Giovanni Agnelli (13 August 1866 – 16 December 1945) was an Italian businessman, who founded
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 ...
car manufacturing in 1899.
Early life
The son of
Edoardo Agnelli
Edoardo Agnelli (9 June 1954 – 15 November 2000) was the eldest child and only son of Gianni Agnelli, the industrialist patriarch of Fiat and of Marella Agnelli (born Donna Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto). He converted to Islam when he was l ...
and
Aniceta Frisetti, he was born in 1866 in
Villar Perosa
Villar Perosa ( Occitan ''Lhi Vialars''; French: ''Grand-Villars'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about southwest of Turin.
Villar Perosa borders the following municipal ...
, a small town near
Pinerolo
Pinerolo (; pms, Pinareul ; french: Pignerol; oc, Pineròl) is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont, northwestern Italy, southwest of Turin on the river Chisone. The Lemina torrent has its source at the boundary be ...
,
Piedmont
it, Piemontese
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, still the main home and burial place of the Agnelli family. His father, mayor of Villar Perosa, died at age 40, when Giovanni was just five. He studied at the Collegio San Giuseppe in
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
; then embarked on a military career until 1893 when he returned to
Villar Perosa
Villar Perosa ( Occitan ''Lhi Vialars''; French: ''Grand-Villars'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about southwest of Turin.
Villar Perosa borders the following municipal ...
, where he followed in his father's footsteps and became mayor in 1895 which he held until his death. Agnelli heard about the invention of the (then) new horseless carriage and immediately saw an opportunity for using his engineering and entrepreneurial skills. In 1898, he met Count Emanuele Cacherano di
Bricherasio
Bricherasio (French: Briqueras) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about southwest of Turin.
Bricherasio borders the following municipalities: Angrogna, San Secondo di Pinerol ...
, who was looking for investors for his horseless carriage project; Agnelli sensed the opportunity.
Business career
On 11 July 1899, Agnelli was part of the group of founding members of "
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 ...
" (an acronym for "Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili Torino"), which became Fiat; he paid $400 for his share in 1899, worth around $11,500 in today's prices. One year later, he was the managing director of the new company and became the chairman in 1920. The first Fiat plant opened in 1900 with 35 staff making 24 cars. The company was known from the beginning for the talent and creativity of its engineering staff. By 1903, Fiat made a small profit and produced 135 cars growing to 1,149 cars by 1906. The company then went public selling shares via the
Milan stock exchange
Borsa Italiana, based in Milan, is the Italian stock exchange. It manages and organises domestic market, regulating procedures for admission and listing of companies and intermediaries and supervising disclosures for listed companies.italy24.ils ...
. Agnelli began purchasing all the shares he could to add to his holdings. During this time, he overcame scandals and labour problems.
![Giovanni agnelli senior](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Giovanni_agnelli_senior.jpg)
During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Agnelli became involved with the financier
Riccardo Gualino
Riccardo Gualino (25 March 1879 – 6 June 1964) was an Italian Business magnate and art collector. He was also a patron, and an important film producer. His first business empire was based on lumber from Eastern Europe and included forest concess ...
in transport of US aid to Europe in 1917. They invested in two enterprises in the United States; the Marine & Commerce Corporation of America exported coal and the International Shipbuilding Company made motorized vessels. These companies failed when the war ended, since they were structured to meet wartime demand, but had returned large profits to their owners.
Agnelli and Gualino made an attempt early in 1918 to take over Credito Italiano. They did not succeed, but joined the board of directors of the bank.
Agnelli was vice-president of Gualino's
SNIA from 1917 to 1926. In the early 1920s, SNIA began to manufacture artificial textile fibers.
![Mussolini a Torino nel 1932 con Giovanni Agnelli](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Mussolini_a_Torino_nel_1932_con_Giovanni_Agnelli.JPG)
In 1920, Gualino and Agnelli participated in recapitalization of the private bank Jean de Fernex and bought a third of the shares of Alfredo Frassati, publisher of ''
La Stampa
''La Stampa'' (meaning ''The Press'' in English) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Turin, Italy. It is distributed in Italy and other European nations. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Italy.
History and profile
The paper was fou ...
''. Gualino and Agnelli were also involved in a proposal to link
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
,
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...
and
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
with a high-speed railway and in various projects in cement and automobiles. Their partnership broke up around 1926 due to Gualino's investments in the French automobile industry.
After World War I, Fiat jumped from 30th to third place among Italian industrial companies. The first
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
factory was opened four years after Fiat was founded. In 1906, the first Fiat car dealer in the U.S. was established at a location in Manhattan on Broadway. Agnelli was an acquaintance of
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
from 1914 and was appointed by the dictator as a
Senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
in 1923, as a representative of the
National Fascist Party
The National Fascist Party ( it, Partito Nazionale Fascista, PNF) was a political party in Italy, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of Italian Fascism and as a reorganization of the previous Italian Fasces of Combat. The ...
, and filled several other prestigious positions between the two wars. He remained focused and propelled Fiat to the international arena.
Later life
![Fiat Sen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Fiat_Sen._con_Avv.-1940.jpg)
He was still active with Fiat at the start of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. After the war ended he was accused together with
Vittorio Valletta
Vittorio Valletta (28 July 1883 in Sampierdarena – 10 August 1967 in Foccette di Pietrasanta) was an Italian industrialist and President of Fiat from 1946 to 1966.
Born at Sampierdarena, near Genoa, Valletta was a lecturer in economics b ...
and Giancarlo Camerana, by a commission from the
National Liberation Committee
The National Liberation Committee ( it, Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale, CLN) was a political umbrella organization and the main representative of the Italian resistance movement fighting against Nazi Germany’s forces during the German occup ...
of collaboration with the Fascist regime and was temporarily deprived of ownership of his companies. Agnelli was later acquitted and died soon after on 16 December 1945 at age 79.
Honours
* Knight of the Order of Labour (30 May 1907)
* Grand Officer of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (6 February 1921)
* Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy (15 December 1932; Grand Officer: 1 February 1920; Knight: 8 December 1898)
* Inducted into the
Automotive Hall of Fame
The Automotive Hall of Fame is an American museum. It was founded in 1939 and has over 800 worldwide honorees. It is part of the MotorCities National Heritage Area. the Automotive Hall of Fame includes persons who have contributed greatly to a ...
in 2002.
* Inducted into the European Automotive Hall of Fame in 2001.
See also
*
Ceirano GB & C
Ceirano GB & C was a historic automobile company, founded in October 1888 by Giovanni Battista Ceirano, Emanuele di Bricherasio, Attilio Calligaris, Pietro Fenoglio and Cesare Goria Gatti.
The new company was based in Turin, where it began to b ...
Bibliography
*
*
*
* Marco Ferrante, ''Casa Agnelli'', Mondadori, 2007,
*
Alan Friedman
Alan Friedman (; born April 30, 1956) is an American journalist, author, documentary writer and producer, TV anchor and former media and public relations executive.
Early life and education
Friedman was born in New York City from a Jewish f ...
, ''Agnelli and the network of italian power'', Mandarin Paperback (Octopus Publishing Gr.), London, 1988,
*
Marina Ripa di Meana e Gabriella Mecucci, ''Virginia Agnelli'', Argelato (BO), Minerva Edizioni, 2010,
* Gustavo Mola di Nomaglio, ''Gli Agnelli. Storia e genealogia di una grande famiglia piemontese dal XVI secolo al 1866'', Torino, Centro Studi Piemontesi, 1998,
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Agnelli, Giovanni
1866 births
1945 deaths
People from the Province of Turin
Giovanni Giovanni may refer to:
* Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname
* Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data
* ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...
Italian automotive pioneers
Italian founders of automobile manufacturers
Fiat people
Members of the Senate of the Kingdom of Italy
Automotive businesspeople