Silvio Berlusconi
50th Prime Minister of Italy
In office 8 May 2008 – 16 November 2011
President	Giorgio Napolitano
Preceded by	Romano Prodi
Succeeded by	Mario Monti
In office 11 June 2001 – 17 May 2006
President	Carlo Azeglio Ciampi Giorgio Napolitano
Deputy	Gianfranco Fini Marco Follini Giulio Tremonti
Preceded by	Giuliano Amato
Succeeded by	Romano Prodi
In office 10 May 1994 – 17 January 1995
President	Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
Deputy	Roberto Maroni Giuseppe Tatarella
Preceded by	Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
Succeeded by	Lamberto Dini
Member of the Senate of the Republic
In office 15 March 2013 – 27 November 2013
Constituency	Molise
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office 15 April 1994 – 14 March 2013
Constituency	Molise (2008–13) Campania 1 (2006–08) Lombardy 1 (1996–2006) Lazio 1 (1994–96)
Personal details
Born	29 September 1936 (age 80) Milan, Italy
Political party	Forza Italia (1994–2009) The People of Freedom (2009–13) Forza Italia (2013–present)
Other political affiliations	Pole of Freedoms (1994–95) Pole for Freedoms (1996–2000) House of Freedoms (2000–08) Centre-right coalition (2008–13)
Spouse(s)	Carla Dall’Oglio (m. 1965; div. 1985) Veronica Lario (m. 1990; div. 2010)
Children	Marina Pier Silvio Barbara Eleonora Luigi
Residence	Arcore, Italy
Alma mater	University of Milan
Occupation	Founder & Owner of Fininvest
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Awards	Order of Merit for Labour
Net worth	US$7.2 billion (March 2017)[1]
Signature
Website	www.forzasilvio.it

Berlusconi is the controlling shareholder of Mediaset and owned the Italian football club A.C. Milan from 1986 to 2017. He is nicknamed Il Cavaliere (The Knight) for his Order of Merit for Labour, although he voluntarily resigned from this order in March 2014. In 2016, Forbes magazine ranked him as the 188th richest man in the world with a net worth of US$7.1 billion. In 2009, Forbes ranked him 12th in the List of The World’s Most Powerful People due to his domination in Italian politics. Silvio Berlusconi (Italian pronunciation: [ˈsilvjo berluˈskoːni] ( listen); born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments.

Berlusconi was Prime Minister for nine years in total, making him the longest-serving post-war Prime Minister of Italy, and the third longest-serving since the Italian unification, after Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Giolitti. He was the leader of the centre-right party Forza Italia from 1994 to 2009, and its successor party The People of Freedom from 2009 to 2013. Since November 2013, he has led a revived Forza Italia. Berlusconi was the senior G8 leader from 2009 until 2011 and he currently holds the record of G8 Summit hosting (having hosted it in Italy three times).

After serving nearly 19 years as member of the Chamber of Deputies, Italy’s lower house, after the 2013 general election he became a member of the Senate. On 1 August 2013, he was convicted of tax-fraud by the final appeal instance, Court of Cassation (of which three years are automatically pardoned) along with a public office ban for two years. As his age exceeded 70 years, he was exempted from direct imprisonment, and instead served his sentence by doing unpaid social community work. Because of being sentenced to a gross imprisonment for more than two years, a new Italian anticorruption law made the Senate expel and bar him from serving any legislative office for six years. Berlusconi has pledged to stay leader of Forza Italia throughout the period where he serves his imprisonment sentence and public office ban. Berlusconi is famous for his populist political style and brash, overbearing personality.