PROFESSOR PIERO CODA HAS GUIDED THE SOPHIA UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE SINCE ITS FOUNDATION. AFTER TWELVE YEARS OF DEANSHIP, HE NOW PASSES THE BATON TO PROFESSOR GIUSEPPE ARGIOLAS, PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT AT THE INSTITUTE.

This is the first changing of the guard for the Sophia University Institute, which also coincides with the attribution of the title “Rector” from the Congregation for Catholic Education to who was used to be called the Dean of the Institute. Therefore, Professor Giuseppe Argiolas is the new Rector of Sophia. He succeeds Professor Piero Coda who has guided the Institute with wisdom and spirit of prophecy since its foundation.

The Academic council held the election on 9th January. On 20th February 2020, by letter, the Congregation for Catholic Education named Professor Giuseppe Argiolas Rector of the Sophia University Institute for the next four years. This morning, the inauguration ceremony of the new Rector took place in the Aula Magna of the Sophia University Institute.

Argiolas was born in Cagliari in 1969. In 2016 he became a permanent professor at the Sophia University Institute, upon leaving his position at the University of Cagliari to focus on the development project of the Management degree and to coordinate the Doctoral School of the Institute. His research activity mainly deals with the Social Responsibility of Enterprises and Organizations and the Management of “Mission- Driven” Enterprises (see Biography).

Professor Argiolas stated «First of all, I would like to express my profound admiration to Professor Piero Coda. I would also like to thank him for what he has done so far. As far as I am concerned, I will do my best to perform the task that has been entrusted to me. I consider this responsibility a service of unity». Then he added: «The founding stage has ended. Now, with the generational shift the consolidation and development stage has started. We must maintain the Institute’s charismatic attitude. With creative loyalty, Sophia will keep on fulfilling the mission Chiara Lubich gave it when she founded it. As Pope Francis said, we will do so together with numerous travelling companions by continuing “the journey that has just begun” with renewed “joy, vision, and determination».

After twelve years guiding the Institute, Professor Piero Coda said: «I am happy with the new stage of Sophia’s journey starting with Giuseppe Argiolas’s expert and inspired guidance as a result of a constant and consolidated maturation at all levels. The Congregation for Catholic Education’s appointment to Rector replacing the title of Dean is an unexpected and welcome seal and further driver. This is the perfect moment to renew with joy and enthusiasm the pact of unity on which our actions are based together with the Rector and the whole academic community. Today, such pact is also vigorously fostered by Pope Francis’s Global Compact on Education».

The Vice Grand Chancellor of the Institute and President of the Focolare Movement Maria Voce said: «I am pleased to congratulate again Professor Giuseppe Argiolas, the new Rector of the Sophia University Institute. Without any doubt, his election marks a generational and academic shift compared to the outgoing deanship. I am sure that Professor Argiolas will guide the Institute with his valuable personal characteristics while staying true to the charismatic origin of the culture of unity and updating it to meet the current needs in the best way possible».

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