Enrico Cuccia

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]

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

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. 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. 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. 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. 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. "Enrico Cuccia". The Telegraph. 24 June 2000. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  10. Gino Moliterno, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture. London; New York: Routledge. p. 211. ISBN 978-0-203-74849-7.
  11. 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. 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. 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. 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. "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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