'John Elkann is not taking over yet'

Wednesday, 28 June 2006

Fiat Chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo on Monday dismissed talk of Agnelli heir John Elkann taking over at the helm of the Italian auto group in the near future .

Elkann, 30, is the grandson of legendary Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli. He is currently vice chairman of the group but recently the international media has portrayed him as a chairman-in-waiting. Time magazine spoke about his "ascendancy to the Fiat throne" in a long profile of the young manager, and the Wall Street Journal said he was "poised to move into the driving seat".

Montezemolo, who also heads Ferrari and the Confindustria Italian industrialists' lobby, clearly felt such talk was premature when quizzed by reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Rome .

"John Elkann is young, he's good and I'm happy that he's getting international recognition. But apart from that, it's too early to say anything," he said .

Elkann has been in the public spotlight since he took up an executive position at Fiat in 2002 and especially since he became vice chairman two years later.

After his grandfather died in 2003, followed a year later by Umberto Agnelli, the Italian press immediately looked for the heir to the dynasty, which has always been centred on Fiat. Elkann clearly fitted the bill. He has an engineering degree, experience as an analyst and corporate audit specialist at General Electric Co., and a demonstrated commitment to Fiat .

As a student he spent many of his summer holidays at Fiat factories, learning the ropes on assembly lines alongside workers who usually had no idea who he was .

Elkann, reportedly Gianni Agnelli's favourite grandson, was recently made vice chairman of Ifil, the Agnelli family holding company which owns 30% of Fiat. Its other assets include the Juventus football club and a top Italian tour operator .

Recently he has been in the news in connection with Juventus. As a club director, he has been at the forefront of moves to clean up the mess after a recent match-fixing scandal involving the Turin team's executives .

He has said in recent interviews that he sees the Agnelli family as continuing to play a key role in Fiat in the future, despite the gradual demise of Europe's family-dominated companies .

"As a family we have always seen it as our role to guarantee stability for Fiat," he told the Wall Street Journal. He has said nothing about his own future in the Fiat hierarchy .

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