Vittorio Valletta (28 July 1883 in

Sampierdarena Sampierdarena (also San Pier d'Arena; Ligurian: San Pè d'ænn-a) is a major port and industrial area of Genoa, in northwest Italy. With San Teodoro it forms the West Central (Centro Ovest) ''municipio''. Geography Sampierdarena lies on t ...

– 10 August 1967 in Foccette di Pietrasanta) was an Italian

industrialist A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

and President 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 ...

from 1946 to 1966. Born at

, near

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 ...

, Valletta was a lecturer in economics before he joined Fiat in April 1921: as a result of his academic qualifications and background he was often known to colleagues and in the trade as "Il Professore". He became director in 1928 and CEO in 1939. In the upheavals that followed the collapse of the Mussolini regime, Valletta found himself expelled from the company by the powerful unions which considered that he had been sympathetic to the Fascist regime. However, in 1946 he was recalled and nominated as Company President. He presided during two decades of rapid expansion as small Fiats proliferated on Italian streets, and he lived out the injunction of the company's

founder Founder or Founders may refer to: Places *Founders Park, a stadium in South Carolina, formerly known as Carolina Stadium * Founders Park, a waterside park in Islamorada, Florida Arts, entertainment, and media * Founders (''Star Trek''), the ali ...

to "make Fiat greater, giving more working opportunities to the people, and producing better and cheaper cars". Valletta continued as Chairman of Fiat until, at the age of 83, he retired in April 1966 to be succeeded in that post by the founder's grandson, Dr. Giovanni Agnelli. He was appointed senator for life in December 1966. The Italian president's citation described Valletta as "the first Fiat worker, and one of the great men who most contributed to the Italian economic miracle and to the welfare of the country". Valletta died at his villa near

Pietrasanta Pietrasanta is a town and ''comune'' on the coast of northern Tuscany in Italy, in the province of Lucca. Pietrasanta is part of Versilia, on the last foothills of the Apuan Alps, about north of Pisa. The town is located off the coast, where the ...

in 1967.

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1883 births 1967 deaths Businesspeople from Genoa Fiat people Italian industrialists Italian life senators People from Sampierdarena {{Automobile-bio-stub