Luigi Lucchini (21 January 1919 – 26 August 2013) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

businessman and steel executive. The son of an iron craftsman, Lucchini was born in Casto,

Brescia Brescia (, ; ; or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the region of Lombardy, in Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Lake Garda, Garda and Lake Iseo, Iseo. With a population of 199,949, it is the se ...

, on 21 January 1919. He studied foreign languages at the Catholic University of Milan but dropped out of university due to financial difficulties; then he worked as a teacher for a brief period and finally he took over his father's workshop in Val Sabbia. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he realized his first extensions of the family business, installing a small mill for the production of

rebar Rebar (short for reinforcement bar or reinforcing bar), known when massed as reinforcing steel or steel reinforcement, is a tension device added to concrete to form ''reinforced concrete'' and reinforced masonry structures to strengthen and aid ...

. Between the 1970s and the 1980s, the company had its true season of expansion, with the acquisition of several production facilities in and outside Italy. In 1975 he was appointed

Cavaliere del Lavoro The Order of Merit for Labour () is an Italian order of chivalry that was founded in 1923 by King Vittorio Emanuele III. It is awarded to those "who have been singularly meritorious" in agriculture, industry and commerce, crafts, lending and in ...

, and in later years he entered the Board of Directors of the

Banca Commerciale Italiana Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI, colloquially known as Comit), founded in 1894, was a major Italian bank based in Milan. In 1999, it merged with the group recently formed by the combination of Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde and Ban ...

(of which he became chairman),

Montedison Edison S.p.A. is an Italian electric utility company headquartered in Milan. The company was established in 1884 and acquired by Electricité de France in 2012. Edison employs more than 5,000 people in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. ...

(chairman), Compart (chairman),

Assicurazioni Generali Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A. ( , ; meaning 'general insurances') or commonly known as Generali Group is an Italian insurance company based in Trieste. As of 2022, it is the largest insurance company in Italy and ranks among the world's largest i ...

(of which he became a member of the Executive Committee),

Olivetti Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, tablets, smartphones, printers and other such business products as calculators and fax machines. Headquartered in Ivrea, in the Metropolitan City of Turin, the company has been owned b ...

Mediobanca Mediobanca S.p.A. is an Italian investment bank founded in 1946 at the initiative of Raffaele Mattioli (at that time CEO of Banca Commerciale Italiana) and Enrico Cuccia to facilitate the post-World War II reconstruction of Italian industry. Cu ...

and

Gemina ''Gemina'' is a genus of green alga The green algae (: green alga) are a group of chlorophyll-containing autotrophic eukaryotes consisting of the phylum Prasinodermophyta and its unnamed sister group that contains the Chlorophyta and Char ...

. From 1978 to 1983 Lucchini was president of the Industrial Association of Brescia and a member of the board of

Confindustria The General Confederation of Italian Industry (), commonly known as Confindustria, is the Italy, Italian small, medium, and big enterprises federation, acting as a private and autonomous chamber of commerce, founded in 1910. The association netwo ...

, of which he became the president in 1984. From 1980 to 1982 Lucchini was also part of the

EEC The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...

Consultative Committee in representation of the European private steel producers. After the sale of the majority stake of the company to

Severstal Severstal () is a Russian company mainly operating in the steel and mining industry, headquartered in Cherepovets. Severstal is listed on the Moscow Exchange and LSE and is the largest steel company in Russia. The company is majority-owned and ...

in 2005, Lucchini remained honorary president of the group until 2010, when he announced his retirement.

Honors

* Honoris causa degree in Economics,

University of Brescia The University of Brescia () is an Italian public research university located in Brescia, Italy. It was founded in 1982 and is branched in 4 Faculties. The University of Brescia was officially established in 1982 with three Schools: Medicine a ...

, 18 June 1998

Honors

References

Further reading