Gianluigi Aponte (; born 27 June 1940) is an Italian
billionaire
A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...
businessman, and the founder, owner and chairman of
Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC).
Early life
Gianluigi Aponte was born in
Sant'Agnello, Italy (near
Sorrento, in the province of Naples)
on 27 June 1940.
Career
Aponte is a Neapolitan captain, who entered the shipping industry in 1970 together with his spouse, Rafaela. At the time, the newly-formed company owned a single vessel that shipped cargo between Europe and Africa. With the growth of his business, he made a move into the cruise industry in 1988. As of 2014, he had retired from the position of CEO and president in favour of his son
Diego Aponte, assuming the role of executive chairman within MSC.
Honours
In 2009, at the
Teatro di San Carlo of Naples, he received, along with
Fabio Cannavaro
Fabio Cannavaro (; born 13 September 1973) is an Italian professional football coach and former player. He is the current head coach of club Benevento.
A centre-back, he spent the majority of his career in Italy. He started his career at Napo ...
,
Ambra Vallo
Ambra Vallo is an Italian classical ballet dancer. Born in Naples, Italy, she is a principal dancer with the Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Biography and career
She trained at the Royal Ballet School of Flanders. At seventeen she was invited as a guest ...
and others, a prize for "Neapolitan Excellence in the World" from then-Italian prime minister
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies ...
.
In 2012, he won the Cruise International Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his long term activity in the industry.
In October 2013, he received Containerisation International’s Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as a knighthood, the
Order of Merit for Labour, from Italian President
Giorgio Napolitano
Giorgio Napolitano (; born 29 June 1925) is an Italian politician who served as president of Italy from 2006 to 2015, the first Italian president to be re-elected to the presidency. Due to his dominant position in Italian politics, some critics ...
. The Aponte family have featured prominently in the
Lloyd's List
''Lloyd's List'' is one of the world's oldest continuously running journals, having provided weekly shipping news in London as early as 1734. It was published daily until 2013 (when the final print issue, number 60,850, was published), and is ...
Top 100 most influential people in the shipping industry, named in the top 10 in 2014 and in position 16 in 2018.
Personal life
He is married to Rafaela Diamant Pinas, a Swiss woman of Israeli origin, and daughter of a Geneva banker, he met when she was a passenger on a boat of which he was the captain.
They have two children, Diego Aponte and Alexa Aponte Vago, who serve respectively as CEO and CFO of MSC.
References
External links
MSC
1940 births
Living people
People from Sorrento
Italian businesspeople in shipping
Italian billionaires
Italian expatriates in Switzerland
Recipients of the Order of Merit for Labour
Swiss billionaires
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