Luca di Montezemolo

Biography

Luca Cordero di Montezemolo was born in Bologna on 31 August 1947. He graduated in law from La Sapienza University in Rome in 1971 and later studied international commercial law at Columbia University. In 1973 Enzo Ferrari invited him to become his assistant.

A year later he was made sporting director of the Scuderia, and Ferrari won the Formula One world championship with Niki Lauda in 1975 and 1977. From 1976 he headed all of Fiat's racing activities, and in 1977 he became a senior Fiat manager. During the 1980s he was managing director of Cinzano, and from 1985 he ran the organising committee for the 1990 football World Cup in Italy.

In November 1991 Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli appointed him president of Ferrari. Ferrari took over Maserati in 1997, and Montezemolo was its president until 2005. Under his presidency Ferrari won the constructors' title in 1999 and the drivers' title in 2000. On 27 May 2004 he became president of Confindustria, and a day later, after Umberto Agnelli's death, he was elected chairman of Fiat; John Elkann replaced him in April 2010. He resigned from Ferrari on 10 September 2014, and Sergio Marchionne followed him in October. He co-founded the rail operator NTV and was non-executive chairman of Alitalia from 2014 to 2017.