Gianni Agnelli - Head of Fiat

Head of Fiat

Agnelli became president of Fiat in 1966. He opened factories in many places, including Russia (at the time the Soviet Union) and South America, and started international alliances and joint-ventures (like Iveco), which marked a new industrial mentality. In the 1970s, during the international petrol crisis, he sold part of the company to Lafico, a Libyan company owned by Colonel Qaddhafi; Agnelli would later repurchase these shares, however.

His relationships with the Left, especially with Enrico Berlinguer's Communist Party, were the essence of the relationships between labour forces and Italian industry. The social conflicts related to Fiat's policies (some say politics) always saw Agnelli keeping the leading role; in the 1980s, during the last important trade union action, a dramatic situation in which a strike was blocking all of Fiat's production, he was able to organise the march of 40,000 workers who broke the pickets and re-entered the factories. This marked the demise of the power of trade unions, which to this day have not recovered their influence on Italy's politics and economy. In the 1970s, Fiat and its leaders were attacked, mostly by the Red Brigades, Prima Linea and NAP. Several people working for the group were killed, and trade unions were initially suspected of hiding some of the attackers in their organizations, though the same terrorists later targeted trade unionists like Guido Rossa.

Agnelli was named senator for life in 1991 and subscribed to the independent parliamentary group; he was later named a member of the senate's defence commission.

In the early 2000s, Agnelli made overtures to General Motors resulting in an agreement under which General Motors progressively became involved in Fiat. The recent serious crisis of Fiat found Agnelli already fighting against cancer, and he could take little part in these events.

Agnelli was also closely connected with Juventus, the most renowned Italian football club, of which he was a fan and the direct owner. His phone calls, every morning at 6 am, from wherever he was, whatever was he doing, to the club's president Giampiero Boniperti, were legendary.

Nicknamed L'Avvocato ( the lawyer ) because he had a degree in law (though he was never admitted to the Order of Lawyers), Agnelli was the most important figure in Italian economy, the symbol of capitalism throughout the second half of 20th century, and regarded by many as the true "King of Italy". A cultivated man of keen intelligence and a peculiar sense of humour, he was perhaps the most famous Italian abroad, forming deep relationships with international bankers and politicians, largely through the Bilderberg Group, whose conferences he attended regularly since 1958. Some of the other Bilderberg regulars became close friends, among them Henry Kissinger. Another longtime associate was David Rockefeller (yet another Bilderberg regular), who appointed him to the International Advisory Committee (IAC) of Chase Manhattan Bank, of which Rockefeller was chairman; Agnelli sat on this committee for thirty years. He was also a member of a syndicate with Rockefeller that for a time in the 1980s owned Rockefeller Center.

His many detractors point out that in all his activity, Agnelli mainly served his family's interests, without regard for the damage this might cause to the nation. Fiat, in this view, persuaded the Italian government to adjust labour and tax laws according to the company's interests. Also, Agnelli was seen as continuing to enrich himself while Italy was getting poorer. Agnelli never responded to these accusations.

He was, however, never personally involved in the many political scandals of the Bettino Craxi government era, even if Cesare Romiti, Agnelli's most trusted administrator for some 25 years, publicly admitted to bribery in 1994. Number 3 in Fiat's hierarchy, Mattioli was imprisoned for bribery like Papi, leader of the Fiat-controlled Cogefar company. At the time, investigations were started after suspicions of special relationships with Salvo Lima, a Sicilian DC MP who was alleged to have an association with the Mafia (though Lima himself was not actually a mafioso).