Francesco Bertolino is one of the persons who founded Addiopizzo together with the 7 original activists. He also used to be the president of Addiopizzo but he resigned as he didn't agree with certain ways of working within the association. In particular he critisizes the fact that in course of reprenting the association certain persons may receive also personal remuneration (e.g. a lawyer who takes care of a extortion case in court); he sees this as a conflict of interest. He still is registered with the association though and firmly believes in the cause that the association is working on. He works as a in a studio he owns with two partners and is also a city councillor in Palermo.