She graduated cum laude in Economics and Business at Luiss Guido Carli University in Rome. After obtaining a master’s degree in the following areas Taxation, accounting and Auditing, Management Control and Finance and Business Planning, she completed her education with an Executive MBA at Luiss Business School in 2020.

She started her career at Price Waterhouse Coopers as a junior auditor in Consumer & Industrial Product Services for Italaquae, Gruppo Danone and Condotte spa for corporate audit projects. 

In 2000, after working as an Assistant Manager for NIAF (The National Italian American Foudation) in Chicago for a Telethon event, created by Ambassador Susanna Agnelli. 

Picalarga began her experience in her corporate family group in the manufacturing sector, covering the role of Internal Auditor, implementing management systems for ISO 9001, 14001, 18001 certifications and adopting processes aimed at guaranteeing forms of CSR.

In 2005 she became Marketing Director where she specialized in B2B market expansion with a view towards international markets. Since 2008 she has held the position of Director of Administration, Control and Finance taking care of statutory and consolidated financial statements and following ordinary and extraordinary Finance operations of the group.

In 2019, she embarked on the path of managerial consulting, initially in areas of ordinary, extraordinary, and facilitated Finance. Later, she transitioned to the role of Project Manager in Open Innovation & Sustainability, developing co-innovation projects between corporations and startups. In the same year she participated in the Course “Pathways to Innovation – New Skills to Increase Social Impact” a course organized by Human Foudation and sponsored by the Johnson&Johnson Foundation on the topic of nonprofits. 

Since 2023, Laura Picalarga has been General Secretary of the Biomedical University Foundation and serves as Fundraising Coordinator of the Bio-Medical Campus. She is registered as a Certified Public Accountant and Auditor.