4 THE ITALIAN LAW JOURNAL NO. 2 (2018) The Evolving Role of the Board: Board Nomination and the Management of Dissenting Opinions by Mario Stella Richter jr and Federico Ferdinandi In recent years, significant steps ahead have been taken in Italy to enhance corporate governance standards. The traditional commonplace, describing the Italian system as hostile to investors’ activism, is no longer accurate. This paper aims at (re)starting a discussion about the issues of board nomination and the management of dissenting opinions, looking at the current legal and factual framework through the lens of the evolving role of boards of directors and advocating for a larger room for private ordering and self-regulation. DOI 10.23815/2421-2156.ITALJ ISSN 2421-2156