Former Bain consultant to aid Pope with dicastery review

The Pope has reportedly requested the assistance of a former Bain & Company consultant for a new reform package. Pier Francesco Pinelli is an experienced consultant who spent seven years with the MBB firm’s Italian wing.

The Roman Curia comprises the administrative institutions of the Holy See and the central body through which the affairs of the Catholic Church are conducted. A dicastery is a department of the Roman Curia – and as part of his proposed reforms of the Church, Pope Francis announced the founding of two new dicasteries.

The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development was one of these – combining the work of four pre-existing Pontifical Councils. The Pope gave it responsibility for "issues regarding migrants, those in need, the sick, the excluded and marginalised, the imprisoned and the unemployed, as well as victims of armed conflict, natural disasters, and all forms of slavery and torture."

Now, Pope Francis has asked Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich to lead a team to evaluate the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the Vatican confirmed today. The team will not only consist of internal appointments from the Church, however. It will also include a business expert drawn from the world of consulting.

Pier Francesco Pinelli is requested by Pope Francis for an inspection as part of the reform of the Roman curia. A former Senior Manager of Bain & Company, Pinelli is above all an energy specialist, having joined the firm in 1996 and mainly worked for the energy, utilities and manufacturing practices. In 2003, the consultant returned to the energy sector, becoming CEO of the ERG Power & Gas group in Rome, before his appointment in 2013 as government commissioner for the rehabilitation of the foundations of the symphonic opera within the Ministry of Heritage and Cultural Activities and Tourism.

Since 2015, he has been a consultant at Netplan, an Italian consulting company specializing in the development of digital projects. His mission for the Vatican will see him and two other inspectors assess the activities of the dicastery for the promotion of integral human development. According to the press office of the Holy See this means "aiming to acquire an up-to-date representation of the conditions in which it operates.”

Pinelli’s appointment may be due to his previous knowledge of the Vatican’s workings. As noted by Jesuit news source America Magazin, he is said to have been involved in the original structuring of this Vatican dicastery.