Giovanni "Giovannino" Alberto Agnelli (April 19, 1964 – December 13, 1997) was an Italian businessman and member of the
Agnelli family, an Italian industrial dynasty associated with
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 ...
. Agnelli's father was politician and industrialist
Umberto Agnelli; his uncle was Fiat head
Gianni Agnelli. Prior to his 1997 death at age 33, Giovanni was the
heir apparent and designated future chairman of the
Fiat group
Stellantis Italy, formerly known as Fiat Group Automobiles S.p.A. from 2007 to 2014 and FCA Italy S.p.A. from 2014 to 2021, is the Italian subsidiary of the multinational automaker Stellantis, dedicated to the production and selling of passenger ...
.
According to the ''
New York Times,'' his reputation among the Italian public was comparable to that of
John F. Kennedy Jr. in the United States: "rich, strikingly handsome, always smiling and the leading voice of his generation."
Biography
Early life and career
Giovanni Alberto Agnelli was born on April 19, 1964, in
Milan, Italy to Umberto Agnelli and . Both sides of his family were associated with the motor vehicle industry; Giovanni Alberto's paternal great–grandfather was
Giovanni Agnelli
Giovanni Agnelli (13 August 1866 – 16 December 1945) was an Italian businessman, who founded Fiat car manufacturing in 1899.
Early life
The son of Edoardo Agnelli and Aniceta Frisetti, he was born in 1866 in Villar Perosa, a small town near ...
, founder of Fiat while his mother's stepfather was
Enrico Piaggio, son of
Piaggio founder
Rinaldo Piaggio.
Agnelli's parents divorced in 1974; the young Giovanni followed his mother to the United States where he attended
The McCallie School in
Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Agnelli enrolled at
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
as a member of the class of 1986 where he studied international relations. According to ''
The Independent,'' Agnelli was often tipped as "Europe's most
eligible bachelor" though in reality had "little interest in the playboy lifestyle."
Agnelli joined Piaggio in 1987. In 1993 Agnelli became president of the company, which he successfully turned around and built into a European market leader.
In the summer of 1995, Gianni Agnelli officially announced Giovanni's selection as designated future chairman of Fiat.
In the role, Agnelli distanced himself from his family and Italy's business establishment, calling for generational change, advocating for more competition from international investment banks in corporate finance, and pushing for increased transparency in Italian capitalism. In an interview with the ''New York Times,'' Agnelli stated "because of my education I am more Anglo-Saxon and that means I would like to see the financial markets ruling more and public company models ruled by the forces of the market."
Personal life and death
In 1996, Agnelli married Frances Avery Howe, an architect who Agnelli met when they were both students at Brown University.
Frances gave birth to a child in September 1997; by this time, Agnelli was already experiencing advanced illness from a rare form of
stomach cancer
Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a cancer that develops from the lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a number of subtypes, including gastric adenocarcinomas. Lymph ...
.
Agnelli died in
Turin on December 13, 1997.
According to an obituary, Agnelli's death was a "setback for millions of Italians who saw him as a symbol of generational change, as a spokesman for the need to reform Italy's clubby and oligarchic system of capitalism and as an ardent supporter of political reforms."
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Agnelli, Giovanni Alberto
1964 births
1997 deaths
People from Milan
Agnelli family
Italian industrialists
Brown University alumni
Deaths from cancer in Piedmont
Deaths from stomach cancer