48 Facts About Gianni Agnelli

Gianni Agnelli was the richest man in modern Italian history.

Gianni Agnelli was awarded the decoration Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 1967 and the Order of Merit for Labour in 1977.

Gianni Agnelli was born in Turin; he maintained strong ties with the village of Villar Perosa, near Turin in the Piedmont region, of which he served as mayor until 1980.

Gianni Agnelli's father was the prominent Italian industrialist Edoardo Agnelli.

Gianni Agnelli was named after his grandfather Giovanni Gianni Agnelli, the founder of the Italian car manufacturer Fiat.

Gianni Agnelli raised Fiat to become the most important company in Italy, and one of the major car-builders of Europe, amid the Italian economic miracle.

Gianni Agnelli was considered the king of Italian business from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Gianni Agnelli developed an accessory business, with minor companies, such as Fiat Velivoli, operating in the military industry.

Gianni Agnelli was educated at Pinerolo Cavalry Academy, and studied law at the University of Turin, although he never practiced law.

Gianni Agnelli joined a tank regiment in June 1940 when Italy entered World War II on the side of the Axis powers.

Gianni Agnelli fought on the Eastern Front, being wounded twice.

Gianni Agnelli served in a Fiat-built armoured-car division during the North African campaign, for which he received the War Cross of Military Valor.

Gianni Agnelli's grandfather died, leaving him head of the family but Valletta running the company.

For most of his life, Gianni Agnelli was considered to be a man of exquisite taste.

Gianni Agnelli's only son, Edoardo Agnelli, was born in New York City on 9 June 1954, seven months after the couple's wedding at the Chateau d'Osthoffen in France.

Gianni Agnelli gave up trying to groom him to take over Fiat, seeing how the boy was more interested in mysticism than making cars; his son studied religion at Princeton University and took part in a world day of prayer in Assisi.

Gianni Agnelli is the mother of John Elkann, Lapo Elkann, and Ginevra Elkann.

Gianni Agnelli has five other children from her second marriage to Count Serge de Pahlen: Maria de Pahlen, Peter de Pahlen, Anna de Pahlen, and Tatiana de Pahlen.

Gianni Agnelli opened factories in many places, including the Soviet Union in the Russian city of Tolyatti, Spain, and South America, such as Automoveis in Brasil; he started international alliances and joint-ventures like Iveco, which marked a new industrial mentality.

Gianni Agnelli was closely connected with Juventus, the most renowned Italian football club, of which he was a fan and the direct owner.

In 1986, after a failed agreement with Ford Motor Company, Gianni Agnelli bought Alfa Romeo from the Italian state.

In 1991, Gianni Agnelli was named an Italian senator for life and joined the independent parliamentary group; he was later named a member of the Senate of the Republic's defence commission.

The crisis of Fiat came when Gianni Agnelli was already fighting against cancer, and he could take little part in these events.

Gianni Agnelli encountered a number of difficulties with Mediobanca through Cesare Romiti, who caused Gianni Agnelli anxiety.

Gianni Agnelli was close to John F Kennedy, and was a friend of Truman Capote.

Gianni Agnelli was a member of a syndicate with Rockefeller that for a time in the 1980s owned Rockefeller Center.

Gianni Agnelli was an honorary member of the International Olympic Committee, a position he held until his death, and was named in 2000 the committee honorary president for Torino 2006, of which he was an instrumental promoter.

Gianni Agnelli stepped down in 1996 but stayed on as Fiat honorary chairman until his death.

Gianni Agnelli then brought in Giuseppe Morchio to mastermind a rescue strategy for the company.

Gianni Agnelli's successor was Sergio Marchionne, an expert of reorganisation who between 2002 and 2004 led the Swiss certification company Societe Generale de Surveillance; Elkann played a key role when he brought Marchionne to Fiat.

Gianni Agnelli died in 2003 of prostate cancer at age 81 in Turin.

The figure of Gianni Agnelli was intimately linked to the history of Juventus, the association football team of Turin of which he was appointed president from 1947 to 1954.

Gianni Agnelli had an impact on the transformation at the corporate level during his management from a private club belonging to the rival car manufacturer Cisitalia, chaired by Piero Dusio, to an independent company with private capital with limited liability that achieved further successes.

Gianni Agnelli led Juventus to ten Italian football champion titles, four Italy Cups, one Intercontinental Cup, one European Cup, one Cup Winners' Cup, three UEFA Cups, and one UEFA Super Cup, for a total of 23 official trophies in 48 years, which made him one of the most important personalities in sports history.

Gianni Agnelli daily called at 6 am Boniperti, such as when he convinced him to become Juventus chairman in 1971, and Juventus players to see how they were doing.

Gianni Agnelli liked footballers like Stanley Matthews and Garrincha, as well as Pele, Diego Armando Maradona, Johan Cruijff, and Alfredo Di Stefano, whom his club tried to sign.

In 1958, Gianni Agnelli sought to purchase Pele through Fiat's shares.

Several observers, including former FIGC president Franco Carraro, argue that had Gianni Agnelli been alive, things would have done different, as the club and its directors would have been defended properly, which could have avoided relegation and cleared the club's name much earlier than the Calciopoli trials of the 2010s.

Gianni Agnelli loved Ferrari cars and he loved all the beautiful things in life.

Gianni Agnelli loved talent and courage and recognised them in his opponents.

Gianni Agnelli had a large number of bespoke Caraceni suits, which were of high quality and classic design.

Politically, Gianni Agnelli did not join any party and remained an independent politician; nonetheless, he was close to the Italian Republican Party, and was described as the Republican monarch of the 20th century.

Gianni Agnelli had amicable relations with the Italian Democratic Socialist Party and Italian Socialist Party leaders Giuseppe Saragat and Sandro Pertini, respectively, as well as with Francesco Cossiga of Christian Democracy and Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.

Gianni Agnelli received his first public assignment in 1961 when, on the occasion of the celebrations for the first centenary of the unification of Italy, he was appointed president of the Expo 61.

The DC was ultimately able to not only have Gianni Agnelli retire his PRI candidacy, which could have cost them about one million votes, by raising the prospect of economic retailations for Fiat but convinced Umberto Gianni Agnelli, his younger brother, to join the DC.

Gianni Agnelli turned down the invite by then president Oscar Luigi Scalfaro to become Prime Minister of Italy after Ciampi.

In 1991, Gianni Agnelli was appointed senator for life by Cossiga, then president of the Italian Republic.

Gianni Agnelli joined the For the Autonomies group and was admitted to the Defense Commission of the Senate.