Enrico Cuccia

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Enrico Cuccia
Born 24 November 1907
Rome
Died 23 June 2000(2000-06-23) (aged 92)
Milan
Nationality Italian
Occupation Financier
Years active 1930s – 1982
Spouse(s) Idea Nuova Socialista
Children Two daughters and a son

Enrico Cuccia (24 November 1907 – 23 June 2000) was an Italian banker, who was the first and long-term president of Mediobanca SpA, the Milan-based investment bank, and a significant figure in the history of capitalism in Italy.[1]

Early life and education

Cuccia was born into a Sicilian family in Rome on 24 November 1907.[2][3][4] His family were Catholic.[5] His father was a senior civil servant at the finance ministry.[6] In 1930, he received a law degree.[6]

Career

Cuccia started his career as a journalist, but he left soon.[6] He began to work at the central bank of Italy and served in Ethiopia.[6] In 1934, he joined the state-run holding group, Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (IRI).[7] Then he began to serve as a manager at IRI's Banca Commerciale Italiana in 1938.[3][8]

In 1946, he was appointed president of Mediobanca when it was founded.[8] Therefore, he is the first head of the bank, which was initially named as Banca di Credito Finanziaro.[1] In 1982, he retired from the board of Mediobanca and was given the title of honorary president.[9][10] Antonio Maccanico succeeded him in the post.[11] Cuccia kept an office at the bank until his death in 2000.[3]

He also served as a personal adviser of the Agnelli family.[6] However, their alliance ended at the end of the 1990s.[12]

Activities

Cuccia shaped the Italian company patterns until 1992 when a bill became effective in order to encourage the privatization of state-owned companies and banks.[13] He was the major contributor to the merge of Montecatini and Edison into Montedison, which occurred in 1966.[14] The merger was the first reorganisation of the chemical industry.[6] He was also instrumental in Olivetti's takeover of Telecom Italia in 1999.[14][15] In addition to these much more visible activities, he "was the principal dealmaker (and breaker) in the secretive world of large private Italian capitalism."[16]

Personal life

Cuccia married Idea Nuova Socialista (it means in English New Socialist Idea) Beneduce and had three children, two daughters and a son.[9][17] They had known each other since high school period and married in 1939.[13] Cuccia's spouse was the daughter of Alberto Beneduce, the founder and president of the IRI.[18]

Death and burial

Cuccia underwent an operation for prostate cancer in April 2000.[9] He died at the Monzino Foundation cardiological center in Milan on 23 June 2000 at the age of 92.[14] After a private funeral ceremony on 24 June, he was buried in the family graveyard in his villa in Meina, a village beside Lake Maggiore.[19][20][21] His body was laid under the body of his wife.[5]

However, Cuccia's corpse was stolen on 18 March 2001.[5][22] Thefts sent a letter, demanding a ransom of $3.5 million to be paid to a foreign bank account.[23] The corpse was found on a mountainside near Turin, and two men arrested in relation the incident at the end of March.[24][25] They were convicted and given a suspended sentence in December 2001.[24]

Legacy and personality

The square where the head offices of Mediobanca are located in Milan was named after Enrico Cuccia in September 2000.[26] In 1998, The Global Finance regarded him as one of the 600 most powerful financial players in the world.[27]

Cuccia never gave interviews and was not commonly seen in public despite his huge influence on the country's finance system.[17]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 R. Rugimbana; S. Nwankwo (2003). Cross-cultural marketing. Cengage Learning EMEA. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-86152-801-8. Retrieved 25 April 2013. 
  2. ↑ "Biografia Enrico Cuccia". Storia. Retrieved 25 April 2013. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Stanley, Alessandra (24 June 2000). "Enrico Cuccia Is Dead at 92; Key Figure in Italian Banking". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 April 2013. 
  4. ↑ Avantario, Vito (2002), Die Agnellis: die heimlichen Herrscher Italiens (in German), Campus Verlag, p. 179, ISBN 9783593369068 .
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Baker, Luke (18 March 2001). "Italians stunned by theft of famed banker's body". Express India (Rome). Retrieved 25 April 2013. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Bonazzi, Maria Chiara (28 June 2000). "Enrico Cuccia". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 April 2013. 
  7. ↑ Friedman, Alan (24 June 2000). "Enrico Cuccia, 92, Leader of Italian Capitalism, Dies". The New York Times (Rome). Retrieved 25 April 2013. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Enrico Cuccia". The Telegraph. 24 June 2000. Retrieved 25 April 2013. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Boudreaux, Richard (24 June 2000). "Enrico Cuccia; Key Italian Financier". Los Angeles Times (Rome). Retrieved 25 April 2013. 
  10. ↑ Stanley, Alessandra (24 June 2000). "Italy's influential, reclusive banker". Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Retrieved 30 June 2013. 
  11. ↑ "Morto Antonio Maccanico: fu ministro e presidente di Mediobanca". Corriere Del Mezzogiorno. 23 April 2013. Retrieved 23 April 2013. 
  12. ↑ Burke, Greg (13 August 2001). "All In The Families". Time. Retrieved 25 April 2013. 
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Zamagni, Vera (2009). "Governing the Italian economy: a comparative perspective". Journal of Modern Italian Studies 14 (1): 46–51. Retrieved 26 April 2013. 
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Monk, Catherine. "Enrico Cuccia. Italy's finance architect". Italia Online. Retrieved 25 April 2013. 
  15. ↑ Ringshaw, Grant (9 July 2000). "Death in Milan". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 26 April 2013. 
  16. ↑ Deeg, Richard (2005). "Remaking Italian Capitalism? The Politics of Corporate Governance Reform". West European Politics 28 (3): 521–548. Retrieved 26 April 2013. 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Rupert Cornwell (24 June 2000). "Obituary: Enrico Cuccia". The Independent. Retrieved 4 September 2013.  – via Questia (subscription required)
  18. ↑ Roland Sarti (1 January 2009). Italy: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present. Infobase Publishing. p. 148. ISBN 978-0-8160-7474-7. Retrieved 25 April 2013. 
  19. ↑ "Enrico Cuccia, 92". The Baltimore Sun. 25 June 2000. Retrieved 25 April 2013. 
  20. ↑ Larner, Monica (25 March 2001). "Where Is the Body of Enrico Cuccia?". Bloomberg. Retrieved 25 April 2013. 
  21. ↑ "Italy: Ransom Demand for Dead Banker". ABC News. 23 March 2001. Retrieved 25 April 2013. 
  22. ↑ Simpson, Victor L. (20 March 2001). "Body snatching in Italy still a mystery". Herald Journal (Rome). AP. Retrieved 25 April 2013. 
  23. ↑ "Man arrested in case of stolen body". Associated Press (Rome). 31 March 2001. Retrieved 25 April 2013. 
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 "Banker body theft: Two convicted". CNN. 6 December 2001. Retrieved 25 April 2013. 
  25. ↑ Stanley, Alessandra (3 April 2001). "Arrests in body snatching". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 April 2013. 
  26. ↑ "Milan". Mediobanca. Retrieved 19 July 2013. 
  27. ↑ "The Global Finance 600: The World's Most Powerful Financial Players". Global Finance 12 (9). September 1998.  – via Questia (subscription required)
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