Dominic Currie (asker) Jul 11, 2011:

Coincidence As it happens, the night after I asked this question this term came up in a conversation I was having with some Italian friends. Being in Turin, we were of course talking about Fiat, and someone mentioned "Marchionne e la sua prima linea di dirigenti" at which point my ears pricked up. When I asked what this meant, my friends said "sai, c'è la prima linea e poi la seconda linea ecc.". In other words it's a reference to a hierarchical level rather than a role/position. So in the end I decided to go for "senior staff" in the context of my document.
Lesson learnt? I need to also start asking my Italian friends if there's a term I'm not sure about.

Thomas Roberts Jul 4, 2011:

BTW Thanks for letting me get shafted with the whole of that job you just refused!