Participant Profile: John Elkann

John Elkann is he grandson of the famous Italian industrialist, Gianni Agnelli. He is the Executive Director of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, a director of News Corp and the Economist Group, and a regular participant at Bilderberg meetings.

Here he is the stylish Elkann at the 2014 Bilderberg conference in Copenhagen, in conversation with Evan Greenberg (board member of Coca-Cola):

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And here is trotting after Alex Karp (CEO, Palantir Technologies, described by Forbes in 2013 as “a CIA-Funded Data-Mining Juggernaut”) and Klaus Kleinfeld (CEO of Alcoa, and director of Morgan Stanley and Hewlett Packard):

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According to the Financial Times (2015):

“[Elkann] has spent the past decade quietly building up a network to rival his grandfather. A regular participant at Sun Valley, Berkshire Hathaway and Bilderberg conferences, he sits on the boards of the Economist and News Corp.”

On the Economist board, he sits alongside Eric Schmidt (the Executive Chairman of Google, and another regular participant at Bilderberg) and Sir Simon Robertson (the Deputy Chairman of HSBC – the Bilderberg Association is registered to Simon Robertson Associates LLP).

Henry Kissinger, one of the inner circle of the Bilderberg Group, was a friend of John Elkann’s grandfather, Giovanni Agnelli. Kissinger wrote:

“During the last two decades of his life, no one was closer to me than Gianni Agnelli.”

Agnelli was also a close friend of David Rockefeller, another leading light of Bilderberg:

“It is fervently hoped that Iachi will rise to this Pantheon. Ready to assist him are Fiat consultant Henry Kissinger, and Agnelli’s dear friend David Rockefeller, just in case.” (Harpers and Queen, 2002)

Dr Kissinger remains close to the family, and to John Elkann:

“Mr Elkann’s godfather is Henry Kissinger and he openly admits an affinity with Pritzker, Ridley and Walton US industrial dynasties.” (Financial Times, 2015)

Here is Elkann with Kissinger in Rome 2008:

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John Elkann’s brother is Lapo Elkann, who was Henry Kissinger’s personal assistant in New York in 2001. His wife is Donna Lavinia Borromeo, of the aristocratic Italian family, the House of Borromeo. Their wedding:

“featured a 5m long chocolate cake depicting dozens of chocolate Cinquecento and a guest list including Henry Kissinger”

Elkann controls the Agnelli family investments. This, from a Financial Times profile (2011):

“in recent days, Mr Elkann has taken full control of the family investment company, a firm with €9bn ($12.6bn) in net asset value and more than €1bn of investment firepower, with the intention of making it into a kind of Berkshire Hathaway for the capital goods industry. He wants to expand into the US and Asia.”

Finally, further details on Elkann and his relationship to the  Agnelli fortune:

“The partnership Giovanni Agnelli & C is effectively controlled by John Elkann, a grandson and main heir of Gianni (Giovanni) Agnelli. Elkan controls a holding company called Dicembre, which has 31.2 per cent of the votes in the limited company.” (Economist, 2007)

“Dicembre controls Giovanni Agnelli & Company, a limited partnership which in turn controls a holding company called I.F.I., which in turn controls a $12 billion holding company called I.F.I.L., which owns a controlling 30 percent of Fiat Group, which owns Fiat Auto, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, and a majority of Ferrari, plus a diversified portfolio of holdings in the Juventus soccer team, Intesa Sanpaolo (Italy’s largest bank), and the U.S. real-estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield, among others.” (Vanity Fair, 2008)