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Carlo De Benedetti

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Carlo De Benedetti
Carlo De Benedetti in 1985
Born (1934-11-14) November 14, 1934 (age 89)
Turin, Italy
Occupation(s)Industrialist. Ex-CEO of FIAT, Olivetti, CIR Group. Ex-deputy chairman of Banco Ambrosiano and ex president of Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso.


Carlo De Benedetti (Turin, 14 November 1934)[1] is an Italian industrialist, engineer and editor. He is both an Italian and naturalized Swiss citizen.[2][3]

He was awarded the Order of Merit for Labour by the Italian state in 1983,[4] the Medaglia d'oro ai benemeriti della cultura e dell'arte[5] and the Legion d'Honneur in 1987[6]

Life and career

Born into a wealthy Jewish family, he is the brother of Italian Senator Franco Debenedetti, whose surname is different owing to a spelling error.[7] In 1943, during the World War II, the De Benedetti family fled to Switzerland.[3] After Carlo returned to Italy he received a degree in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic University of Turin[1] and in 1959 began to work in his father's manufacturing business, the Compagnia Italiana Tubi Metallici Flessibili. He helped improve company profits consistently and in 1972 acquired the Gilardini company of which he became president and CEO until 1976.[1]

For a brief period, from May 4 to August 25, 1976, he was appointed CEO of FIAT.[8] His resignation from Fiat was due, according De Benedetti, to his decision to lay off 65,000 workers which was refused by Fiat head Gianni Agnelli;[8] other sources say that he was suspected of trying to build up a takeover of power within the company with the backing Swiss financial groups.[9]

In November 1976, De Benedetti acquired the CIR Group,[1] thereby also obtaining control of the national newspaper La Repubblica and the newsmagazine L'Espresso. In he 1978 he became CEO of the Italian manufacturer Olivetti[1],[10] where he remained until his resignation in 1996.[10] In 1983 he became the full president of Olivetti.[1] He quickly and ruthlessly reorganized the company, switching its focus from mechanical typewriters to computers.[11]

Carlo De Benedetti left Italy to return to Switzerland in 1975, owing to possible terrorist threats during the Anni di Piombo period of Italian domestic terrorism.[3][11]

In the 1980s, along with other leading business figures, he founded the European Round Table of Industry, of which he was vicepresident until 2004. In 1985 he became a member of the European Advisory Committee of the New York Stock Exchange.[6]

In 1995 De Benedetti founded telecommunications companies Omnitel and Infostrada.[6]

In 1997 he created the Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (L'Espresso Editorial Group),[12] by merging L'Espresso and La Repubblica editorial groups. Carlo Caracciolo was appointed president of the group. Carlo De Benedetti assumed the presidency in 2006, after the death of Caracciolo.[13] He then stepped down, but retained the power to appoint top editors[14]

The SME affair

In 1985 Romano Prodi, then president of the state-owned IRI (Institute for Industrial Reconstruction), tried to sell the IRI share in SME (a former state-owned agency later turned food industry conglomerate) to De Benedetti, who was then president of Buitoni (a food industry belonging to the CIR group), for 497 billion Italian lira.[15][16] Other offers for SME included most notably one for a joint venture with Fininvest, media group owned by entrepreuner and current Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. The sale to De Benedetti was later blocked by then Italian prime minister Bettino Craxi,[15] and SME remained state-owned until almost 10 years later.

De Benedetti brought IRI to court in an attempt to appeal the block, but the court, presided over by judge Filippo Verde, denied his case in 1986.[17] In 1995 Silvio Berlusconi, Cesare Previti and Attilio Pacifico were accused of having bribed Filippo Verde and Renato Squillante to fix the trial against De Benedetti.[18] Berlusconi was later acquitted.

Tangentopoli

In 1993, during the Mani Pulite (Clean Hands) political corruption investigations, Carlo De Benedetti was arrested and admitted to having paid a 10 billion Italian lira bribe to government parties to obtain an order from the Italian Postal Service for obsolete teleprinters and computers. In the May of that year, he was officially put under investigation but De Benedetti never went to trial for this episode, having exceeded the statute of limitations[19][20]

The Banco Ambrosiano

De Benedetti became deputy chairman of the Italian bank Banco Ambrosiano in 1981 by acquiring 2% of the capital, but left after only 61 days[6].[21] In April 1992, Carlo De Benedetti and 32 other people were convicted of fraud by a Milan court in connection with the collapse of the bank.[22] Benedetti was sentenced to six years and four months in prison,[22] but the sentence was overturned in April 1998 by the Court of Cassation.[23]

Politics

Carlo De Benedetti has often been identified with Italian centre left politics.[24] He has a long-standing contrast with Silvio Berlusconi, and his L'Espresso editorial group currently publishes the main centre-left leaning Italian newspaper and newsmagazine. He has been called a "foe of Berlusconi" by the Wall Street Journal.[14]

In October 2005, Benedetti reportedly offered Benjamin Netanyahu, then the Finance Minister of Israel, the position of Italian finance minister, which Netanyahu declined. [25] De Benedetti later said it had been a joke. Ehud Gol, the Israeli ambassador to Italy, had introduced the men.[26]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Template:It icon Sfide perse e vinte: Repubblica-Mondadori, Gazzetta di Mantova, March 10, 1998
  2. ^ Template:It icon"Berlusconi attacca De Benedetti e Mauro. Repubblica risponde". Il Sole 24 Ore. {{cite news}}: Text "September 2, 2009" ignored (help)
  3. ^ a b c Template:It icon"De Benedetti: "Ecco perché ho la doppia cittadinanza"". La Repubblica. September 2, 2009.
  4. ^ Template:It iconhttp://www.cavalieridellavoro.it/cavaliere.php?numero_brevetto=1985
  5. ^ Template:It iconhttp://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/onorificenze/decorato.asp?id=6&ono=2
  6. ^ a b c d "De Benedetti: lascio tutte le presidenze". La Stampa. January 26, 2009.
  7. ^ "De Benedetti indagato con il fratello Carlo". Corriere della Sera. January 16,1997. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ a b http://www.lastampa.it/redazione/cmsSezioni/economia/200901articoli/40415girata.asp
  9. ^ http://www.ilgiornale.it/interni/de_benedetti_finanziere_moralista_che_piace_sinistra/19-08-2009/articolo-id=374927-page=0-comments=1
  10. ^ a b http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/04/business/de-benedetti-steps-down-as-the-chairman-of-olivetti.html
  11. ^ a b http://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/19/business/crafting-a-high-tech-renaissance-at-olivetti.html?&pagewanted=all
  12. ^ http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1997/03/26/fusione-espresso-repubblica-avremo-piu.html
  13. ^ http://www.rainews24.rai.it/it/news.php?newsid=89522
  14. ^ a b http://rassegnastampa.mef.gov.it/mefinternazionale/PDF/2009/2009-01-27/2009012711676597.pdf
  15. ^ a b http://www.repubblica.it/online/politica/smeprocesso/vicenda/vicenda.html
  16. ^ http://www.lavoce.info/articoli/pagina540.html
  17. ^ http://www.repubblica.it/online/politica/toghe/sme/sme.html
  18. ^ http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2003/11_Novembre/22/sme_storia.shtml
  19. ^ http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1993/05/21/pptt-poste-tangenti.html
  20. ^ http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1993/10/31/quell-inchiesta-contesa-sui-signori-delle-poste.html
  21. ^ http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1991/03/13/de-benedetti-rinviato-giudizio.html
  22. ^ a b Template:En icon "Court Convicts Financier, 23 Others in Billion-Dollar Failure of Italian Bank," Rocky Mountains News, April 17, 1992
  23. ^ "High court overturns conviction of Olivetti chairman in bank collapse," Associated Press, April 22, 1998 Template:En icon
  24. ^ http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/SoleOnLine4/Mondo/2009/01/visti-da-lontano-de-benedetti-imprenditore-sfavillante.shtml?uuid=348b1e7e-ec78-11dd-b219-9063977eaf68
  25. ^ Shimoni, Eli (2005-12-15). "Bibi: I declined ministerial job offer in Italy". Ynetnews. Retrieved 2009-07-29.
  26. ^ Bar, Yossi (2005-12-16). "Italian tycoon: Treasury offer to Bibi was joke". Ynetnews. Retrieved 2009-07-29.
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