Maria Bartiromo, one of the nation’s most noted financial journalists, is the winner of the 2014 Urbino Press Award. Italian Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero will formally make the announcement on April 15, 2014, at the Italian Embassy where Bartiromo will give an acceptance speech.
Bartiromo is currently the business news anchor and global editor for Fox Business Network and most recently was anchor for CNBC’s “Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo.” A winner of two Emmy Awards, she is also a magazine columnist and author of several business books. She has been called “the Sophia Loren of financial journalism.” Bartiromo has ben nicknamed the “Money Honey” due to her striking looks and for being the first woman to report live from the raucous floor of the New York Stock Exchange and “Econo Babe”. We call her a “rock star”!
In 1995, Bartiromo became the first journalist to report live on a daily basis from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, where she covered breaking news for the network’s unscripted and fast-paced business morning program, “Squawk Box.”
Bartiromo, who has served as Grand Marshal of the Annual New York Columbus Day Parade, and has hosted the annual NIAF gala dinner in Washington, has said that she grew up “in an Italian- American home in an Italian-American neighborhood with very traditional Italian culture of hard work, love of family, and respect for others…members of the Italian American community, like those of the many ethnic groups that have helped build America.”
The Urbino Press Award, now in its ninth year, has become an annual tradition in Washington’s diplomatic and journalistic arena since it was first was presented in 2006 at the Italian Embassy.
The prize is assigned each year in recognition of excellence in journalism to American reporters who, through their commitment and daily work maintain the ability to inform millions of people and do so in an exemplary fashion. Past recipients of the award include: Diane Rehm (2006), Michael Weisskopf (2007), Martha Raddatz (2008), Thomas Friedman (2009), David Ignatius (2010), Helene Cooper (2011), Sebastian Rotella (2012) and Wolf Blitzer (2013).
The actual award is presented at the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino in June. The recipient travels to Urbino to participate in a ceremony and then holds a “Lectio Magistralis” at the Palazzo Ducale.
The city of Urbino, which during the Renaissance gave life to one of the most enlightened courts of Europe, symbolically reinstates its court, once enriched by illustrious thinkers such as Baldassarre Castiglione and Torquato Tasso. The revived court includes the voice and experience of today’s reporters, the outstanding interpreters of the events that are changing our world.