science

John Elkann

John Elkann is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John Elkann rather than just read about it. In short: John Philip Jacob Elkann (born 1 April 1976) is an American-born Italian industrialist. In 1997, he became the chosen heir of his maternal grandfather Gianni Agnelli, following the death of Gianni's nephew Giovanni Alberto Agnelli, and since 2004 has been leading the Agnelli family, an Italian multi-industry business dynasty.

Key takeaways

John Elkann belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Elkann to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Elkann from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Philip Jacob Elkann (born 1 April 1976) is an American-born Italian industrialist. In 1997, he became the chosen heir of his maternal grandfather Gianni Agnelli, following the death of Gianni's nephew Giovanni Alberto Agnelli, and since 2004 has been leading the Agnelli family, an Italian multi-industry business dynasty. The Agnelli family has been described in media as comparable to the Kennedy family in terms of prominence in national affairs. Elkann chairs the automaker Stellantis and is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Exor, the holding company controlled by the Agnelli family, which also holds a controlling stake in Ferrari, CNH Industrial, Iveco, Juventus FC and The Economist Group. In July 2018, he was appointed chairman of Ferrari, and briefly was CEO from 2020 to 2021. In 2021, Elkann oversaw the merger between Fiat Chrysler and the PSA Group. He is the leader of a group that controls 14 brands, with production sites in 29 countries, employs 400,000 people, and is present in over 130 markets.

Early life Born in New York City on 1 April 1976, Elkann held both Italian and U.S. citizenship; he renounced the latter in 2012. He is the eldest son of Alain Elkann, a New York-born journalist and writer of French-Jewish origin and Italian-Jewish background, and his Italian wife Margherita Agnelli. His parents divorced in 1981 and both have remarried. Elkann's maternal grandparents were the head of Fiat S.p.A., Gianni Agnelli, and the socialite Marella Agnelli (born Donna Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto); his great-grandfather was the industrialist Edoardo Agnelli, and his great-great-grandfather was Giovanni Agnelli, founder of Fiat S.p.A. His paternal great-grand-uncle was the banker Ettore Ovazza. He has a brother, Lapo Elkann, and a sister, Ginevra Elkann. Elkann had attended primary school in both the United Kingdom, and Brazil, before his family moved to Paris, where he obtained a baccalauréat scientifique at the State School Lycée Victor-Duruy in 1994. Later that same year, he moved to Italy to attend the Polytechnic University of Turin, where he graduated with a degree in management engineering in 2000; his thesis was on e-commerce and online auctions. Elkann has cited figures such as Gianluigi Gabetti, Sergio Marchionne, Warren Buffett, and the Wallenberg family as key influences on his education and early career. He is fluent in Italian, English, French, and Portuguese.

Career

In December 1997, at the age of 21, he was selected as the heir of his grandfather Gianni Agnelli in place of Giovanni Alberto Agnelli, the son of Gianni's younger brother, Umberto Agnelli, who had died at the age of 33. He was appointed to the Fiat S.p.A. board that same year, when he was 22, the same age his grandfather Gianni also joined it in 1943, and to the board of Giovanni Agnelli Sapaz (now Giovanni Agnelli B.V.), the family partnership controlling Exor. In 2000, after graduating in engineering from the Polytechnic University of Turin, he joined General Electric's Corporate Audit program. He left General Electric two years later; Elkann described his work at General Electric as "a beautiful experience, because you sit around a table where no one speaks your language and two out of three come from another continent." He moved back to Turin to be closer to his ageing grandfather, as well as to the family business. In 2003, Elkann joined IFIL, which later became Exor, where he was in charge of control and development, and was in particular responsible for supervising Rinascente and Alpitour. Elkann worked on the turnaround of Fiat Group. He was instrumental in the appointment of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) CEO Sergio Marchionne in May 2004. After the death of Gianni Agnelli in 2003, which was followed by that of Elkann's great-uncle Umberto Agnelli in 2004, Elkann became vice-chairman of Fiat and vice-chairman of Giovanni Agnelli Sapaz. Franzo Grande Stevens and Gianluigi Gabetti were instrumental in the appointment of Elkann. In 2008, Elkann was seen as "the great unknown", and he replaced 83-year-old Gabetti as the head of IFIL, which managed a portfolio worth eight billion euros. In March 2009, he merged the holding companies IFI and IFIL to create Exor, stepping to the role of chairman. In 2010, he became chairman of Fiat S.p.A. (then FCA), succeeding Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, and chairman of the Giovanni Agnelli Sapaz, succeeding Gabetti; at the time, Fiat had changed four CEOs in three years. Before this appointment, he mainly played a background role at Fiat. The Financial Times characterized Elkann's appointment as "a confirmation of change that could prove to be the making of a new Fiat and also of the Agnelli family's future fortunes." In February 2011, Elkann was appointed chairman and CEO of Exor. The value of the company's assets has grown and multiplied nine times in ten years. Since 2017, Elkann became chairman of Ferrari, GEDI Gruppo Editoriale, and the Giovanni Agnelli Foundation, a philanthropic institution supporting education. He is an active member of several non-profit organizations and think tanks engaged in the global geopolitical debate, one of the founders of the Collège des Ingénieurs Italia, and a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art. A member of the Confindustria presidential committee, he followed Fiat's decision to leave the group and resigned from his role as vice-chairman in October 2011, three months before Fiat's official departure in January 2012, "in the interests of the Association's autonomy and independence", as written in his resignation letter to then-president Emma Marcegaglia. In a 2013 interview to the Detroit Free Press, Elkann identified Bill Ford Jr. as a mentor. That same year, he was included by Fortune in the world's most influential managers under the age of 40. In a November 2013 interview to Campden FB, Elkann said he wanted to change capitalism. He said: "There is an alternative to financial investors and professional investment managers, and that's what we want to be. You need to be able to portray business to society in a favourable way. All the emphasis has been on shareholder value, not stakeholder value. One of the benefits of family businesses is they focus on all stakeholders." In 2015, Elkann acquired the insurer company PartnerRe and took part in Ferrari’s debut as a listed company in stock exchange in Wall Street.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

John Elkann: Elkann at the New York Stock Exchange in 2014 — Elkann at the New York Stock Exchange in 2014

John Elkann: Elkann, Giovanni Soldini, and the Maserati Multi V70 at the finish line of the 2020 Rolex Middle Sea Race — Elkann, Giovanni Soldini, and the Maserati Multi V70 at the finish line of the 2020 Rolex Middle Sea Race

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Elkann

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Elkann claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Elkann before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Elkann ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Elkann

In research: John Elkann appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Elkann in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Elkann is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1976 births, 20th-century Italian businesspeople, 21st-century Italian businesspeople, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Elkann outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “John Elkann” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study John Elkann in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Elkann means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Elkann out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Elkann in simple terms?

Why does John Elkann matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Elkann?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Elkann.