Lapo Elkann


Lapo Edovard Elkann is an Italian businessman, philanthropist, and socialite. He is the chairman, founder, and majority shareholder of the Italia Independent Group. He is also the president and founder of and Independent Ideas, as well as a member of the board of directors of Ferrari N.V. and responsible for the promotion of the Fiat Group brand. He is the great-grandson of Fiat S.p.A. founder Giovanni Agnelli, the grandson of Gianni Agnelli, who was the former controlling CEO and controlling shareholder of Fiat Automobiles, and the brother of John Elkann.

Early life and family

A member of the Elkann family and Agnelli family and named after the 12th-century Italian poet Lapo Gianni, Elkann was born in New York City, the son of Countess Margherita Agnelli de Pahlen and the American-born Italian writer Alain Elkann. His father is Jewish and his mother is Catholic. He is the brother of John Elkann, the chairman of Fiat and the chairman and CEO of Exor, an investment company controlled by the Agnelli family, which also owns Juventus FC Elkann is a grandson of Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli and Marella Agnelli. He is nephew of Don Carlo Caracciolo, member of the House of Caracciolo, founder of Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso and owner of the newspaper la Repubblica, the Italian daily general-interest newspaper. Elkann is also a stepson of a Russian nobleman, Count Sergei de Pahlen. Elkann has a filmmaker sister, Ginevra Elkann, and five half-siblings by his mother's second marriage. They are Maria, Pierre, Sophia, Anna, and Tatiana. He is a great-grandnephew of Ettore Ovazza, of the Ovazza banking family, via his grandmother, Carla Ovazza.
In a discussion about his childhood with Silvia Toffanin, Elkann said: "I didn't love it very much. I was a dyslexic, hyperactive child, suffering from attention deficit, and since I was always behind at school, I wanted to prove that I was strong." He graduated from the lycée et collège Victor-Duruy in Paris and from the European Business School London in international relations. He performed military service in the Alpini corps as a soldier in the Alpine Brigade "Taurinense". According to those who know him and his older brother well, they spoke of many similarities, such as the attachment to the family and particularly the grandfather, but also of many differences. In 2004, the elder Elkann was described as serious and rigorous, in contrast to the expansive and creative younger Elkann, who was in charge of operational marketing at Fiat, where he arrived at work at the Mirafiori plant every morning in a Fiat Panda rather than a Lancia Ypsilon, the model he personally helped to launch. From their father, the two Elkanns share the Jewish faith, which represented the first time that young heirs brought with them values and ethics that were different from those of the Catholic Agnelli family.

Career

As is tradition in the education of the offspring of the Agnelli family, Elkann began his career in 1994 as a metal worker on the assembly line of Piaggio in Pontedera under the pseudonym of Lapo Rossi. During this period, he also participated in a strike action to demand an improvement of the uncomfortable working conditions in the assembly line. In 2001, Elkann worked as a personal assistant to Henry Kissinger, who had just been appointed chairman of the 9/11 Commission and was an old friend of his grandfather, Gianni Agnelli. He subsequently continued his work experience, which he started with different roles in Salomon Smith Barney and Danone, and worked as marketing associate for Ferrari and Maserati, where he spent four and a half years at the marketing office. Following Agnelli's worsening health conditions, Elkann decided to return to Italy in 2002 to be close to him. In 2003, he became Fiat's director of marketing.
Upon joining Fiat, Elkann asked to be able to take care of corporate promotion and communication, believing that the Fiat brand was suffering in this field, especially in the youth sector. He promoted the group's image by launching different types of gadgets, including sweatshirts worn by himself, with the vintage logo of the car manufacturer, and the launch of the Fiat Grande Punto. In 2004, with the appointment of his brother John Elkann as the group's vice-chairman, he became responsible for promotion for the three brands: Fiat, Alfa Romeo, and Lancia. In this period, he oversaw the worldwide launch of the new Fiat 500. Elkann resigned from his position in 2005. This came after it was widely reported that he had a serious cocaine and heroin addiction.
After a period of treatment, Elkann returned to Italy in January 2007. Along with Andrea Tessitore and Giovanni Accongiagioco, he founded Italia Independent, a company specializing in the production and sale of luxury eyewear, accessories, and clothing under the initials I–I, characterized by the possibility offered to the buyer to customize the product to be purchased. The first product, presented at Pitti Men in January 2007, was an eyewear model made entirely of carbon fibre. The company then developed a line of clothing, accessories, and with several collaborations in home and automotive decorations. In addition to eyewear, also launched were jewellery, a watch, a bicycle, and a skateboard for urban transport. The company was listed on the Milan Stock Exchange, on the AIM segment, on 28 June 2013.
On 4 July 2007, Elkann founded the Independent Ideas creative agency with Alberto Fusignani and Ivanmaria Vele, whose activity was documented for three months in the Idee in progress program of the satellite television channel Fox Life. From 30 October 2007 to June 2008, he was honorary president of the Italian Volleyball League club Sparkling Volley Milano; he is an international ambassador for the Milan Triennale, an ambassador for Tel HaShomer Hospital in Tel Aviv, and a board member of various companies, such as the auction house Phillips.
Elkann and the Independent Ideas agency collaborated with the and Frida Giannini in the "500 by Gucci" project, launched in Milan on 23 February 2011, and at the Geneva Motor Show on 1 March 2011. In October 2011, he received the America Award from the Italy–USA Foundation. In December 2011, Elkann launched the Ferrari Tailor Made project together with Luca Cordero di Montezemolo to build a tailor-made Ferrari, personalized on the specific requests of the customer. He also started a partnership project with ToyWatch, at the time owned by Gianluca Vacchi, producing a special edition of 1,007 ToyWatch watches combined with Italia Independent sunglasses from the I-Wear series. A Second Unique Edition followed the next year. In July 2013, he was honoured with the Automotive Hall of Fame's Young Leader & Excellence Award, the first member of the Agnelli family to receive it after his great-great-grandfather, Giovanni Agnelli.
In January 2017, Elkann joined the board of directors of Ferrari N.V., the holding company that controls the homonymous car manufacturer. In December 2017, he inaugurated Garage Italia Food & Restaurant in Piazzale Accursio in Milan, in an old Agip service station built by Mario Bacciocchi in the 1950s and renovated by Michele De Lucchi. The restaurant was a joint venture with chef Carlo Cracco to combine food and motoring events, that was announced in 2015. In April 2019, the restaurant closed and the company came entirely under the control of Laps to Go, Elkann's holding company. In February 2019, the venture capital fund Talent EuVeca, chaired by Giovanna Dossena, entered Italia Independent with a capital increase, which in the meantime became Italia Independent Group after it closed the 2018 financial statements with income in the red, and had to sell various assets. Dossena came to hold 25.44% while Elkann remained the largest shareholder at 53.92%.
Italia Independent Group closed 2021 with a turnover of €11.54 million, an increase of 1.7% compared to the €11.35 million obtained in the previous year. The final result was negative for €24.1 million, compared to the loss of €2.81 million recorded in 2020, as a result of write-downs and provisions for €18.12 million. At the end of December 2021, net debt had risen to €19.28 million, compared to €15.55 million at the beginning of the year. In a press release, the company said: "Despite the commitment made by management and the support of shareholders, Italia Independent has not managed to achieve the results envisaged in the business plans also due to external circumstances which have further aggravated the situation: the Covid emergency and the consequent lockdowns in various geographies, the instability of the markets, and the adverse macroeconomic context which has caused an increase and difficulty in procuring raw materials and the consequent growth in inflation." The statement added that "the company is open to evaluating reasonable measures such as to favour the redeployment of employees."

Interests

Art collection

Elkann is an art lover with a collection of contemporary art that includes original paintings by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Damien Hirst, Roy Lichtenstein, and rising contemporary artists, such as Teddy McDonald and Ian Berry, who made his portrait out of denim.

Car marketing and customization

Elkann coordinated marketing for the Fiat Punto, Fiat Grande Punto, and Fiat 500. For Garage Italia Customs, an atelier that he founded in 2015, and that customizes cars, he was behind the Vintage Icon-e, the Fiat 500's electric car, and the Fiat Panda's electric versions, and also created a grass-like green Fiat 500, a golden Fiat 500 for Paco Rabanne, a special, limited edition in 1958 units of the Fiat 500 Spiaggina '58, and KarMasutra's Fiat 500 special edition.
In 2011, Elkann worked with Gucci's creative director, Frida Giannini, on developing the Gucci Special Edition of the Fiat 500, and consulted with Ferrari, running Ferrari Tailor Made, which enables customers to customize their car. This was followed by the Abarth 500 Pied de Poule, which was acquired in 2020 for €37,700 from a Swiss investment vehicle launched by the Jalopy LTD fund. In 2015, he designed the Fiat 500X Black Tie. This was followed in 2016 by a special BMW i8 Futurism Edition, which was presented to BMW's design director Adrian van Hooydonk.