Umberto Agnelli (1 November 1934 – 27 May 2004) was an
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
entrepreneurAn entrepreneur is a person who has possession of an enterprise, or venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. It is an ambitious leader who combines land, labor, and capital to often create and market new goods or services. ... The term is a loanword...
and
politicianA politician or political leader is an individual who is involved in influencing public decision making. This includes people who hold decision-making positions in government, and people who seek those positions, whether by means of election, coup d'état, appointment, electoral fraud, conquest,...
. His brother was
Gianni AgnelliGiovanni Agnelli, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , better known as Gianni Agnelli, was an Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat...
.
He served as a
CEOA chief executive officer or chief executive is one of the highest-ranking corporate officers or administrators in charge of total management...
of
FiatFiat S.p.A., an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial and industrial group based in Turin in the Piedmont region. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli. Fiat has also...
from 1970-1976 and senator of the Italian Republic, from 1976 to 1979, and was the honorary chairman of the Juventus soccer team, the past president of the Italian Football Association and later chairman of Italian carmaker
FiatFiat S.p.A., an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial and industrial group based in Turin in the Piedmont region. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli. Fiat has also...
from early 2003 until his death from
lung cancerLung cancer is a disease of uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. This growth may lead to metastasis, which is the invasion of adjacent tissue and infiltration beyond the lungs. The vast majority of primary lung cancers are carcinomas of the lung, derived from epithelial cells...
aged 69.
Agnelli was born in Torino in
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
.
Umberto Agnelli (1 November 1934 – 27 May 2004) was an
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
entrepreneurAn entrepreneur is a person who has possession of an enterprise, or venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. It is an ambitious leader who combines land, labor, and capital to often create and market new goods or services. ... The term is a loanword...
and
politicianA politician or political leader is an individual who is involved in influencing public decision making. This includes people who hold decision-making positions in government, and people who seek those positions, whether by means of election, coup d'état, appointment, electoral fraud, conquest,...
. His brother was
Gianni AgnelliGiovanni Agnelli, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , better known as Gianni Agnelli, was an Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat...
.
He served as a
CEOA chief executive officer or chief executive is one of the highest-ranking corporate officers or administrators in charge of total management...
of
FiatFiat S.p.A., an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial and industrial group based in Turin in the Piedmont region. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli. Fiat has also...
from 1970-1976 and senator of the Italian Republic, from 1976 to 1979, and was the honorary chairman of the Juventus soccer team, the past president of the Italian Football Association and later chairman of Italian carmaker
FiatFiat S.p.A., an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial and industrial group based in Turin in the Piedmont region. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli. Fiat has also...
from early 2003 until his death from
lung cancerLung cancer is a disease of uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. This growth may lead to metastasis, which is the invasion of adjacent tissue and infiltration beyond the lungs. The vast majority of primary lung cancers are carcinomas of the lung, derived from epithelial cells...
aged 69.
Business career
Agnelli was born in Torino in
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
. He was a senior executive in the family company, Fiat, but was sidelined by his brother
GianniGiovanni Agnelli, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , better known as Gianni Agnelli, was an Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat...
until the latter's death in 2003. He then took over the Fiat group, which also controlled several Italian newspapers and publishers, and the Juventus soccer club, of which he had served as chairman. Umberto Agnelli was in the process of restoring Fiat's balance sheet after the company's balance sheet, market share, and share value were all in decline. Despite this,
ForbesForbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, Forbes magazine, is published fortnightly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published fortnightly, and Business Week...
magazine estimated he was the world's 68th richest man with an approximate net worth of
US$The United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents .The U.S...
1.5 billion.
Personal life
He first married heiress Donna Antonella Bechi Piaggio in 1959, with whom he had three sons. The first, twin boys, died shortly after birth.
The third son Giovanni Alberto Agnelli was groomed to succeed at Fiat but died of cancer at the age of 33 in 1997. Giovanni was survived by his wife Avery Agnelli née Howe and a daughter Virginia Asia Agnelli.
Umberto and Antonella later divorced, and Umberto married Donna Allegra Caracciolo di Castagneto in 1974, who is the first cousin of his sister in law
Marella Caracciolo di CastagnetoMarella Caracciolo di Castagneto is an Italian-American who made a small but significant name as a fabric designer and a bigger name as a tastemaker and socialite of New York society during the 1950s and 1960s...
. They had two children, a son named Andrea born in 1976, and a daughter Anna born in 1977.
External links