Italian honour for Vanni Treves

Vanni Treves

Vanni Treves, CBE, the chairman of Monte San Martíno Trust’s fund-raising appeal, has been honoured by the Italian President. In June 2014, he received the award of Cavaliere Ufficiale – the same honour as was bestowed previously on Keith Killby, OBE, the Trust’s founder.

The award comes in appreciation of Mr Treves’s strenuous efforts in raising money to secure the long-term future of the bursaries that the Trust gives to young Italian students for month-long English language courses in the UK.  The Appeal, which was launched towards the end of 2011, had raised £775,000 by June 2014 and is well on course to reaching its target of £1m.

The award also reflects the high esteem in which the Trust’s values and objectives are held in Italy and at the Italian embassy in London. Mr Pasquale Terracciano, the ambassador, hosted a supper for MSMT donors in 2013 and a similar event at the embassy takes place in autumn 2014.

Mr Treves has been a trustee of MSMT for several years. Born in Florence, he is the son of an Italian partisan killed in 1944. He and his mother came to England in 1946. He is a former chairman of Channel 4 and a former senior partner of law firm Macfarlanes. He was chairman of Equitable Life from 2001-2009. He is currently chairman of the National College for School Leadership.