Gianni Agnelli

Giovanni Agnelli, also known as Gianni Agnelli, (March 12, 1921 - January 24, 2003), was an Italian industrialist and head of FIAT, son of Edoardo Agnelli (1892-1935) and his wife Virginia Bourbon del Monte (1899-1945), was born in Turin, Italy.

He was educated at Pinerolo cavalry academy, and studied law at the University of Turin, though he was never to practice 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 as they fought in a bar over a woman. After Italy surrendered, he became a liason officer with the Americans. His grandfather, who had manufactured vehicles for the Axis during the war, was forced to retire from FIAT but named his own successor, Valetta. Gianni's grandfather died, leaving Gianni head of the family, but Valletta ran the company. Fiat began producing Italy's first inexpensive mass-produced car, as Gianni made female conquests throughout Europe.

In 1948 he began a five-year affaire with Pamela Beryl Digby Churchill (March 20, 1920 - February 5, 1997), the ex-daughter-in-law of Sir Winston Churchill. However, Gianni became increasingly unfaithful. In 1952 Pamela surprised him in their bedroom with a young girl. She threw them both out and Agnelli, while driving the girl home, was involved in a car accident and severely injured. His right leg was crushed and broken in several places. A plaster cast was applied too tightly and caused gangrene. Since he had taken cocaine, the required operation could only be performed under a local anesthetic. Pamela was present and covered his eyes while the operation was performed. Gianni's recovery, which Pamela supervised, took months. Afterwards she became pregnant but had an abortion in Switzerland. Pamela began to give up hope of ever marrying him and, when Princess Marella Caracciolo dei Duchi di Melito dei Principi di Castagneto (born May 4, 1927) became pregnant by him, Pamela suggested that he marry her.

They married, on November 19, 1953, in Stoffen, Strassburg, Their children were Eduardo (1954-2000) and Margherita (born 1955)

Many years later Marella said about her husband: "For Gianni, a woman is to be conquered, not to be loved."

By 1993, the Fiat conglomerate had grown and Gianni's personal fortune was worth more than $3 billion, making him the richest man in Italy.

The son of Edoardo Agnelli (1892-1935) Virginia Bourbon del Monte (1899-1945), he was more meaningly the grandson of Giovanni Agnelli, the founder of Italian car industry, he inherited the command of the group in 1966, after a temporary "rule" by Vittorio Valletta during which Gianni was learning how his family's company worked. Agnelli brought Fiat to become the most important company in Italy, one of the major car builders of Europe, and enforced the accessory business, with minor companies also operating in military industry. Agnelli and Fiat would have soon merged in the common vision, Agnelli meaning Fiat and, more sensibly, Fiat meaning Agnelli.

He had been educated at Pinerolo cavalry academy, and studied law at the University of Turin, though he was never to practice 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 as they fought in a bar over a woman. After Italy surrendered, he became a liason officer with the Americans. His grandfather who had manufactured vehicles for the Axis during the war, was forced to retire from FIAT but named his own successor, Valetta. Gianni's grandfather died, leaving Gianni head of the family, but Valletta ran the company. Fiat began producing Italy's first inexpensive mass-produced car, as Gianni made female conquests throughout Europe.

He opened factories throughout the world, from Russia (at the time 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 have later re-bought these stocks.

His relationships with the leftist forces, especially with Enrico Berlinguer's Communist Party, were the essence of the relationships between labour forces and Italian industry. The social conflicts related with Fiat's policies (some say politics) always saw Agnelli keeping the leading role; in the 1980s, under the last important attack by trade unions, in a dramatic situation in which a strike was blocking all of Fiat's production, he was able to organise a march of 40,000 workers who broke the block and re-entered the factories and started again to work. this marked the end of a power of trade unions, which would have never again been so influent on Italian politics and economy.

Agnelli was named a senator for life in 1991 and subscribed to the parliamentary group for the autonomies; he was later named a member of the senate's defense commission.

At the beginning of 2000s Agnelli opened to General Motors, with which an agreement was settled in order to progressively let the American company enter Fiat. The recent serious crisis of Fiat (cars) found Agnelli already fighting against cancer, and he could take little part in these events.

The figure of Gianni Agnelli was also strictly connected with the story of Juventus, one of the most famous Italian football clubs, which he personally followed. His phone calls, every morning at 6am, from wherever he was, whatever was he doing, to the Juventus' president Giampiero Boniperti, were somehow legendary.

Nicknamed l'Avvocato (the lawyer) because graduated in law (but he never really was 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 by many regarded 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, with deep relationships with international bankers and politicians (some of them became close friends, like Henry Kissinger). He was by some considered an elegant man.

The many detractors underline that in all his activity he mainly followed his family's interests, despite the eventual damages that these could cause to the nation. Fiat was always regarded by the italian government as a sort of "obligations-free" company, for which the national labour and tax laws could be adjusted according to Fiat's interests. Also, he was seen as the man who could keep on enriching while Italy was getting poorer. Agnelli never replied to these objections..

Gianni's son-in-law Alain Elkann, is expected to be the next head of FIAT.