Umberto Agnelli
Umberto Agnelli, (
November 1 1934 -
28 May 2004) was the chairman of Italian carmaker
Fiat from early 2003 until his death. Agnelli was born in
Lausanne in
Switzerland. Agnelli was a senior executive in Fiat which is an Agnelli family company but was sidelined by his brother
Gianni Agnelli until his brother died in 2003. He then took over the Fiat group, which also controlled Italian newspapers, and the
Juventus soccer club, of which he had served as chairman. Umberto Agnelli was in the process of restoring Fiat's balance sheet after the company's balance sheet, market share, and share value were all in decline. Despite this,
Forbes magazine estimated he was the world's 68th richest man with an approximate net worth of $1.5 billion US.
He died in
Turin,
Italy of
cancer at 69. He and his wife
Allegra Agnelli had three children, of whom two survive. Elder son Giovanni Alberto Agnelli was groomed to succeed at Fiat but died young of cancer in
1997. Younger son Andrea was named a Fiat director after Umberto Agnelli's death, though Gianni Agnelli's grandson
John Elkann, named vice chairman, the next likely family head of the company. Umberto's daughter Anna also survives.
*
Forbes Rich List entry*
Yahoo news story on death
