One might say that your CV is one of the more important things to be truthful about. Not only is it unethical, but it is rare that you can get away with lying about your career history. Besides, would you really want to be committing a criminal offence?
The UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, has learnt that the hard way in recent weeks. She has come under fire from MPs for fabricating her CV, including claims of being an economist at Halifax Bank of Scotland, rather than the actuality of her being in retail banking. Yet, the government maintains that Reeves has been “straight with the public”, and that this is not a fireable offence. There are other reports of people, including a nurse and a policeman, being jailed for lying about qualifications, let alone losing their jobs. This entire debate begs the question – should people really be forgiven and such instances forgotten, especially when they are in a role of significant responsibility?
One man, an Italian airline executive named Gaetano Francesco Intrieri, seems to be counting on the benefit of the doubt. In fact, given his career path and history, one could even argue that it has been an essential part of his professional ‘success’.
It’s worth starting at the beginning. In one of his CVs, Intrieri boasted of numerous qualifications, many of them tenuous at best. One of the more notable examples is his claim of two MBAs from the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – one in “Business Process Analysis”, and the other in “Business Organisation” from the Sloan School of Management. However, an investigator looking to verify his claims was told by the institution that they could not find anyone registered as a student with Intrieri’s name. However, it would not be entirely fair to say that Intrieri has never been a student at MIT. In 2020, while the world reeled from Covid, Intrieri received an Executive Certificate in Management and Leadership from Sloan, which, albeit real, is in fact just a four course, eight credit online program which can be completed in as little as two weeks. No matter! Intrieri’s LinkedIn proudly displays the emblem of MIT’s Sloan School and he even took to X to announce the completion of his certificate, earning a resounding 90 likes.
His credibility in claiming his many accolades is not helped by the fact that some of his other alma maters appear completely fabricated. Intrieri claims to be a Graduate in Excel from Excel University in California, which, as far as can be determined, does not exist. It is possible he may be referring to either Excel University or The Excel University. The former is an online Microsoft Excel course run by a man named Jeff in South Dakota and the latter a Theological and Leadership Academy offering courses in “Excel Business-ology (The Art of Business)”.
It doesn’t stop at education, Intrieri even has embellished professional claims. Intrieri’s purported eight year stint at “McKinsey & Partner” came under scrutiny when keen-eyed observers noted that the company does not exist (since the global consultancy firm is actually McKinsey & Company). Like before, Intrieri was nowhere to be found among employment or company records.
One hopes Intieri’s alleged liberal record of his professional phase set his jejune CV inventions straight. But could his stint at Gandalf Airlines and subsequent criminal reprimand be enough to show him the importance of honesty?
After becoming CEO of the aviation company in 2003, he resigned after only five months in 2004, which was shortly followed by the organisation filing for bankruptcy. A subsequent investigation led to Intrieri’s arrest, and a revelation that he had in fact embezzled nearly €500 million for personal use. After a complicated story in which he even managed to produce a notarised certificate of proof for what the funds were for, he eventually confessed, receiving a three and a half year sentence for fraudulent bankruptcy.
Disregarding the fact that Intrieri never served his time in prison as the result of a nationwide pardon in 2006, he continued his career in aviation. He went on to manage Club Air, Italiatour Airlines, ItAli Airlines, and Eagles Airlines – skipping from one to the other which, when taken collectively, saw him in the role of airline CEO for about three years over an eight year period, across five different airlines. All have since ceased operations, with none of them continuing to operate for longer than seven months after his tenureship. Such job-hopping does not seem to have caused a whiff of worry for this self-proclaimed guru of aviation.
You would hope that with such an ostensible history of dubious qualifications, people would pause before giving Intieri a job. Incredibly, about a decade after he last helmed an airline, Intieri was tapped to be CEO of newcomer AeroItalia. The decision seems to have come from the airline’s current Chairman, Marc Bourgade. A French banker and airline financier, Bourgade has had a respectable career working in aviation finance but is completely green to running an airline. And as an enjoyer of foreign languages, one cannot help but wonder if he should spend a little more time brushing up on his Italian.
This whole saga would be unimaginable, if everything didn’t seem so real. Intrieri’s apparent ability to lie in educational, professional, and even legal capacities has somehow put him in a position to wreak havoc (see his decision to suddenly pull out of the Comiso airport for not being “appreciated”, followed by a near-immediate reversal) in an industry in which reliability and trustworthiness are key. Perhaps it is this sheer unreserved confidence which gets him as far as he does, and perhaps this is what Reeves has learned from him. Why would anyone question you, if you believe your own fairytales?
