She became President of Piedmont Region in April 2005. In June 2004 she was elected at the European Parliament, but she waived this appointment when she became President of Piedmont Region. From 1995 till 2004 she was President of the Province of Turin as well as President of the Union of Provinces of Piedmont. She has been a Professor at the Institutes of Economics, at the Engineering Faculty of the Turin Polytechnic and at the School for Industrial Production, in association with the Brighton Polytechnic. Teacher of Environmental Economics at the European Master in Environmental Engineering and Management both in association with different European Universities. She has been an adviser to the Ministry of the Environment for the Ten Years Environmental Programme, for cases of Assessment of Environmental Impact, territorial socio-economic planning, studies on tourism and consultant to the OCSE (Paris) for the workgroup on the economic-environmental indicators of regions and local bodies concerning issues of ecological economy. Member of the Italian delegation at the World Conference on Environment and Development of Rio de Janeiro.