Enrico Cuccia (24 November 1907 – 23 June 2000) was an Italian banker, who was the first and long-term president of Mediobanca SpA, the Milan-based investment bank, and a significant figure in the history of capitalism in Italy.

Early life and education

Cuccia was born into a Sicilian family in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

on 24 November 1907. He was of Arbereshe origin. His family was

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. His father was a senior civil servant at the finance ministry. In 1930, Enrico Cuccia received a law degree.

Career

Cuccia started his career as a journalist, but he left soon. He began to work at the central bank of Italy and served in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. In 1934, he joined the state-run holding group,

Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale The Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (IRI; English: "Institute for Industrial Reconstruction") was an Italian public holding company established in 1933 by the Fascist regime to rescue, restructure and finance banks and private companies ...

(IRI). Then he began to serve as a manager at IRI's Banca Commerciale Italiana in 1938. In 1946, he was appointed president of Mediobanca when it was founded. Subsequently, he was the first head of the bank, which was initially named as Banca di Credito Finanziaro. In 1982, he retired from the board of Mediobanca and was given the title of honorary president.

Antonio Maccanico Antonio Maccanico (4 August 1924 – 23 April 2013) was an Italian constitutional specialist and social liberal politician, who served in various capacities in the parliament and federal administrations of Italy. Early life and education Maccani ...

succeeded him in the post. Cuccia kept an office at the bank until his death in 2000. He also served as a personal adviser of the

Agnelli family The Agnelli family () is an Italian multi-industry business dynasty founded by Giovanni Agnelli, one of the original founders of the Fiat motor company which became Italy's largest automobile manufacturer. They are also primarily known for other a ...

. However, their alliance ended at the end of the 1990s.

Activities

Cuccia shaped the Italian company patterns until 1992 when a bill became effective in order to encourage the privatization of state-owned companies and banks. He was the major contributor to the merge of Montecatini and Edison into Montedison, which occurred in 1966. The merger was the first reorganisation of the chemical industry. He was also instrumental in

Olivetti Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, tablets, smartphones, printers and other such business products as calculators and fax machines. Headquartered in Ivrea, in the Metropolitan City of Turin, the company has been par ...

's takeover of

Telecom Italia Gruppo TIM, legally TIM S.p.A. (formerly Telecom Italia S.p.A.), also known as the TIM Group in English, is an Italian telecommunications company with headquarters in Rome, Milan, and Naples, (with the Telecom Italia Tower) which provides fixed ...

in 1999. In addition to these much more visible activities, he "was the principal dealmaker (and breaker) in the secretive world of large private Italian capitalism."

Personal life

Cuccia married Idea Nuova Socialista (meaning New Socialist Idea in English) Beneduce and had three children, two daughters and a son. They had known each other since high school and got married in 1939. Cuccia's spouse was the daughter of

Alberto Beneduce Alberto Beneduce (29 May 1877 – 26 April 1944) was an Italian politician, scholar and financier, who was among the founders of many significant state-run finance institutions in Italy. Early life and education Beneduce was born in Caserta ...

, the founder and president of the IRI.

Death and burial

Cuccia underwent an operation for prostate cancer in April 2000. He died at the Monzino Foundation cardiological center in Milan on 23 June 2000 at the age of 92. After a private funeral ceremony on 24 June, he was buried in the family graveyard in his villa in Meina, a village beside

Lake Maggiore Lake Maggiore (, ; it, Lago Maggiore ; lmo, label=Western Lombard, Lagh Maggior; pms, Lagh Magior; literally 'Greater Lake') or Verbano (; la, Lacus Verbanus) is a large lake located on the south side of the Alps. It is the second largest l ...

. His body was laid under the body of his wife. However, Cuccia's corpse was stolen on 18 March 2001. The thieves sent a letter, demanding a ransom of $3.5 million to be paid to a foreign bank account. The corpse was found on a mountainside near

Turin Turin ( , 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 from 1861 to 1865. The ...

, and two men arrested in relation to the incident at the end of March. They were convicted and given a suspended sentence in December 2001.

Legacy and personality

The square where the head offices of Mediobanca are located in Milan was named after Enrico Cuccia in September 2000. In 1998, '' Global Finance'' magazine regarded him as one of the 600 most powerful financial players in the world. Cuccia never gave interviews and was not commonly seen in public despite his huge influence on the country's finance system. He was interested in philosophy,

mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ...

and the work of

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

. According to the Italian historian of

Freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

Aldo Alessandro Mola, Cuccia was initiated to the highest degree of the Gran Loggia d'Italia. Given that Cuccia was the son-in-law of Alberto Beneduce, a

Master Mason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

, since 1906Vittorio Gnocchini. (2005). ''L'Italia dei liberi muratori'', Erasmo editore, Rome, p. 33 and the Primo Gran Sorvegliante of the Grand Orient of Italy during the presidency of Ernesto Nathan this view becomes more reliable.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cuccia, Enrico 20th-century Italian businesspeople 20th-century Italian jurists 1907 births 2000 deaths Businesspeople from Rome Deaths from cancer in Lombardy Deaths from prostate cancer Italian bankers Italian corporate directors Italian Freemasons Italian Roman Catholics People of Sicilian descent Victims of body snatching