Umberto Agnelli

Background

He was the third son of Virginia Agnelli (born Donna Virginia Bourbon del Monte) and of Edoardo Agnelli, and the youngest brother of Gianni Agnelli.

Education

University Turin.

Career

He was also chairman and later honorary chairman of Juventus, the football team long-associated with Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino and the Agnelli family, and was for a time the president of the Italian Football Association. He was a senator of the Italian Republic, from 1976 to 1979. In 2015, he was posthumously inducted into the Italian Football Hall of Fame.

Agnelli was chairman of Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino-controlled Juventus football club 1956-1961 and was honorary chairman 1970–2004.

Agnelli was chairman of Fiat France 1965-1980, chief executive officer of Fiat Società per Azioni 1970-1976 and vice-president 1976-1993. Only then did he take over as chairman of the whole Fiat Group, 2003-2004.

The Group controlled several Italian newspapers and publishers in addition to the Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino car-firms and Juventus football club Umberto was in the process of restoring Fiat"s fortunes, following a period in which the company"s balance sheet, market share and share value had all been in decline, when he suddenly died of lung cancer after barely 18 months in control.

Despite this, Forbes magazine estimated he was the world"s 68th richest man with an approximate Netto worth of United States$5.5 billion.

Agnelli was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, the youngest of seven children. His life was beset by an unusual amount of tragedy and bereavement. His father was Edoardo Agnelli, who died in an air crash when he was just a year old, and he was orphaned when his mother Virginia also died early, in a car-accident when he was still only 11.

In 1959 Agnelli married the heiress Donna Antonella Bechi Piaggio, from the well-known business-family of Piaggio.

They had three sons but their first, twin boys, died shortly after birth. The third son, Giovanni Alberto Agnelli, grew up to be the head of the maternal family-firm Piaggio, and was being groomed to succeed at Fiat, but died of cancer at the age of 33 in 1997.

Umberto and Antonella Agnelli later divorced, and in 1974 Umberto married Donna Allegra Caracciolo di Castagneto. The ladies come from the old Neapolitan noble family that has, among other, the titles of nobility of Prince of Castagneto and Duke of Melito.

Andrea later followed in his father"s footsteps by becoming chairman of Juventus, in 2010.

Achievements

• Umberto Agnelli has been listed as a noteworthy industrialist by Marquis Who's Who.

Membership

Board Fondazione Agnelli. Senate (Civil Defense) 1976-1979. Confederazione Generale dell’lndustria Italiana, Chambre Syndicale des Construeteurs d’Automobiles, Advisory Committee, Allianz Versicherungs AG, European Advisory Council to A.T.T., American and European Communities Association, Advisory Committee First National Bank of Chicago 1978.

Connections

Married Allegra Caracciolo, 1974. 3 children.

Father:

Edoardo Agnelli

Mother:

Princess Virginia Bourbon del Monte

Spouse:

Allegra Caracciolo