Paolo Fresco
 Paolo Fresco      ( lawyer, businessman) | |
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| Born | July 1933 |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Aliases | the Americano |
| Alma mater | University of Genoa |
| Member of | European Round Table of Industrialists, Trilateral Commission |
Italian Fiat chairman with long US experience who attended Bilderberg/1999 and 2000 around merger deal with General Motors.
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Paolo Fresco is a former chairman of Fiat[1] who attended the 1999 and 2000 Bilderberg meetings around the time of merger deal with General Motors.
Career
In 1962 he joined General Electric's legal office in Rome. Fresco practiced law in Rome before joining Compagnia Generale di Elettricita ("Cogenel"), an affiliate of General Electric in 1962, where he served as the President and General Manager before he was named to the GE Board of Directors and then Vice Chairman and Executive Officer and a member of GE’s Corporate Executive Office with responsibility for all international activities.[2][3] He was nicknamed the Americano because he was with GE for more than 30 years and a top aide to the legendary General Electric chairman Jack Welch.[4]
He moved to Fiat in in 1998, where he devised a share swap with General Motors that gave G.M. a 20 percent stake in Fiat's car unit.[5]
In February 2003 Fresco said that he would step down several months earlier than planned, to make way for Umberto Agnelli to take over. Fiat shares had fallen more than 65 percent since Fresco took over in 1998. In a statement, Fresco said: "My desire to guarantee a smooth changeover led to my decision to move up the date of my resignation. I'm sure that my decision will send a strong message both outside and inside the company." Just before that, he was in the United States to meet with General Motors executives to discuss a put option that gave Fiat the right to force G.M. to buy the 80 percent of Fiat it did not own beginning in 2004. One possibility discussed was for G.M. to invest more money in Fiat Auto in return for the cancellation of the put option.[5]
In 1997 he founded The Paolo Fresco Charitable Foundation.[3]
Events Participated in
| Event | Start | End | Location(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilderberg/1999 | 3 June 1999 | 6 June 1999 | Portugal Sintra | The 47th Bilderberg, 111 participants |
| Bilderberg/2000 | 1 June 2000 | 4 June 2000 | Belgium Brussels Genval | The 48th Bilderberg, 94 guests |
References
- ↑ https://www.parkinson.org/about-us/Press-Release/Paolo-Fresco
- ↑ https://europe.autonews.com/article/19980803/ANE/808030816/paolo-fresco-fiat-spa
- ↑ Jump up to: a b https://www.parkinson.org/about-us/news/paolo-fresco-board-of-directors
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/16/business/worldbusiness/IHT-i-wish-i-had-been-luckier-he-says-of-his-timing.html
- ↑ Jump up to: a b https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/26/business/fiat-chairman-leaving-to-make-way-for-agnelli.html
