Enrico Cuccia
Born24 November 1907
Rome, Kingdom of Italy
Died23 June 2000(2000-06-23) (aged 92)
Milan, Italy
NationalityItalian
OccupationFinancier
Years active1930s–1982
SpouseIdea Nuova
ChildrenTwo 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] He was of Arbereshe origin.[5] His family was Catholic.[6] His father was a senior civil servant at the finance ministry.[7] In 1930, Enrico Cuccia received a law degree.[7]

Career

Cuccia started his career as a journalist, but he left soon.[7] He began to work at the central bank of Italy and served in Ethiopia.[7] In 1934, he joined the state-run holding group, Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (IRI).[8] Then he began to serve as a manager at IRI's Banca Commerciale Italiana in 1938.[3][9]

In 1946, he was appointed president of Mediobanca when it was founded.[9][10] Subsequently, he was 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.[11][12] Antonio Maccanico succeeded him in the post.[13] Cuccia kept an office at the bank until his death in 2000.[3]

He also served as a personal adviser of the Agnelli family.[7] However, their alliance ended at the end of the 1990s.[14]

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.[15] He was the major contributor to the merge of Montecatini and Edison into Montedison, which occurred in 1966.[16] The merger was the first reorganisation of the chemical industry.[7] He was also instrumental in Olivetti's takeover of Telecom Italia in 1999.[16][17] In addition to these much more visible activities, he "was the principal dealmaker (and breaker) in the secretive world of large private Italian capitalism."[18]

Personal life

Cuccia married Idea Nuova Socialista (meaning New Socialist Idea in English) Beneduce and had three children, two daughters and a son.[11][19] They had known each other since high school and got married in 1939.[15] Cuccia's spouse was the daughter of Alberto Beneduce, the founder and president of the IRI.[20]

Death and burial

Cuccia underwent an operation for prostate cancer in April 2000.[11] He died at the Monzino Foundation cardiological center in Milan on 23 June 2000 at the age of 92.[16] 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.[21][22][23] His body was laid under the body of his wife.[6]

However, Cuccia's corpse was stolen on 18 March 2001.[6][24] The thieves sent a letter, demanding a ransom of $3.5 million to be paid to a foreign bank account.[25] The corpse was found on a mountainside near Turin, and two men arrested in relation to the incident at the end of March.[26][27] They were convicted and given a suspended sentence in December 2001.[26]

Legacy and personality

The square where the head offices of Mediobanca are located in Milan was named after Enrico Cuccia in September 2000.[28] In 1998, Global Finance magazine regarded him as one of the 600 most powerful financial players in the world.[29]

Cuccia never gave interviews and was not commonly seen in public despite his huge influence on the country's finance system.[19] He was interested in philosophy, mysticism and the work of James Joyce.[10]

According to the Italian historian of Freemasonry Aldo Alessandro Mola, Cuccia was initiated to the highest degree of the Gran Loggia d'Italia.[30] Given that Cuccia was the son-in-law of Alberto Beneduce, a Master Mason, since 1906[31] and the Primo Gran Sorvegliante of the Grand Orient of Italy during the presidency of Ernesto Nathan this view becomes more reliable.

References

  1. 1 2 Robert Rugimbana; Sonny Nwankwo (2003). Cross-cultural marketing. London: Thomson. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-86152-801-8.
  2. ↑ "Biografia Enrico Cuccia" (in Italian). Storia. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 Alessandra Stanley (24 June 2000). "Enrico Cuccia Is Dead at 92; Key Figure in Italian Banking". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  4. ↑ Vito Avantario (2002). Die Agnellis: Die heimlichen Herrscher Italiens (in German). Frankfurt/Main; New York: Campus Verlag. p. 179. ISBN 978-3-593-36906-8.
  5. ↑ Jones Tobias. (2012). Sangue sull'altare. Il Saggiatore, p.76.ISBN 9788842817734
  6. 1 2 3 Luke Baker (18 March 2001). "Italians stunned by theft of famed banker's body". Express India. Rome. Archived from the original on 24 December 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Maria Chiara Bonazzi (28 June 2000). "Enrico Cuccia". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  8. ↑ Alan Friedman (24 June 2000). "Enrico Cuccia, 92, Leader of Italian Capitalism, Dies". The New York Times. Rome. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  9. 1 2 "Enrico Cuccia". The Telegraph. 24 June 2000. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  10. 1 2 Gino Moliterno, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture. London; New York: Routledge. p. 211. ISBN 978-0-203-74849-7.
  11. 1 2 3 Richard Boudreaux (24 June 2000). "Enrico Cuccia; Key Italian Financier". Los Angeles Times. Rome. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  12. ↑ Alessandra Stanley (24 June 2000). "Italy's influential, reclusive banker". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
  13. ↑ "Morto Antonio Maccanico: fu ministro e presidente di Mediobanca". Corriere del Mezzogiorno (in Italian). 23 April 2013. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
  14. ↑ Greg Burke (13 August 2001). "All In The Families". Time. Archived from the original on 26 August 2010. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  15. 1 2 Vera Zamagni (2009). "Governing the Italian economy: a comparative perspective". Journal of Modern Italian Studies. 14 (1): 46–51. doi:10.1080/13545710802642883. S2CID 145770682.
  16. 1 2 3 Catherine Monk. "Enrico Cuccia. Italy's finance architect". Italia Online. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  17. ↑ Grant Ringshaw (9 July 2000). "Death in Milan". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  18. ↑ Richard Deeg (2005). "Remaking Italian Capitalism? The Politics of Corporate Governance Reform". West European Politics. 28 (3): 521–548. doi:10.1080/01402380500085756. S2CID 154281079.
  19. 1 2 Rupert Cornwell (24 June 2000). "Obituary: Enrico Cuccia". The Independent.
  20. ↑ Roland Sarti (2009). Italy: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present. New York: Facts on File, Inc. p. 148. ISBN 978-0-8160-7474-7.
  21. ↑ "Enrico Cuccia, 92". The Baltimore Sun. 25 June 2000. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  22. ↑ Monica Larner (25 March 2001). "Where Is the Body of Enrico Cuccia?". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 28 June 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  23. ↑ "Italy: Ransom Demand for Dead Banker". ABC News. 23 March 2001. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  24. ↑ Victor L. Simpson (20 March 2001). "Body snatching in Italy still a mystery". Herald Journal. Rome. AP. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  25. ↑ "Man arrested in case of stolen body". Associated Press. Rome. 31 March 2001. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  26. 1 2 "Banker body theft: Two convicted". CNN. 6 December 2001. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  27. ↑ Alessandra Stanley (3 April 2001). "Arrests in body snatching". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  28. ↑ "Milan". Mediobanca. Archived from the original on 16 October 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  29. ↑ "The Global Finance 600: The World's Most Powerful Financial Players". Global Finance. 12 (9). September 1998.
  30. ↑ Aldo A. Mola. (1992). Storia della Massoneria Italiana, Bompiani, Milan, p. 744
  31. ↑ Vittorio Gnocchini. (2005). L'Italia dei liberi muratori, Erasmo editore, Rome, p. 33
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