Comm. Stefano (Steve) Acunto, Hon Vice Consul of Italy 2002 – 2015 is Chairman of Beacon International Holdings, private group of companies in media, insurance and merchant banking. Beacon is among the leading financial publishing companies in the world in insurance and risk management operating from media offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, London, Singapore, Amman, Rome and Milano. Beacon’s Measure Media division produces cable television programming, including the upcoming series Back from the Brink on Discovery.

Mr. Acunto is a Director of Credit Global, Ltd., through which PRGN long term financing for sovereignties is arranged. He serves on several corporate boards, including NYREX, the New York Risk and Insurance Exchange, MAYA Insurance Company, , Credit Global, and, formerly, Atlanta Financial Insurance. He serves as Trustee of John Cabot University of Rome (since 2002) and is Trustee of the College of Mount Saint Vincent in New York (since 1997).

For his work as Honorary Vice Consul and his extensive promotion of Italian cultural realities, he was decorated with the rank of Commendatore, Order of Merit, Republic of Italy, and, in 2010, received Italy’s Star of Solidarity, (Stella della Solidarita) among its highest awards. He is a Commendatore in the Dynastic Order of the House of Savoy.

Mr. Acunto holds his B.A. and M.A. degrees in classical philology (Latin and Ancient Greek) from New York University. He was graduated from Mt St Michael Academy in New York. A passionate opera fan, Mr. Acunto is President of the American Society of Friends of Teatro alla Scala, a patron of the Metropolitan Opera, and proprietor of the famed Bel Canto Society archives.

He is an active participant in the Path to Peace Foundation directed by the Apostolic Nuncio of the Holy See to the United Nations and is an active member of the Union League of New York. He and his wife, Carole Haarmann Acunto, divide their time among their homes in Greenwich, Connecticut, Palm Beach, Florida and Rome.