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Giovanni "Gianni" Agnelli

The history of Fiat begins with his grandfather, Giovanni Agnelli. In 1899, Giovanni signed a contract with Emanuele Bricherasio di Cacherano, an eccentric Turinese nobleman looking for investors, as a partner in Fiat. Giovanni managed to become the majority shareholder in 1906, but supposedly through illegitimate means. A long judicial battle would follow until May 1912, when Giovanni was acquitted of the charges. The company started to make large profits in the wake of WWI due to all the domestic and foreign military orders it received. In 1918, Agnelli published a book entitled 'European Federation or League of Nations', arguing for a federalist Europe as antidote to destructive nationalism. Eduardo Agnelli, his son, died in a plane crash in 1935. The wife of Eduardo (Gianni's mother), who died in a car accident in 1945, was Virginia Bourbon del Monte, daughter of the Prince of San Faustino and an American named Jane Campbell. The elder Giovanni died 3 weeks later.

Gianni was born in 1921 in Turin, Italy. He graduated in Law from Turin University. During World War II he served as a Cavalry Officer in the Italian Expeditionary Force on the Russian front, with the "Lodi" Tank Reconnaissance Unit in Tunisia and in the "Legnano" Division of the Italian Liberation Corps. For his conduct in Tunisia he was awarded the War Cross for Military Valour. Became president of Juventus (soccer club) in 1947 and over the eight years of his stewardship oversaw the establishment of Juventus as the powerful force in Italian and European football that it is today. In 1955 Giovanni Agnelli married Marella, daughter of Prince Caracciolo di Castagneto and Margaret Clark. Joined Fiat in 1943 as vice chairman. In 1957 David Rockefeller paid a visit to Italy and met with Agnelli. The two became friends and several years later David invited Agnelli to the newly created International Advisory Council of Chase Manhattan. He was appointed managing director of FIAT in 1963. Became managing director, chairman, and principal shareholder of Fiat in 1966. As head of Fiat, he oversaw 4.4% of Italy's GNP, 3.1% of its industrial workforce, and 16.5% of its industrial investments in research. He opened factories from Russia (at the time Soviet Union) to South America, and started international alliances and joint ventures (like Iveco) which marked a new industrial mentality. In 1970, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger met Agnelli at Hotel Quirinale in Rome. After this meeting Kissinger and Agnelli became good friends. In 1973 Agnelli helped with the creation of the Trilateral Commission. According to Adnkronos, Agnelli was friends with Giscard d'Estaing, the Rothschild family and Lord Carrington, Katherine Graham, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Felix Rohatyn, senator Ted Kennedy, the writer Truman Capote, Andy Warhol, and international architects as Renzo Piano, Kenzo Tange, Norman Foster, and Frank O. Gehry. Zbigniew Brzezinski was another influential person he often met with. Chairman of the family’s financial company, the Istituto Finanziario Industriale, the Exor Group SA, the Giovanni Agnelli Foundation, and La Stampa publishing company. He was also on the board of Credito Italiano and of the Mediobanca and was a member of the international committee of Chase Manhattan Bank (until a few years before his death). In May 1974 he was elected chairman of the Confederation of Industry (Confindustria), a position he held until July 1976, when he handed over to his chosen successor, Guido Carli, a former Governor of the Bank of Italy. According to Italian sources, Agnelli was a co-founder of the European Round Table in 1983 (Umberto Agnelli, his younger brother, was one of the original members), together with Pehr Gyllenhammar and Etienne Davignon, both also close to Kissinger, Rockefellers, and the Rothschilds. Named senator for life in 1991 and subscribed to the independent parliamentary group. Later named a member of the senate's defence commission. Honorary vice-president of the Association for the Monetary Union of Europe anno 1998, which was co-founded by Etienne Davignon and brought us the EMU. Member of the International Advisory Board of the Council on Foreign Relations. Honorary chairman of the Council for Relations between Italy and the United States. Correspondent member of the Academy of Moral and Political Science of the Institut de France and a member of the Chairman's Council of the (Rockefeller's) Museum of Modern Art in New York (at least in 1999). Trustee of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Stood down as chairman of FIAT in 1996. Giovanni Alberto Agnelli, the eldest son of Umberto Agnelli, was the first person to be pointed out as Giovanni Agnelli's successor, but died in 1997 of a rare form of intestinal cancer, age 33. His only son, Edoardo, who wasn't interested in making cars, committed suicide on November 15, 2000 by jumping off a bridge in Turin; Gianni himself joined the police at the scene. The Agnelli family was one of the largest investors in Rockefeller Center until 2001, together with David Rockefeller, Goldman Sachs, and Stavros Niarchos. At that point the Speyer and Crown families took over, both closely connected to the Rockefeller interests. Agnelli was a member of the 1001 Club, the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderberg steering committee, the European Round Table, and a governor of the Atlantic Institute for International Affairs. Died in 2003. John Elkann (ERT member) is expected to become the new head of the Agnelli interests in the coming years.

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