JOHN ELKANN

John Elkann was born in New York in 1976 to an Italian father and a Scottish-American mother. His grandfather was Gianni Agnelli, the legendary Fiat patriarch and Italy's most glamorous industrialist.

Elkann grew up between Italy, the UK, and the US, studied engineering in Paris at the École Centrale, and later studied business in Turin. He joined Fiat's board at 21 — the youngest board member in Italian corporate history at the time.

When Gianni died in 2003, great-uncle Umberto Agnelli took over briefly, then also died in 2004. John stepped in as Chairman at 27.

The company was hemorrhaging money. He made the hiring decision that would define his legacy: he brought in Sergio Marchionne, a Swiss-Italian executive, as CEO in 2004.

Marchionne turned Fiat profitable within two years. In 2009, Fiat acquired a 20% stake in the bankrupt Chrysler for effectively zero — in exchange for technology and management — and later took full control.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles was created in 2014. In 2021, FCA merged with PSA Group to form Stellantis, the world's fourth-largest automaker.

Elkann also oversees Exor, the Agnelli family holding company, with stakes in Ferrari, PartnerRe, and The Economist.

Stellantis is the centerpiece — formed from the FCA-PSA merger in 2021, it owns Jeep, Ram, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Peugeot, Citroën, Opel, and others. Ferrari — separated from Fiat in 2015 and listed on the NYSE — is valued at over €60 billion and is the jewel of the family's holdings.

Exor NV is the Agnelli family holding company, publicly traded in Amsterdam, with net asset value over €30 billion. PartnerRe, an international reinsurance company, was acquired by Exor in 2015 for $6.9 billion.

The Economist Group — Exor holds roughly 43% and has a board seat. Juventus Football Club is also controlled by the Agnelli family, though the football investment has been more controversy than return.

Elkann manages family wealth across a very long time horizon. Exor is structured as a holding company, not a fund — it has no quarterly redemptions, no limited partners, no pressure to sell.

This gives him an enormous structural advantage: he can hold indefinitely. Ferrari has been held for decades.

The philosophy is to own assets that compound slowly, reliably, and without needing active management. He targets businesses with genuine pricing power — Ferrari, reinsurance, media.

His moves tend to be quiet, deliberate, and patient in a way that short-term investors rarely understand.

The Chrysler acquisition is the defining win. In 2009, the US auto industry was collapsing.

Chrysler filed for bankruptcy. Fiat, under Marchionne, offered technology licenses and management in exchange for a 20% equity stake, later expanded to full ownership.

Fiat paid almost nothing for an automaker that had been valued in the billions. By 2014, when Fiat Chrysler Automobiles listed on the NYSE and Milan Stock Exchange, the combined entity was worth over $20 billion.

The deal added Jeep — the most profitable brand in what became Stellantis — for essentially nothing.

Juventus is the expensive lesson. The Agnelli family's football investment has generated enormous passion and consistent financial losses.

The club recorded a net loss of €254 million in the 2021-22 season alone. The European Super League project, which Elkann publicly supported, was announced and then abandoned within 48 hours in April 2021, damaging the reputations of everyone involved.

The financial losses from football are small relative to Exor's total assets, but the reputational cost of the Super League debacle was real and immediate.

Elkann talks about stewardship, not return. His job, as he sees it, is to pass the Agnelli legacy to the next generation in better shape than he received it.

This is not passive caretaking — he made genuinely bold moves, like the Chrysler deal — but the underlying motivation is dynasty, not personal enrichment. He has said that the mark of a good holding company is that it outlives its managers.

That mindset leads to very different decisions than a quarterly-focused CEO would ever make.

Elkann is married to Lavinia Borromeo, an Italian aristocrat and entrepreneur. They have three children.

The Borromeo family is one of Italy's oldest noble families — the famous Borromean Islands on Lake Maggiore are part of their historic estate. John and Lavinia are a rare power couple in Italian society who manage to stay largely out of the tabloids.

His brother Lapo Elkann is the more publicly visible Agnelli heir, known for fashion and a series of very public personal crises. John is the steady hand.

Elkann studied engineering at the École Centrale de Paris — one of France's elite grandes écoles — and later studied business in Turin. He joined the Fiat board at 21, making corporate Italy his real classroom.

He speaks Italian, English, and French fluently.

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