Romano Artioli (born 5 December 1932, in Moglia) is an Italian entrepreneur and one-time owner of

Bugatti Automobiles Ettore Bugatti was a German then French manufacturer of high-performance automobiles. The company was founded in 1909 in the then-German city of Molsheim, Alsace, by the Italian-born industrial designer Ettore Bugatti. The cars w ...

and Lotus automobile brands. Artioli was born in Moglia in the

Province of Mantua The Province of Mantua ( it, provincia di Mantova; Mantovano, Lower Mantovano: ; Upper Mantovano: ) is a province in the Lombardy region of Northern Italy. Its capital is the city of Mantua. It is bordered to the north-east by the Province o ...

, and raised in

Bolzano Bolzano ( or ; german: Bozen, (formerly ); bar, Bozn; lld, Balsan or ) is the capital city of the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third la ...

where in the 1980s he ran one of the largest

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 ...

dealerships in the world, selling in northern Italy and southern Germany. He also imported Japanese cars, owning ''Autoexpò'' which in 1982 became the first Italian importer of

Suzuki is a Japan, Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Minami-ku, Hamamatsu, Japan. Suzuki manufactures automobiles, motorcycles, All-terrain vehicle, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), outboard motor, outboard marine engines, wheelchairs ...

. He was encouraged by

Ferruccio Lamborghini Ferruccio Lamborghini (; 28 April 1916 – 20 February 1993) was an Italian automobile designer, inventor, mechanic, engineer, winemaker, industrialist and businessman who created Automobili Lamborghini in 1963, a maker of high-end sports cars ...

and Paolo Stanzani to establish ''Bugatti International'', a holding company that bought the Bugatti trademark name in 1987 with Jan K Breitfeld as President of the holding. Artioli became chairman of Bugatti Automobili S.p.A., which made the

Bugatti EB 110 The Bugatti EB 110 is a mid-engine sports car produced by Bugatti Automobili S.p.A. from 1991 until 2002, when the company was liquidated. It was the only production model made by Romano Artioli's Italian incarnation of Bugatti. History Deve ...

between 1991 and 1995. In 1993, his wife Renata Kettmeir formed the

-based ''Ettore Bugatti'' luxury item maker, also using the Bugatti "EB" logo. Their involvement ended in September 1995 due to

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

, and the company was eventually bought by

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...

in April 1998. Prior to the sale to Volkswagen, private equity Investor CVC Ventures (a Citibank company) attempted a purchase of Bugatti via UK corporate finance advisor Anglo American Ventures however the £100m deal failed at due diligence stage. Artioli purchased Lotus from

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

in August 1993 and became its chairman until 1996 when he stepped down to be Special Projects director until 1998. He sold a majority stake to

Proton A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' elementary charge. Its mass is slightly less than that of a neutron and 1,836 times the mass of an electron (the proton–electron mass ...

in 1996 to fund his losses due to the insolvency of Bugatti. His daughter Elena Artioli (born 1970) is a politician for the

South Tyrolean People's Party The South Tyrolean People's Party (german: Südtiroler Volkspartei, SVP) is a regionalist and autonomist political party in South Tyrol, an autonomous province with a German-speaking majority in northern Italy. Founded on 8 May 1945, the SVP ha ...

and

Lega Nord Alto Adige – Südtirol Lega may refer to: Geography * Lega (river) in Poland * Lega, Iran, a village in Mazandaran Province * Lega, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, town in north Poland * Lega, an earlier name for Street, Somerset, a village in England People * Lega (su ...

.elenaartioli.com
The

Lotus Elise The Lotus Elise is a two-seat, rear-wheel drive, mid-engined roadster conceived in early 1994 and released in September 1996 by the British manufacturer Lotus Cars. The Elise has a fibreglass body shell atop its bonded extruded aluminium chassi ...

was named after Romano Artioli's granddaughter Elisa Artioli.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Artioli, Romano Bugatti people Lotus Cars Businesspeople from the Province of Mantua Living people 1932 births