Giovanni Alberto Agnelli

Giovanni Alberto Agnelli (19 April 1964 – 13 December 1997), colloqually known as Giovannino Agnelli, was an Italian businessman and member of the Agnelli family, an Italian industrial dynasty associated with Fiat S.p.A. Agnelli's father was politician and industrialist Umberto Agnelli; his uncle was Fiat head Gianni Agnelli. Prior to his 1997 death at age 33, he was the heir apparent and designated future chairman of the Fiat Group. Agnelli's reputation among the Italian public was comparable to that of John F. Kennedy Jr. in the United States; in the words of Alan Friedman, he was "rich, strikingly handsome, always smiling and the leading voice of his generation." Early life Giovanni Alberto Agnelli was born on 19 April 1964, in Milan, Italy, to Umberto Agnelli and . Both sides of his family were associated with the motor vehicle industry; his paternal great–grandfather was Giovanni Agnelli, founder of Fiat, while his mother's stepfather was Enrico Piaggio, son of Piaggio founder Rinaldo Piaggio. In 1969, he attended elementary school at Collegio San Giuseppe in Turin, where all the Agnellis studied. Agnelli's parents divorced in 1974; the young Agnelli followed his mother to the United States where he attended The McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Agnelli enrolled at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, as a member of the class of 1986; his thesis was about the Middle East, and he graduated in international relations. In the words of Lee Marshall, Agnelli was often tipped as "Europe's most eligible bachelor" even though in reality he had "little interest in the playboy lifestyle". Career