Dr. Massimo Bray is the Director General of the Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani, a position he has held since February 2015. He also serves as Editor‑in‑Chief of several Treccani publications, including the Atlante Geopolitico, the Libro dell’anno del Diritto, and the online magazine Il Tascabile, and he leads the editorial team for the Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Art. He was Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism of Italy (April 2013 – February 2014) and a member of the Chamber of Deputies, sitting on the Third Committee (Foreign and European Affairs) from 2013 to 2015. Dr. Bray later served as Regional Minister for Culture, Cultural Enterprises, and Tourism for the Region of Apulia (2020–2021) and contributed to drafting the cultural component of Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan.

Since October 2022, he has been President of the Italy‑China Cultural Forum under the Ministry of Culture, actively fostering bilateral cultural exchange. He coordinated major exhibitions in China, including The Travels of Marco Polo: A Reflection of the Early Globalisation Era between East and West (Beijing, 2024) and Leonardo. The Machine of Imagination (Shanghai, 2019–2024). He is also President of the “Notte della Taranta” festival, Secretary General of the Fondazione Treccani Cultura, and a board member or member of prominent think tanks such as the Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale (ISPI), the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), and the Centro Studi Americani in Rome. In May 2026, he was appointed by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a member of the Italian Delegation to the High Council of the European University Institute in Florence.

Dr. Bray holds a degree in Modern History from the University of Florence and a Diplôme d’Études Approfondies (DEA) from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris. He was a research fellow at the École Française de Rome, the Istituto degli Studi Filosofici in Naples, and the Centre des Études Cartésiennes in Paris. He has taught History of Publishing at the University of Suor Orsola Benincasa in Naples and served as a teaching assistant at the University of Roma Tre. His scholarly work focuses on cultural policy, democracy in the digital age, and the history of encyclopaedias. He is the author of numerous publications, including Alla voce cultura. Diario sospeso della mia esperienza di ministro (2019) and various prefaces and essays on culture, sustainability, and education.

He is a Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and has received several awards, including the Viareggio‑Rèpaci Special Prize of the President (2020), the Benedetto Croce Prize (2023), and the Gaetano Bonvicini National Prize (2025). He is fluent in Italian, French, and English.