Lapo Elkann

Lapo Edovard Elkann (born 7 October 1977) is an Italian businessman, philanthropist, and socialite. He is the chairman, founder, and majority shareholder (53.37%) 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 is the former controlling CEO and controlling shareholder of Fiat Automobiles, and the brother of John Elkann. Early life and family A member of the 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 F.C. 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 named: 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 two-year older brother well, they spoke of many similarities, such as the attachment to the family and particularly the grandfather, but also of many differences.