Born in Vicenza in 1974, Francesco attended the Paolo Lioy State Secondary School for Sciences before entering Milan's Luigi Bocconi University. He graduated in 1998 with a degree in Business and Economics. After graduating, he moved to the United States to begin work on behalf of Casa Vinicola Zonin and the Zonin family's estates. He was directly responsible for the network of importers and distributors for all of the wines. At the same time, he devoted himself to developing the Barboursville Vineyards estate in Virginia, also owned by the Zonin family.
He returned to Italy in 2002 to work at the headquarters of his family's company in Gambellara. Here, he was responsible for the management of the Export Department, whose structure and operation he dramatically transformed. In 2006 he was appointed, along with his brother Domenico, Vice President of Casa Vinicola Zonin S.p.A, Italy's largest privately owned wine company. In this role he took on responsibility for all of the firm's commercial activities in Italy and abroad. Francesco was married in 2008 and now lives full time in Vicenza.
Along with the Zonin family, Casa Vinicola Zonin owns 1,800 hectares (4,500 acres) of vineyards in the 7 most significant regions for wine production in Italy: the Veneto, Tuscany, Piedmont, Lombardy, Friuli, Puglia and Sicily. The company produces 23 million bottles a year and the Zonin family's wines are distributed in no less than 93 countries around the world.
