On the day when Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne is to present the company’s financial plan for 2010 – 2014, the company’s Board has announced that John [“Jaki”] Elkann, the grandson of “The Lawyer”, Giovanni [Gianni] Agnelli, is to take over as Chairman. Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, who had chaired the company since 2004, resigned last night and was publicly thanked by the Board for his work in bringing the company back from the verge of bankruptcy.
Gianni Agnelli retired as company Chairman in 1996 and died in 2003. His younger brother Umberto then took over the company but died in 2004. He had groomed his son, Giovanni Alberto, to succeed Gianni at Fiat but Giovanni Alberto tragically died of cancer at the age of 33.
Thus, with Elkann’s appointment, the company will be run by a member of the Agnelli family for the first time since 2004.
Although aged only 34, Elkann has been a board member since he was 20 and, while he was studying, worked, incognito, for several of the company’s holdings. As Chairman of Exor, the Agnelli family’s listed investment company, Elkann made changes which enabled Fiat to acquire the US company Chrysler.
He is a realist who, according to the Financial Times, has already said that he would not rule out a change whereby the Agnelli family would move to a non-controlling position in Fiat Auto if the circumstances warranted it.
Meanwhile, Elkann’s brother Lapo, who helped redesign the Fiat 500, is recycling car parts to make furniture that has been on display at the Milan Furniture Show. You can purchase a chandelier called “Wroom Wroom” for a mere $13,163 [£8,539].
Have you ever owned a Fiat?
Would you pay $13,000 for a chandelier made of car parts?
