Died Cesare Romiti, former CEO and chairman of the Fiat. She was 97 years old.
After experiences in chemistry and in the universe of state holdings (Alitalia and Italstat), Romiti, who was born in Rome, he joined Fiat in 1974 – in the midst of the oil crisis – and remains there for almost a quarter of a century, until 1998. In 1975 he was appointed managing director for the financial part, sharing the position with Umberto Agnelli and Carlo De Benedetti. But the triumvirate did not last long: after just one hundred days, De Benedetti stormily left the Lingotto and sold his shares.
At that point Romiti's power increases. In 1976 he piloted together with Agnelli the entrance of the Lafico - the financial company of the Libyan government led by Gaddafi - in the capital of Fiat, which needs money to revive itself. The alliance lasts until 1986, when the Libyans emerge with good earnings.
in 1980 Umberto Agnelli is forced to leave the position of CEO: Romiti, supported by Enrico Cuccia's Mediobanca, becomes the sole man in charge and orchestrates the "march of the 40" which on 14 October parades through Turin. Fiat executives are asking to go back to work and are protesting against the unions, which are blocking access to the factories because the company wants to lay off 23 employees. The split of the workers' front marks not only Romiti's victory, but also a decisive turning point in Italian industrial relations, traces of which can be found in the history books.
The eighties are a period of great expansion for Fiat, which in 1988 is the largest European car manufacturer and buy Alfa Romeo from IRI, led at the time by Romano Prodi. On the international front, however, in 1990 the first attempt to merge with Chrysler vanished, above all for the doubts of Umberto Agnelli.
Involved in the cyclone of Clean hands, in 2000 Romiti was confirmed in the Cassation with a conviction for false accounting, illicit party financing and tax fraud. Three years later, the Court of Appeal of Turin revoked the conviction for false accounting.
In the meantime, from 1996 to 1998, Romiti held the position of president of Fiat instead of Gianni Agnelli. He once said: "In Fiat for 25 years I had carte blanche". After leaving the Turin company, he obtains a share of gemina, the company that controls, inter alia, Impregilo and RCS, the publishing house of Corriere della Seraof which he becomes president.
