Giovanni Agnelli biography
Giovanni Agnelli, (born March 12, 1921, Turin, Italy—died January 24, 2003, Turin), chairman of the auto manufacturing firm Fiat SpA, Italy’s largest non-public enterprise enterprise, from 1966 to 2003.
Grandson of Fiat’s founder (additionally named Giovanni Agnelli), the youthful Giovanni was introduced up in affluence and groomed by his grandfather to run the household enterprise. His father had died when the boy was 14 years outdated, making Giovanni—the oldest son—subsequent in line to take over management of Fiat from his grandfather.
Agnelli resisted his grandfather’s plea to take a secure job with Fiat throughout World War II, insisting as a substitute on seeing fight with the Italian military—first towards the Russians and later towards the Germans. After the struggle, Agnelli accepted his grandfather’s recommendation to take pleasure in life to the fullest earlier than settling down, and for a number of years Giovanni Agnelli was one of many world’s main playboys. A critical automotive crash in 1952, nonetheless, put an finish to his days of racing cars.
By that point Agnelli was already head of the household’s ball-bearing enterprise and vice-chairman of Fiat’s board of administrators. In 1963 he took over as Fiat’s managing director and in 1966 succeeded to operational management of the corporate as chairman and chief government officer. As such, he grew to become some of the highly effective males in western Europe, and he was credited with serving to industrialize postwar Italy. In addition to creating cars, Agnelli’s industrial colossus had pursuits in insurance coverage, delivery, oil refining, publishing, banking, retailing, athletic groups, motels, food and drinks purveyors, and factories that produce cement, chemical substances, and plastics. By the late Nineteen Nineties, nonetheless, Fiat was experiencing monetary difficulties, and the corporate was within the midst of restructuring on the time of Agnelli’s demise.