Umberto Agnelli, (November 1 1934 - 28 May 2004) was the chairman of Italian carmaker Fiat from early 2003 until his death. Agnelli was born in Lausanne in Switzerland. Agnelli was a senior executive in Fiat which is an Agnelli family company but was sidelined by his brother Gianni Agnelli until his brother died in 2003. He then took over the Fiat group, which also controlled Italian newspapers, and the Juventus soccer club, of which he had served as chairman. Umberto Agnelli was in the process of restoring Fiat's balance sheet after the company's balance sheet, market share, and share value were all in decline. Despite this, Forbes magazine estimated he was the world's 68th richest man with an approximate net worth of $1.5 billion US.
He died in Turin, Italy of cancer at 69. He and his wife Allegra Agnelli had three children, of whom two survive. Elder son Giovanni Alberto Agnelli was groomed to succeed at Fiat but died young of cancer in 1997. Younger son Andrea was named a Fiat director after Umberto Agnelli's death, though Gianni Agnelli's grandson John Elkann, named vice chairman, the next likely family head of the company. Umberto's daughter Anna also survives.
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