Business

Steve Acunto is founder and president of CINN Group, Inc., with diversified holdings in the publishing, management, insurance, medical and economic development sectors. CINN Group, Inc., includes CINN Worldwide, Inc., CINN Group Holdings, Inc., Empire State Life Financial Trust, Inc., Capolavori Productions, Inc., ESR and related enterprises.

Mr. Acunto has received numerous business accords and appears frequently as a speaker before professional organizations in the U.S. and Europe on corporate responsibility, medical malpractice and other topics. He has served as Executive Vice President, Managing Director, Insurance Federation of New York, Inc. since 1984; and Managing Director, The International Insurance Law Society U.S. since 1994. He has served on the Boards of several companies and venture capital consortia and is active in the M&A sphere.

Since 1978, CINN’s publishing activity has centered upon the acquisition, development, retention or sale of more than 40 established publications. CINN serves as the home office manager for several international and national businesses and professional organizations such as the American Reinsurance and Insurance Arbitration Society (ARIAS US), The Society of Insurance Financial Managers (SIFM) and other such entities.

CINN’s Capolavori Productions, Inc., is a producer of concerts, cultural events and theatrical productions and includes an investment section holding intellectual property and production and publishing rights to a large inventory of plays, books and feature films. At present, the Company is negotiating rights to Bruce Jay Friedman’s Steambath, plays by the late William Gibson, and feature films, including Brandon Cole’s Umbrella Man. The Company brought the team together with Chazz Palmentieri for the feature length film with the working title Where’s Willie, now in pre-production.

In 2010, Mr. Acunto published the book "Roma non sponte sequor," the publication of a lecture of the same title for the New York State Historical Association following the opening of the exhibition "America's Rome: Artists in the Eternal City, 1800-1900" at the Fenimore Art Museum.

Cultural Diplomacy

As longstanding Chairman of the Italian Academy Foundation, Inc., founded in 1947, Mr. Acunto has been an advocate of Italian art, artists and intellectuals, creating and using the term “cultural diplomacy”. Under his aegis, the IAF has sponsored, cosponsored or produced more than 100 cultural events of various types, including rare opera performances such as Rossini’s La Cambiale di Matrimonio at Lincoln Center, the gala Carnegie Hall appearance of Uto Ughi and the Festival Philharmonic, the first US performance of Sammartini’s opera Memet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Italian tour of the Magical Strings Orchestra of Chicago, the prestigious annual international festival and competition Concerti in Villa in Vicenza, as well as nearly 50 concerts at Carnegie Hall from 1988 to 2007, featuring major classical musical artists and performers in career launching US premieres. The IAF has sponsored congresses on Cavalcanti and Pound at NYU, on Verdi, notably the tri-city Celebrations and Congresses on the anniversary of Verdi’s death in 2001 (Parma, New York and Yale University in New Haven) and on Caravaggio and others. IAF published the first ever Bibliography of Italian American Writers for the IAWA. The IAF has organized the Rome-New York 2000 initiative and published the full length Faces of Imperial Rome. The 52 year old Italian Journal is published quarterly by the IAF. The IAF undertook and completed the restoration of La Follia, the legendary century year old magazine supported by Enrico Caruso and Banca Berardini, owned by Mr. Acunto’s great grandfather, converting it from print to digital to ensure its preservation. The IAF has presented numerous scholarships for students for study in Italy and, in 2008, sponsored twelve US students to study and work at the archeological site at Alba Fucens in L’Aquila. IAF has sponsored and housed more than 25 students and artists in New York, to advance their studies and careers.

Mr. Acunto co-chaired the New York visit of Hon. Gianfranco Fini and the dinner for 1,200 people at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, February 4th 2010.

Following the recent earthquake in Abruzzo, Mr. Acunto was among the region’s featured advocates appearing in the New York Times, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, USA Today and RAI3 owing in great measure to the role played by his great grandfather in restoring much of La Marsica after the earthquake of 1916. Mr. Acunto assisted in the current effort.

In the media, too, responding to undue and unfair criticism of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in the US, in 2002 - 2003, Mr. Acunto published the periodical Informa and later published statesman Gianfranco Fini’s L’Europa che verra to give a voice here to this brilliant Italian leader and friend to US interests abroad, amid misleading media reports.

At suggestion of the Consul General Francesco Maria Talo, in 2008 the IAF initiated LYNX XXI which takes its name and motive from the legendary 17th century Accademia dei Lincei which, in turn, focused upon the sciences, scientific inquiry and other branches of learning as they impacted discovery. A lecture series, publications, scientific exchange and venture capital interests will be the substance of LYNX XXI. Most recently, IAF was among the sponsors of the conference on Crisis Management at Columbia

Service

Great grandson of Michele Berardini, the first among the most successful Italian merchant bankers to open branches in the U.S. in the late 1800’s and the creator of patented international money transfer systems, Mr. Acunto remains active as a volunteer in Italian cultural and public affairs in the tradition of his forbearers.

Mr. Acunto serves as Hon. Vice Consul for the Republic of Italy in New York’s Hudson Valley, with consular offices in Westchester County; he was appointed in April, 2003. He is a member of the Consular Corps College. Among his recent accomplishments in this role is the realization of the Fenimore Cooper Museum’s landmark 2009 show entitled America’s Rome: American Artists in the Eternal City 1800-1900. Mr. Acunto delivered the highly acclaimed Annual Keynote Address to open the show before 300 members of the New York Historical Society on July 24th in Cooperstown, NY entitled: Roma non sponte sequor. The show proved a “blockbuster” for this mid sized museum and brought Italy’s art and influence far outside its usual circumference in New York.

Mr. Acunto serves as a Trustee of the John Cabot University of Rome and Chairman of its Audit Committee and has served as a Trustee of the College of Mt. St. Vincent and as a Trustee of the State University of New York (SUNY), Westchester Community College. He is Chairman of the Montfort Academy, the classical Roman Catholic prep school in Katonah, NY. He is a Director of the Archives Partnership Trust of the State of New York. He has actively participated in the Salzburg Seminar. Since 1996, Mr. Acunto has served on the Board of Trustees of La Scuola, New York, the Italian prep school serving New York’s East Side and is presently its Vice Chairman. Recently, he arranged articulation between the School and John Cabot University in Rome. He serves on the Board of New York University’s Casa Italiana and has served as Chairman of the American Institute of Verdi Studies at N.Y.U. publishing Verdi, the Institute’s musicological and historical quarterly. He is a Trustee of the American Society of the Italian Legions of Merit and is creator and editor of its quarterly, Il Cavaliere. He is a member of Gruppo Esponenti Italiani, and a board member of the Council of Presidents of Italian Organizations.

Recognition

Mr. Acunto was decorated with the rank of Commendatore, Order of Merit, Republic of Italy. He holds the rank of Cavaliere, Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, the dynastic order of the House of Savoy.

Education

Mr. Acunto holds his B.A. and M.A. degrees (1971, 1973) in classical philology from New York University. He is fluent in English, Italian, French and German. He is the author of Westchester County, a History and Appreciation, (Windsor Books, Whittier, CA 1991) and is editor of several art books, including: Giobbi: Representative Work; New York Colors, an Impressionist’s Ode to the City; Imaginal Realism (‘Realism Immaginale’), the first introduction to this landmark artistic movement in English; and Urban Archaeology, an anthology of the work of Giorgio Radicati. A continuing special interest in music stems from his grandfather, Prof. Stefano Acunto, who performed on New York’s and Italy’s concert stages and composed “Young America” and other musical works for piano and voice. Mr. Acunto has himself appeared on the stage in Carnegie Hall in a co-performance of Messaien’s piano work, as MC for Luciano Pavarotti, Roberto Benigni, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Carlo Bergonzi and many other stars, and as subject or host of several broadcast interview programs on cultural topics. Mr. Acunto has just completed the narration of Pane Amaro, a feature documentary on immigration, and is featured in the upcoming documentary From Gridiron to the Opera.

Personal

Mr. Acunto and his wife, Carole Warren Haarmann, are active in charitable groups, notably The Quadrille Society of New York’s Bal d’Europe, the United Nations Women for Peace Committee, and the National Women’s Republican Club. They actively support the Metropolitan Opera and “One Bright World,” the initiative to bring aid to children in Liberia.

Mr. and Mrs. Acunto reside in Park Hill, Yonkers, N.Y. Their daughter, Claudia Palmira Acunto Benedetti, resides in Rome, Italy, with her husband, Mauro Benedetti; their son, Stephen, his wife, Dr. Veronica White Acunto, and their son, Enrico Stefano, live in New York City. The Acunto’s are communicants of Saint Agnes Church in Manhattan.