Umberto Agnelli

Umberto Agnelli
Member of the Senate of the Republic
In office 5 July 1976 – 19 June 1979
Constituency	Roma VIII
Personal details
Born	(1934-11-01)1 November 1934 Lausanne, Switzerland
Died	27 May 2004(2004-05-27) (aged 69) Piedmont, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Political party	Christian Democracy
Spouse(s)	Antonella Bechi Piaggio (divorced) Allegra Caracciolo di Castagneto
Children	Giovanni Alberto Agnelli Andrea Agnelli Anna Agnelli
Parents	Edoardo Agnelli Virginia Bourbon del Monte
Alma mater	University of Catania
Occupation	Head of Fiat and Juventus

Umberto Agnelli (Italian: [umˈbɛrto aɲˈɲɛlli]; 1 November 1934 – 27 May 2004) was an Italian industrialist and politician. He was the third son of Virginia Agnelli (born Donna Virginia Bourbon del Monte) and of Edoardo Agnelli, and the youngest brother of Gianni Agnelli.

He served as a CEO of Italian carmaker Fiat from 1970 to 1976^[1] and, on the death of his brother Gianni, was briefly chairman of the FIAT Group, 2003–2004, until his own death, aged 69, the following year. He was also chairman and later honorary chairman^{[citation needed]} of Juventus, the football team long-associated with FIAT and the Agnelli family, and was for a time the president of the Italian Football Association. He was a senator of the Italian Republic, from 1976 to 1979. In 2015, he was posthumously inducted into the Italian Football Hall of Fame.^[2]

Career[]

Umberto Agnelli with wife Antonella Piaggio at the 1960 Olympics

Umberto Agnelli (right) with Gianni Agnelli, 1965

Agnelli was chairman of FIAT-controlled Juventus Football Club between 1956–61 and was honorary chairman from 1970–2004.

Agnelli was chairman of Fiat France 1965–80, chief executive officer of Fiat SpA 1970–76 and vice-president 1976–93. He was chairman of Fiat Auto 1980–90 and a member of International Advisory Board 1993–2004.

Though he was a senior executive in the family company, Fiat, he was sidelined from taking a leadership role by his brother Gianni until the latter's death in 2003. Only then did he take over as chairman of the whole Fiat Group, 2003–2004. The Group controlled several Italian newspapers and publishers in addition to the FIAT car-firms and Juventus.

Umberto was in the process of restoring Fiat's fortunes, following a period in which the company's balance sheet, market share and share value had all been in decline, when he suddenly died of lung cancer after barely 18 months in control. Despite this, Forbes magazine estimated he was the world's 68th richest man with an approximate net worth of US$5.5 billion. He was a member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group.^[3]

Family[]

Agnelli was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, the youngest of seven children. His life was beset by an unusual amount of tragedy and bereavement. His father Edoardo Agnelli perished in an air crash when he was one year old, and his mother Virginia died in a car accident ten years later when he was just 11 years old.

In 1959 Agnelli married the heiress Donna Antonella Bechi Piaggio, from the well-known business-family of Piaggio. They had three sons but their first, twin boys, died shortly after birth. The third son, , grew up to be the head of the maternal family-firm Piaggio, and was being groomed to succeed at Fiat, but died of cancer at the age of 33 in 1997.

Umberto and Antonella Agnelli later divorced, and in 1974 Umberto married Donna Allegra Caracciolo di Castagneto. Allegra is the first cousin of Umberto's sister in law Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto, the wife of his brother Giovanni (Gianni). The ladies come from the old Neapolitan noble family that has, among other, the titles of nobility of Prince of Castagneto and Duke of Melito.

Umberto and Allegra had two children: Andrea (born 1975) and Anna (born 1977). Andrea later followed in his father's footsteps by becoming chairman of Juventus, in 2010.

References[]

Further reading[]

• Marco Ferrante, Casa Agnelli, Mondadori, 2007, ISBN 978-88-04-56673-1
• Giancarlo Galli, Gli Agnelli, il tramonto di una dinastia, Mondadori, Edizione 2003, ISBN 88-04-51768-9
• Alan Friedman, Agnelli and the network of italian power, Mandarin Paperback (Octopus Publishing Gr.), London, 1988, ISBN 0-7493-0093-0
• Angiolo Silvio Ori, Storia di una dinastia – Gli Agnelli e la Fiat, Editori Riuniti, Roma, 1996 ISBN 88-359-4059-1

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Umberto Agnelli.

• Forbes Rich List entry
• Obituary