the language was not something I knew,” he said.

 

At Stanford, Spogli learned Italian and studied in Florence as a junior. There, he said, he understood the value of learning about other cultures.

 

“It was a true adventure,” Spogli said. “I learned how to live in another culture, to meet its challenges and to thrive in those challenging circumstances. I got out of my comfort zone, and it was a great personal growth opportunity.”

 

At Stanford, Spogli majored in history, but he was also interested in both Italian Renaissance studies and East Asian studies. After graduating, he spent a year in the East Asian studies graduate program, worked as an assistant for the Florence program and went to Milan to research the social impact of labor migration in Italy.

 

After years of academia, though, Spogli said he felt ready to enter the corporate world, so he went to study at Harvard Business School. After graduating in 1975, Spogli worked in investment banking for Dean Witter Reynolds before co-founding Freeman Spogli & Co., a private equity firm, in 1983.

 

Forty years after his graduation, Spogli’s ties to Stanford remain strong. He participates in various Stanford awareness and fundraising campaigns, currently serves on the Board of Trustees and is a member of the eponymous Freeman Spogli Institute’s advisory board. From 2000 to 2004 he was involved in the Campaign for Undergraduate Education, and from 2002 to 2005, he also served on the Bing Overseas Studies Program Council.

 

Norman Naimark, who served as the director of the Bing Overseas Studies Program (BOSP) at a time when Spogli was not on the Council, remarked on Spogli’s lasting impact on the Program. Spogli advised him on how to “deal with a Council of donors and friends of BOSP that focused on the importance of sharing the inputs of decision-making with the Council and using their collective wisdom to help me resolve BOSP issues,” Naimark wrote in an email to The Daily.

 

In addition, Spogli continued to support BOSP while he was U.S. Ambassador to Italy.

 

“He often invited the Florence students to visit the embassy and even his residence in Rome,” Naimark said. “He helped us think through the issues surrounding the move of the Florence program to a more attractive location.”

 

Although he is proud of his many accomplishments, Spogli said that the highlight of his career was his role as U.S. Ambassador to Italy and San Marino.

 

“The wonderful thing about being an ambassador to a country like Italy is that you are limited only by your energy, enthusiasm and creativity,” he said.

 

One of his major tasks as ambassador was to battle chronic low economic growth in Italy. According to Spogli, for Italy to attract investment and grow, the government needs to make fundamental reforms to the labor market, educational system and legal system.

 

Spogli also had to strengthen political ties between the United States and Italy and reinforce the cultural link between the two countries. This proved a challenge: in 42 months, he saw three different parliaments and two different presidents.

 

In 2006, President George W. Bush appointed Spogli the first U.S Ambassador to San Marino, a small enclave located within Italian borders. Its citizens speak Italian and also use the Euro as currency, but maintain political independence from Italy.

 

San Marino is “a fascinating country because it claims to be the oldest democratic republic in the world,” he said.

 

He left the post in 2009.

 

Spogli credited Stanford with helping him find his passion in diplomacy.

 

“Being a diplomat is one of the most wonderful experiences I’ve had in a life where I’ve been blessed with incredible things,” he said. “I would do it again a thousand times over.”