Gianni Agnelli.

Giovanni Agnelli (March 12, 1921 – January 24, 2003), better known as Gianni Agnelli, was an Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat. As the head of Fiat, he controlled 4.4% of Italy's GNP, 3.1% of its industrial workforce, and 16.5% of its industrial investment in research. Image File history File links Giovanni_Agnelli. ... March 12 is the 71st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (72nd in leap years). ... Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for full calendar). ... January 24 is the 24th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Fiat Grande Punto Fiat Group, or Fiat S.p. ... Measures of national income and output are used in economics to estimate the value of goods and services produced in an economy. ...

==Early life== this is messed up Agnelli was born at his parents' country house, Villar Perosa, near Turin, Italy as the son of Eduardo Agnelli (1892-1935) and Donna Virginia Bourbon del Monte (1899-1945), a daughter of the Prince di San Faustino and his Kentucky-born wife Jane Campbell. He was more meaningfully the grandson of Giovanni Agnelli, the founder of the Italian car industry FIAT, and from whom he inherited the command in 1966, after a period of temporary "rule" by Vittorio Valletta during which Gianni was learning how his family's company worked. Agnelli raised Fiat to become the most important company in Italy, and one of the major car builders of Europe. He also developed the accessory business, with minor companies also operating in military industry. Agnelli and Fiat would come to share a common vision, Agnelli meaning Fiat and, more sensibly, Fiat meaning Agnelli. Torino redirects here. ... Edoardo Agnelli (1892-1935) Italian industrialist and principal family shareholder of Fiat. ... Official language(s) English[1] Capital Frankfort Largest city Louisville Area  Ranked 37th  - Total 40,444 sq mi (104,749 km²)  - Width 140 miles (225 km)  - Length 379 miles (610 km)  - % water 1. ... Giovanni Agnelli. ... Vittorio Valletta (28 July 1883 - 10 August 1967) was an Italian industrialist and President of Fiat from 1946 to 1966. ... This article is 150 kilobytes or more in size. ...

Agnelli was educated at Pinerolo Cavalry Academy, and studied law at the University of Turin, although he never practiced law. He joined a tank regiment in June 1940 when Italy entered World War II. He fought at the Russian front, being wounded twice. He went in a Fiat-built armoured-car division to North Africa, where he was shot in the arm by a German officer. After Italy surrendered, he became a liaison officer with the Americans. His grandfather, who had manufactured vehicles for the Axis during the war, was forced to retire from FIAT but named Valletta to be his successor. Gianni's grandfather died, leaving Gianni head of the family but Valletta running the company. Fiat then began producing Italy's first inexpensive mass-produced car. Pinerolo is a town in Italy, 40 km southwest of Turin on the River Chisone. ... Soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback in combat are commonly known as cavalry (from French cavalerie). ... A regiment is a military unit, consisting of a variable number of battalions - - commanded by a colonel. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Head of Fiat

Agnelli became president of Fiat in 1966. He opened factories from Russia (at the time the Soviet Union) to South America, and started international alliances and joint-ventures (like Iveco) which marked a new industrial mentality. In the 1970s, during the international petrol crisis, he sold part of the company to Lafico, a Libyan company owned by Colonel Qaddhafi; Agnelli would later repurchase these shares, however. Iveco is a European truck, bus, and diesel engine manufacturer, based in Turin, Italy. ... Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi Muammar Abu Minyar al-Qaddafi 1 (Arabic: معمر القذافي Mu`ammar al-Qadhdhāfī) (born 1942), leader of Libya since 1970 and a controversial Arab statesman. ...

His relationships with the Left, especially with Enrico Berlinguer's Communist Party, were the essence of the relationships between labour forces and Italian industry. The social conflicts related to Fiat's policies (some say politics) always saw Agnelli keeping the leading role; in the 1980s, during the last important trade union action, a dramatic situation in which a strike was blocking all of Fiat's production, he was able to organise the march of 40,000 workers who broke the pickets and re-entered the factories. This marked the end of the power of trade unions, which would never again be so influential in the Italian political or economic scenes. It has to be mentioned that in the 1970s Fiat and its leaders became an object of terrorist attacks, mostly by the Red Brigades, Prima Linea and NAP; Several people working for the group were killed, and trade unions were suspected of hiding some terrorists in their organizations. Enrico Berlinguer. ... The Red Brigades (Brigate Rosse in Italian, often abbreviated as BR) were a terrorist group located in Italy and active during the Years of Lead. Formed in 1970, the Marxist-Leninist Red Brigades sought to create a revolutionary state through armed struggle and to separate Italy from the Western Alliance... Nap or nap can refer to: a short sleep. ...

Agnelli was named senator for life in 1991 and subscribed to the independent parliamentary group; he was later named a member of the senate's defence commission. A senator for life is a member of the Italian Senate appointed by the President of the Italian Republic for outstanding merits in the social, scientific, artistic or literary field. Former Presidents of the Republic are ex officio life senators. ...

At the beginning of the 2000s, Agnelli made overtures to General Motors, with whom an agreement was reached to progressively let the American company court Fiat. The recent serious crisis of Fiat found Agnelli already fighting against cancer, and he could take little part in these events. General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM), also known as GM, is an American automobile maker with worldwide operations and brands including Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saturn, Saab and Vauxhall. ...

Agnelli was also closely connected with Juventus, one of the most famous Italian football clubs, of which he was a fan. His phone calls, every morning at 6 am, from wherever he was, whatever was he doing, to the Juventus' president Giampiero Boniperti, were legendary. Juventus Football Club (Latin for Youth, pronounced yoo-VEHN-toos) is one of Italys oldest and most successful football clubs, based in Turin. ... Football (soccer) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Giampiero Boniperti (born July 4, 1928) was an Italian football player who played for Juventus between 1946 and 1961. ...

Nicknamed L'Avvocato (the lawyer) because he had a degree in law (though he was never admitted to the Order of Lawyers), Agnelli represented the most important figure in Italian economy, the symbol of capitalism during all the second half of 20th century, and regarded by many as the true "king of Italy". A cultivated man of keen intelligence and a peculiar sense of humour, he was perhaps the most famous Italian abroad, forming deep relationships with international bankers and politicians (some of them became close friends, like Henry Kissinger). Another longtime associate was David Rockefeller, who appointed him to the International Advisory Committeee (IAC) of the Chase Manhattan Bank, of which Rockefeller was chairman; Agnelli sat on this committee for thirty years. He was also a member of a syndicate with Rockefeller that for a time in the 1980s owned Rockefeller Center.^[1] Henry Alfred Kissinger (born Heinz Alfred Kissinger on May 27, 1923 in Fürth) is a German-born American diplomat, and 1973 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. ... David Rockefeller, Sr. ... The Chase Manhattan Bank, now part of JPMorgan Chase, was formed by the merger of the Chase National Bank and the Bank of the Manhattan Company in 1955. ... Lower Plaza at Rockefeller Center. ...

Agnelli didn't allow his November 19, 1953 marriage to Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto — a half-American, half-Neapolitan princess who made a small but significant name as a furniture designer and a bigger name as a tastemaker — to keep him from having affairs with socialite Pamela Harriman and film star Anita Ekberg, among numerous other ladies. His pals included Rita Hayworth and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, although there is no proof he was intimate with them. The Agnellis remained married until his death. He was considered by some to be an elegant man. He left his extraordary paintings to the city of Turin in 2002. November 19 is the 323rd day of the year (324th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto (later Marella Agnelli) was a half-American, half-Neapolitan princess who made a small but significant name as a furniture designer and a bigger name as a tastemaker in the New York of the 1950s and 1960s. ... Pamela Harriman (20 March 1920 – 5 February 1997) was a Washington, D.C. socialite, and diplomat married to Randolph Churchill (son of Sir Winston Churchill) on 4 October 1939. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this section may require cleanup. ... Rita Hayworth (October 17, 1918 – May 14, 1987), was an American actress of Spanish and Irish descent who reached fame during the 1940s as the eras leading sex symbol. ... Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was the wife of John F. Kennedy whom she married in 1953 and was known as Jacqueline Kennedy or Jackie Kennedy. ...

Their only son, Edoardo Agnelli, was born seven months after the couple's wedding, in New York City on June 9, 1954. Gianni gave up trying to groom him to take over Fiat, seeing how the boy was more interested in mysticism than making cars (he studied religion at Princeton and took part in a world day of prayer in Assisi). Edoardo — who seemed burdened by the mantle of his surname — committed suicide on November 15, 2000 by jumping off a bridge in Turin; Gianni himself joined police at the scene. Edoardo never married, but he had one son ( born out of wedlock in 1973), who was not recognized by Gianni Agnelli. Edoardo Agnelli(1954-2000) Gianni Agnelli, The industrialist patriarch of the Fiat empire at 79, looked at his dead son and listened as the police reported to him that his only son, Edoardo, had committed suicide by throwing himself off a 200-foot motorway bridge just outside Turin, headquarters of... June 9 is the 160th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (161st in leap years), with 205 days remaining. ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Princeton University is a coeducational private university located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States of America. ... This article is about the Italian town. ... November 15 is the 319th day of the year (320th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 46 days remaining. ... 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The many detractors underline that in all his activity Agnelli mainly followed his family's interests, despite the eventual damage that this could cause to the nation. Fiat was always regarded by the Italian government as a sort of "obligation-free" company, for which the national labour and tax laws could be adjusted according to Fiat's interests. Also, he was seen as a man who was continuing to enrich himself while Italy was getting poorer. Agnelli never responded to these accusations.

It is, however, necessary to note how he was never personally involved in the many political scandals of the Bettino Craxi government era, even if bribery was publicly admitted in 1994 by Cesare Romiti, Agnelli's most trusted administrator for some 25 years. Number 3 in Fiat's hierarchy, Mattioli was imprisoned for bribery like Papi, leader of the Fiat-controlled Cogefar company. At the time, investigations were started after suspicions of special relationships with Salvo Lima, a Sicilian DC MP later recognised as a mafioso. Benedetto (Bettino) Craxi (Milan, February 24, 1934 – Hammamet, Tunisia, January 19, 2000) was an Italian politician, Prime Minister of Italy from 1983 to 1987 and head of the Italian Socialist Party from 1976 to 1993. ... Salvatore Lima (died March 12, 1992) was an Italian politician from Sicily who was murdered by the Mafia, with whom he was alleged to have ties with. ... Sicily (Sicilia in Italian and Sicilian) is an autonomous region of Italy and the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 25,708 km² (9,926 sq. ... Christian Democracy, (Democrazia Cristiana), the christian democratic party of Italy, commonly called the democristiani or DC, dominated government for nearly half a century until its demise amid a welter of corruption allegations in 1992-94. ... A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a parliament. ... This article is about the organized crime groups. ...

Agnelli stepped down in 1996, but stayed on as honorary chairman until his death. Giovanni Alberto, the son of Gianni's younger brother, Umberto Agnelli, died of a rare form of cancer in 1997 at age 33 while he was being groomed by his uncle to head the Fiat Group. John Elkann, the son of Gianni and Marella's daughter, Margherita, was expected to take over Fiat after Gianni's death. However, Umberto became chairman, taking over from Paolo Fresco. Fresco had diversified the Group's holdings, but Umberto refocused its activities on its auto and mechanics division. He then brought in Giuseppe Morchio to mastermind a rescue strategy for the company. Morchio was expected to continue to run the Fiat Group as it attempted to claw its way out of its latest financial crisis. However, upon Umberto's death, Ferrari chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo was named chairman, with Elkann as vice chairman; Morchio immediately offered his resignation. As his successor was named Sergio Marchionne, an expert of reorganisation, who led between 2002 and 2004 the Swiss certification company, Societé Générale de Surveillance (SGS). Umberto Agnelli, (November 1, 1934 - 28 May 2004) was the chairman of Italian carmaker Fiat from early 2003 until his death. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Ferrari is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. ... FIAT president Luca di Montezemolo The Marquis Luca Cordero di Montezemolo (b. ... Sergio Marchionne Sergio Marchionne is the chief executive officer of the Fiat Group. ... Logo of the Société Générale de Surveillance Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS) is an inspection, verification, testing and certification company. ...

Fiat-owned Scuderia Ferrari named their 2003 F1 contender the F2003-GA, in tribute to Agnelli [1]. Scuderia Ferrari is the name for the Gestione Sportiva, the division of the Ferrari automobile company concerned with racing. ...

See also

• gianniagnelli.it Tribute page (In Italian)
• Obituary: Gianni Agnelli dead at 81 From United Press International
• Agnelli's business legeacy From the BBC
• Home page for FIAT

Notes