Born in Palermo the 24 December 1964, in 1988 he graduated in Law with a thesis entitled "Some thoughts on the preliminary draft of the new Code of Criminal Procedure." Married with Stefania and father of Antonio, Giorgio and Chiara, he began his political career very young at the University of Palermo were, from 1985 to 1987, he held the position of Director of the Opera Universitaria as student representative. Part of the 'Democrazia Cristiana' party, in 1987 he was elected in the Youth Movement of the party as the delegate. In 1990 he was elected in the Council of the Province of Palermo, he then covered, from 1993 to 1994, the office of Councillor for roads. In 1997 he was appointed President of IRCAC, the most important credit institution in Sicily. He held this position until 2001 when he was elected for the first time the Chamber of Deputies in the XIV legislature.
During the parliamentary term he was a member of the Justice, Budget, Finance, Culture, and Transport Commission and Supervision of Deposits and Loans Fund. In the third Berlusconi government he was Undersecretary for Labour. Confirmed in the House in the XV legislature under a nomination list for the division of the UDC Party in Sicily 1, he is currently secretary of the Parliamentary Delegation at the Assembly of the Council of Europe and member of the Judiciary Committee and the Delegation at the Parliamentary Assembly of Western Europe. In July 2006 he was elected by the Regional Secretary of the UDC party and, the 4 March 2007, by acclamation, was designated by the regional Congress as secretary of the UDC in Sicily. In April 2008 he was re-elected in Parliament, where he currently holds the post of member of the Finance Committee. He is national party organizative and he was first in the Unione di Centro List for the European elections of 2009 European for the division of Sicily- Sardinia. The 22 September 2010 he resigned from the post of Regional Secretary of the UDC Sicily and from every position in the party, founding, the 28 of September of that year, the Popular Movement for tomorrow's Italy (Popolari per l'Italia di domani).
The 23 March 2011 he became Minister of Agricultural Food and Forestry Policies.