Giovanni Agnelli, more commonly known under the name of Gianni Agnelli and became known as the Avvocato, who was born on twelve march in Turin and died in twenty-four January in the same city, is a manufacturer and Italian businessman, co-owner and officer of the company FiatThe son of Edoardo Agnelli, founder of the winter sports resorts of Sestriere, and Virginia Bourbon del Monte, Gianni Agnelli was the grandson of senator namesake Giovanni Agnelli, which he inherited in the management of the family company after a period of"regency"provided by Vittorio Valletta. It is precisely Valletta, one of the last founding survivors, who formed the young Gianni to the management of a company as difficult as strategic, and that the initia particularly to relations with the political world. Gianni Agnelli knew how to make Fiat the largest Italian company, and one of the major car manufacturers in Europe at the same time he developed also the other companies of the group, which included companies present in the sectors military and strategic. Agnelli and Fiat were identified to one another in the common sense, Agnelli wanted to say Fiat, and especially Fiat wanted to say Agnelli.
During the Second world War he had trained at the School of application for cavalry of Pinerolo, near Turin, and had obtained a license in law at the university of the capital of piedmont.
He was enrolled in a regiment of tanks and sent to the Russian Front, and then in North Africa, where he was wounded. After the armistice, he served as a liaison officer with the allied troops. After a long period of relaxation and celebration, the young Gianni Agnelli took over the helm of the family group in. He succeeds Vittorio Valletta who assumed the regency for almost twenty years, since the death of Giovanni Agnelli father in. It will be a long affair from to with Pamela Harriman, who will provide nursing care during his serious car accident and he left to marry princess Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto to the château d'osthoffen in Alsace next to Strasbourg.
The father of Marella prince Filippo Caracciolo di Castagneto, in fact, was the first General Secretary of the new Council of Europe in Strasbourg.
He had rented an apartment at the château d'osthoffen that he lived three years. The marriage was celebrated in the church of the village in mid-November. The celebration took place at the château d'osthoffen leased to the owner the Baron Grouvel. In the s, Gianni and his wife Marella is the successor to Dorothy Walton Killam and became the new owner of the famous Villa Leopolda on the French Riviera. He begins a real renovation of the villa, installing including a lounge Italian. Agnelli will open the Fiat factory in all parts of the globe, from Russia (then still the soviet Union) to South America, and tissera, a dense network of alliances and joint ventures such as IVECO, which marked a turning point in the mind of the industrial era in Europe. In the s, during the oil crisis, it will assign to the company, Lafico, a libyan society linked to colonel Gaddafi, shares in Fiat, which he bought many years later. Its relations with the Italian left, especially the PCI of Enrico Berlinguer, was the essence of the relations of the industry with the political forces and particularly with the trade unions. These last suffered a defeat memorable when, in the s, a general strike that had totally blocked the production was broken by the famous"march of the Forty thousand"after the number of workers who, at a given time, returned to the factories and took the work. This action marked a turning point, and the abrupt loss of power previously held by the unions in Italy, who had never more by following the same influence on the society and on the national policy. It must be remembered that during the years of lead, we hypothesized that terrorists were able to infiltrate inside the trade unions, and in the wake of several assassinations of leaders and managers of Fiat (perpetrated by the red Brigades, Prima Linea and NAP), insinua the terrible suspicion that the trade unions could, in any way, have them covered. It will be part of the"Gruppo per le Autonomie"(Group for the Autonomies) and participated in the defence Committee of the Senate. At the beginning of the s, Agnelli opened the capital of Fiat Auto only to the Americans of General Motors, with which it establishes an agreement that were to become the main shareholder of GM with of the capital of the american manufacturer, which to him, would receive of the share capital of Fiat division Automobiles. The recent economic crisis of the automotive business of Fiat group occurred while Agnelli was fighting already against the cancer that would take his life in January, and he could not take a smaller share of the events. (These agreements participations crusaders became obsolete at the end of.) Also known by its nickname, the Avvocato (lawyer), although he has never practiced near or far, this business, Agnelli remains the most important character and the most prestigious of the Italian economy, the symbol of capitalism of the second half of the Twentieth century, and it was considered by some as the true"king of Italy". Grown man, has a sense of humor sui generis, it was probably the Italian most known abroad, maintaining relations with bankers and politicians at the international level (which some, like Henry Kissinger, became his personal friends). It was also seen as a stylish man In, he bequeathed to the city of Turin has an immense heritage of paintings, featuring its extraordinary art gallery at the disposal of his fellow citizens. Its many detractors underline that in all his activity, Agnelli would primarily promoted the interests of his family, and his own personal interests, to the detriment of the collective interest, sometimes even to the detriment of the national interest. The firm Fiat, there is, has always been treated by the Italian government with a kind of reverence institutional, as if it had awarded him some kind of immunity to legal and tax. Agnelli, in addition, was also considered"the hungerer", the one who continued to enrich themselves, while Italy is appauvrissait. Agnelli answered, but never to these accusations Italy became the sixth world power. His nephew, Giovanni Agnelli, known as"Giovannino", son of her brother Umberto, who was called to take the head of Fiat, died suddenly of cancer by storm at the age of thirty-three years in. His son Edoardo, who lived an existence that is marginal, committed suicide on fifteen November. It is now his grandson, John Elkann says"Jaki", the first of eight children of Margherita Agnelli, daughter of the Avvocato, who is his successor. In, the single-seater the Scuderia Ferrari was referred to as the F-GA, in tribute to Giovanni Agnelli."In difficult times, there is always in my subconscious, something that calls me, and this is the reason for which Juventus won again today."In, it replaces Piero Dusio, and becomes the new president of Juventus, the club he supported (his idol was child the Hungarian Ferenc Hirzer, great striker bianconero) and he was directly owns (purchased by his father in), a role he assumed until.
The figure of Gianni Agnelli was also closely linked to the history of Juventus, one of the two soccer teams of Turin, his native city.
His daily phone calls at six in the morning addressed to the famous captain and later club president Giampiero Boniperti, past any place where Agnelli stood, and whatever the business that occupied, are remained legendary. he was made a Knight grand cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic on the twenty seven day of December.
