RINA Names Paolo Moretti Group Chief Executive
By Stephen Yardley · Edited by Stephen Yardley
RINA has named Paolo Moretti Group Chief Executive Officer and General Manager, with Giosuè Vezzuto succeeding him at RINA Services.
RINA has appointed Paolo Moretti as Group Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of RINA S.p.A., following a decision by its new board of directors announced on 23 October 2026. Moretti was already the company's General Manager and has held senior roles across its maritime and certification activities. He takes over the chief executive post from Carlo Luzzatto, whose term in that office began in December 2023, according to the company's official statement.
The announcement describes a leadership transition within the wider RINA group, not a change to the regulatory status of an individual vessel or to a specific yacht classification certificate. For superyacht owners, builders and technical managers, the appointment is relevant because RINA operates in maritime classification and associated assurance services.
Ugo Salerno remains Executive Chairman, with responsibility for communications and institutional relations. RINA explicitly identifies the continued chairman role alongside the arrival of the new Group Chief Executive. That division helps clarify the governance arrangement: the chairman and chief executive responsibilities are distinct, and the company's release should not be interpreted as a wholesale replacement of its leadership.
RINA thanks outgoing chief executive Carlo Luzzatto for his contribution to the group's development, without attaching a separate operational announcement to his departure. For clients, the immediate point is who now holds senior authority at group level. Statements about long-term strategy or likely organisational consequences require care: leadership changes can set a direction, but the exact timetable and implications for individual service areas depend on subsequent decisions that have not yet been announced.
The restructuring also changes the leadership of RINA Services, the group company responsible for the marine and certification sectors. Giosuè Vezzuto has succeeded Paolo Moretti as Chief Executive Officer of that business, RINA states. This detail is especially significant to maritime readers, because it identifies the executive taking over an operating company closer to routine classification and certification work.
The distinction between the holding company's leadership and the executive management of service businesses matters for shipyards seeking the appropriate technical and commercial contacts. It would be premature to assume changes to ongoing surveys, approval processes or contracts simply because both positions have new holders. RINA has not set out such alterations in the announcement.
According to RINA, Paolo Moretti is a naval engineer who joined the organisation in 1997. His career includes the positions of General Manager Marine, Executive Vice President Marine Strategic Development and Chief Commercial Officer, as well as leadership work in Italy and internationally. That experience is relevant to a chief executive responsible for a diversified technical services organisation, because it brings familiarity with both engineering delivery and the commercial relationships around major industrial and maritime projects.
RINA identifies Moretti as Chief Executive Officer of RINA Services from 2020 to 2026, before his successor took that role. These are factual career dates given by the company; they do not establish an automatic change in the way its marine services are supplied. The appointment appears to draw on an internal executive with extensive institutional experience. Whether clients experience changes in response times, digital tools or service coverage will become clearer only through subsequent policies and measurable results.
Executive Chairman Salerno frames the appointment as a new stage in RINA's development, while Moretti's own comments emphasise simplifying operations and investing in advanced digital services. Those are publicly stated management priorities rather than completed product launches. They suggest where the group wants to direct effort, but the press release does not specify a particular new platform for superyacht designers, a deployment date or a technical performance guarantee.
For maritime clients, more integrated digital processes could in principle affect documentation, survey coordination and information exchange. That is an editorial observation about the types of work a classification and certification business performs, not a claim that RINA has changed any individual workflow. Owners and yards will need to review any actual service announcements on their own merits.
The company says the leadership transition aligns with a strategy agreed with its shareholders, Registro Italiano Navale and Fondo Italiano d'Investimento. The press release also provides the names of directors on the new board, including Paolo Moretti and Ugo Salerno. These details place the chief executive decision within a formal corporate governance process and show that the appointment is presented as a board action rather than an informal change in public-facing titles.
Shareholder representatives quoted by RINA express confidence in the new chief executive's experience. Such comments are relevant to understanding the company's stated intentions but are not independent verification of a future financial or operational outcome. An editorial account should distinguish between the existence of the appointment, which the official board statement establishes, and anticipated benefits, which remain a matter for execution.
Superyachts sit within a broader maritime system that relies on design assessment, technical surveys, classification services and regulatory documentation. RINA's marine activities are part of that environment, even though the new group chief executive's remit goes beyond yachts. A leadership appointment at a multidisciplinary organisation can be relevant to shipyards and operators without representing an immediate yacht-specific announcement. The important editorial question is whether an identified service or obligation changes, and this release does not claim that one has.
Shipyards and technical managers should therefore take the news as a clear update to corporate leadership and responsibility. The appointment of Vezzuto at RINA Services may be the more directly relevant organisational detail for teams dealing with marine certification, while Moretti now leads the broader group. Any future changes to maritime procedures, digital services or regional delivery should be reported separately when RINA publishes those particulars.
The official position is straightforward: Moretti is now Group Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of RINA S.p.A., Salerno continues as Executive Chairman, and Vezzuto leads RINA Services. Luzzatto is the outgoing group chief executive. The company has given Moretti's long employment history and its stated strategic priorities, but it has not announced a new yacht approval standard or a change to the rules governing vessels already in service.
For Superyacht Guide, the announcement belongs in the business and maritime-services news agenda because it identifies the leadership of an organisation with a direct connection to marine classification and certification. It is neither a fleet transaction nor a shipyard launch. The implications should be followed through subsequent substantive announcements, with the present report confined to the verified management changes and the context needed to understand them.
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