Marco Doria was born on October 13, 1957, in Genoa. He studied at Genoa's University, department of Letters and Philosophy, where he got a degree in contemporary history in 1981.
He works for a year as a grant holder at the Ansaldo's historical archives. Thanks to another grant by the Fondazione Einaudi in Turin he begins to work on the history of the Ansaldo steelworks first in Genoa and then, in the years 1985-1988, at the European University Institute in Florence where he got a research doctorate in history. In 1988, after winning a public contest, he became a high school teacher till 1995, including two years as Vice Headmaster.
In 1995 he became assistant professor in economic history at Genoa's University, Economy Department. He focused on firms and banks in the XIX and XX centuries, the compositon of the labour force and the entrepeneurial class, the trends in industrialization and de-industrialization and the development of the city, in particular urban services, sea tranport and port structures. He was made a full professor in 2010.
He was elected Mayor of Genoa on May 21, 2012.
