Adolfo Orsi (23 March 1888 – 20 December 1972) was an Italian industrialist, known for owning the

Maserati Maserati S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury vehicle manufacturer. Established on 1 December 1914, in Bologna, Italy, the company's headquarters are now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. The company has been owned by Stellantis since 2021. Ma ...

automobile maker. Born within a poor family in Sant'Agnese, near

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

, Orsi lost his father in 1899 - an event that forced him to start working at a very young age. In the late 1920s he started his own business as scrap iron,

steel mill A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-finish ...

and

farm equipment Agricultural machinery relates to the mechanical structures and devices used in farming or other agriculture. There are many types of such equipment, from hand tools and power tools to tractors and the countless kinds of farm implements that the ...

manufacturer, eventually employing hundreds of people from Modena and the surrounding area. Orsi soon started pursuing interests outside of the company, including running the trolley company of Modena, and being involved with the local soccer team,

Modena F.C. Modena Football Club 2018, commonly referred to as Modena, is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in Modena, Emilia-Romagna. The club was founded in 1912, and refounded in 2018, and had spent the majority of its existence playing i ...

in its successful early years. With his brother, Marcello, he was also involved in a

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...

dealership, the ''Fiat A.M. Orsi'' (1935).

Maserati

In 1937 Orsi bought the financially troubled

company, employing his son, Omar Orsi, as managing director; three of the Maserati Brothers were retained on ten-year contracts on the engineering team (1937–47). In 1940 Orsi moved the Maserati headquarters from

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

to Modena, near the premises of his steel plants and spark plug manufacturing company, ''Fonderie Riunite''. In 1949, with Maserati temporarily closed for restructuring, a steel mill workers'

strike action Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to Labor (economics), work. A strike usually takes place in response to grievance (labour), employee grievance ...

following Orsi's refusal to hire

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

workers resulted in a series of hard encounters on 9 June 1950, leaving a few protesters dead. When the foundries were reopened in 1952, Orsi decided to sell the company, splitting it with his siblings. Adolfo kept the Maserati car manufacturing business, his brother Marcello kept the foundries, and their sister Ida Orsi took charge of the motorbike manufacturing (the ''Società Anonima Fabbrica Candele Accumulatori Maserati'', 1953–60). The 1950s proved to be a successful decade for Maserati. Orsi hired his brother in-law Alceste Giacomazzi as new general director, and succeeded in luring

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...

employee

Alberto Massimino Alberto Massimino (5 January 1895 – 27 November 1975) was an Italian automotive engineer. Biography Born in Turin, he studied mechanical engineering in Switzerland and worked for FIAT (1924–28), where he followed Vittorio Jano who had left fo ...

to Maserati (1944–52), as well as hiring the Argentine driver ace

Juan Manuel Fangio Juan Manuel Fangio (American Spanish: , ; 24 June 1911 – 17 July 1995), nicknamed ''El Chueco'' ("the bowlegged" or "bandy legged one") or ''El Maestro'' ("The Master" or "The Teacher"), was an Argentine racing car driver. He dominated t ...

(1953). Fangio went on to win the

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

World Championship for Maserati in 1954 and 1957. In 1954 Orsi made a lucrative deal with

Juan Perón Juan Domingo Perón (, , ; 8 October 1895 – 1 July 1974) was an Argentine Army general and politician. After serving in several government positions, including Minister of Labour and Vice President of a military dictatorship, he was elected P ...

when the motor racing enthusiast president of

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

placed a large order for machine tools to be imported in his country. However, following the

Revolución Libertadora ''Revolución Libertadora'' (; ''Liberating Revolution'') was the coup d'état that ended the second presidential term of Juan Perón in Argentina, on 16 September 1955. Background President Perón was first elected in 1946. In 1949, a ...

and the exile of Perón, receiving payments for the order turned out to be problematic. Orsi encountered similar issues with the Spanish government, and the ensuing financial problems resulted in Maserati entering administration. The remnants of

was handled by the creditor,

Credito Italiano Credito Italiano also known as just Credit, was an Italian bank, now part of UniCredit. It was merged with Unicredito in 1998, forming Unicredito Italiano (now UniCredit). Circa 1999 to 2002 UniCredit created a new subsidiary of the same name to ru ...

. Orsi remained active within the management of Maserati until 1968, when he decided to sell his remaining shares to

Citroën Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired ...

, who at the time was a major stakeholder.cartype.com
Omar Orsi's son, Adolfo Orsi Jr. (born 1951) is involved as consultant on the history of Maserati.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orsi, Adolfo 1888 births 1972 deaths People from the Province of Modena 20th-century Italian businesspeople Maserati people Formula One team owners Italian automotive pioneers Italian motorsport people