Franzo Grande Stevens is dead. The world of Juventus, Italian industry and the legal profession mourn the loss of the family's legal historian Agnelli, honorary president of Juventus and vice-president of FiatBorn in Naples on September 13, 1928, he passed away in Turin at the age of 96, a few months before his 97th birthday.
A professional of extraordinary importance, Grande Stevens was for decades the Gianni Agnelli's trusted lawyer, so much so that it was nicknamed “the lawyer's lawyer”. Having graduated in Law from the Federico II University of Naples in 1951, he enrolled in the Turin Bar Association in 1956, beginning a career that saw him as a protagonist in many of the most complex corporate events of the second half of the twentieth century in Italy.
Franzo Grande Stevens: From Fiat's Top to Juventus' Presidency
Over the years he has held positions of great responsibility: vice president of Fiat, President of the Compagnia di San Paolo, Bull Insurance, Ciga Hotels, and president of Juventus from 2003 to 2006, a role he left to take on the role of honorary president of the club. Juventus remembered him with an official message: “Mourning for the world of Juventus and for that of the Italian legal profession. Franzo Grande Stevens has passed away at the age of 96. Always linked to the black and white colors, from 2003 to 2006 he was our President, becoming Honorary President of the Club starting from that year. Juventus is united in pain and mourning, and extends its condolences and a strong embrace to the family of Franzo Grande Stevens”.
A career serving the big names in the industry
During his long career he has protected the interests of some of the most important Italian families and entrepreneurial entities, including the DeBenedetti, Lavazza, Pininfarina and Ferrero. A reference figure also for the Italian legal profession, he was a cassation lawyer since 1958, a councilor of the Turin Bar Association from 1968 to 1978, president of the Cassa Nazionale di Previdenza Forense and of the Consiglio Nazionale Forense between the 80s and 90s, and a member of the CNF until the early XNUMXs.
Fiat, Marchionne and the relaunch strategy
Next to Gianluigi Gabetti, was among the main architects of the financial strategy that in 2005 allowed the Agnelli family to maintain the Fiat control. A decisive maneuver, which marked a turning point for the future of the group and opened the way to the alliance with Chrysler under the leadership of Sergio Marchionne, giving rise to the new FCA era.
The bond with Marchionne was also personal. In a letter published by Corriere della Sera in 2018, a few days before the manager's death, Grande Stevens defined him as "a son who became a brother" and said how his appointment to lead Fiat had been wanted by Umberto Agnelli himself:
"His choice as CEO was desired by Umberto Agnelli, who before dying asked us - me and Gabetti - to bring him to Fiat. His intelligence had already stood out at Sgs, where he had created a revolutionary insurance model. And at the helm of Fiat he achieved extraordinary results: the elimination of debt and the relaunch of the group."
Franzo Grande Stevens was also known for his international culture: he spoke five languages fluently – French, English, Spanish, Russian and Portuguese – and left a lasting impression on the worlds of Italian law, economics and sports.
