Dear Readers,
March memos with an Italian Connection: Avanti Awards, are monetary grants presented each year to select artists in the visual and performing arts, by the Joseph and Frances Brucia Foundation at their Annual Avanti Awards dinner in Northern California.
Joe left us in December, 2007 at his home in San Rafael, California at age 92, but to those of us who enjoyed the hospitality and generosity of the Brucias for over two decades when they opened their home and gardens for annual Italian American charitable events, Joe although departed is still missed and very much a part of our happy memories.
Since his passing, Joe’s gracious widow Frances Brucia and children have established the Joseph and Frances Brucia Foundation(a non-profit corporation with a 501 (c) (3) Federal ID 26-1635326) to carry on the Brucia family legacy of encouraging and supporting the arts. Joe’s father, Giuseppe Brucia’s generous support helped start the San Francisco Opera in 1922.
Joseph and Frances Brucia funded the first San Francisco Opera simulcast in 2006, enjoyed by over 8,000 viewers in the San Francisco Civic Center Plaza and provided proof to doubters that cold or fog would not deter S.F. Opera lovers. Subsequent opera open- air simulcasts have lured lovers of opera to A.T. & T, Dolores Park, and other venues by the thousands in all sorts of weather.
The Avanti Award winners for 2010, designated by the Foundation were Katrina Zosseder, an aspiring opera singer, Jacquelyn Vierra, a talented painter and graduate of the Academy of Arts College in San Francisco, and Till Dawn, a fifteen member high school a cappella singing group under Youth and Arts.
If you wish to help artists of any age follow their dreams and passions by giving to the world their images, music, sculpture, poetry and singing or make this a better world by nurturing and encouraging such artistic expressions you can contact Laurence Brucia, board director or the Joseph & Frances Brucia Foundation, P.O. Box 224 Kentfield, CA 94914, Tel. 415.456.8611 Fax: 415.456.8812
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Buying American or even buying Italian is no easy task these days. Whenever I take a careful look at labels I‘m often reminded of the Dennis the Menace cartoon I saw a few months back where Dennis says to his father “If God made everything, he must live in China”… In Italy as in the U.S. company business ownership is no longer clear cut but here is a peek behind various green, white and red company curtains the last time I looked: Automaker Fiat, is now an Italian-American company, Chrysler-Fiat or more accurately Fiat-Chrysler with Marchionneof Fiat in charge.
Fiat, founded in 1899 by the Agnelli family and once the country’s largest employer has seen its carmaking division swamped with debt. Fiat had to sell off some of its major assets, such as a major insurance company, in order to survive, but hopefully in partnership with Chrysler happy days will soon be here again.
Recently politicians and VIP’s who came to Detroit, Michigan got special treatment, with Chrysler’s new chief, Sergio Marchionne of Fiat, leading them on a personal tour of the new vehicles. Optimism was expressed by US Secretary of Transportation Ray Lahood and Uaw (United Auto Workers) leader Ron Gettelfinger.
They both unveiled their appreciation for Marchionne’s strong leadership as well as the Fiat’ technological assets and perhaps style input from its sportier brands, Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Ferrani in the future. Fiat-Chrysler took the Delta hatchback from Fiat’s tony European Lancia brand, fashioned a Chrysler brand nose andg grille on it and put it out there to get feedback at the show. Chrysler and Fiat revealed an electric version of the 500 at the show in Detroit.
The electric Bambino has arrived in the form of a Fiat 500 BEV. Benetton, known to U.S. consumers for their beautiful sportswear introduced via their longtime “Colors of Benetton” advertising are actually, via Autostrade, Europe’s largest toll road manager, controlled by the Benetton family. People in the U.S. associate the Benettons with Italy’s largest clothing company but the Veneto-based clan has gone far beyond that in the past decades.
Their holding group also controls Autogrill, which manages restaurants in dozens of U.S. airports and highways, including the New Jersey Turnpike. Campari, the Piedmont- based maker of this famously bitter aperitif went public in 2001, but is still family-controlled.
The little red bottles first appeared in 1860, and have grown steadily in popularity since. Campari also presides over the Cinzano, Grand Marnier, Glenfiddich, and Lipton Iced Tea brands. Ducati moto was founded in 1926 by the Ducati brothers, Adriano, Bruno and Marcello.
By 1939, Ducati reached a total number of seven thousand employees. The factory was destroyed in 1944 by a bombing in Bologna. After WWII the fac- tory was rebuilt and in 1946, “cucciola” model production began. Ducati roared into the new millennium with resound- ing success in America. It sold its motorcycles to Hollywood stars and has shown positive numbers for the launch of new models abroad. Ducati, based in Bologna, is no longer Italian- owned.
It was bought in 1996 by the Texas Pacific group, which also bought a part of the Vespa scooter-maker, Piaggio. Enel, until 1999, the nation’s dominant utility was a classic state monopoly, answering nei- ther to shareholders nor the demands of competition. All has changed after slices of it were taken public and after the Italian energy market was opened to foreign competition (in the form of Electricite de France, which joined forces with Fiat to take the reigns of Italy’s number-two energy supplier, Montedison).
Enel also has a controlling stake in Wind, the mobile phone com- pany and Internet service provider. Generali, Italy’s largest insurer is based in Trieste and is the fourth-largest insurance company in Europe. It has often become the subject of a tug of war between the nation’s largest investment banks and bank rivals. Hurry “call the General”.
Juventus, the soccer team has had several large shareholders since the Agnelli family took its Turin-based soccer team public in 2002. It is the third Italian club to list its shares, along with S.S. Lazio and A.S. Roma. Juventus has done well at the stadium in recent seasons. Soccer shares in Italy seem to respond significantly to the final score on the field. Luxottica is the world’s largest maker of luxury eyeglass frames.
Founded by Milan native Leonardo Del Vecchio it has had a ticker on the NYSE since the 1980s, but Del Vecchio also listed it on Milan’s Mib 30 in 2000. The company is best known for its Ray Banand Killer Loop sunglasses, though it has a lucrative business craft- ing frames for Armani, Bulgari, and Valentino brands. Mediobanca, the country’s largest investment bankkeeps itself shrouded in mystery, even after the death of its fabled chairman, Enrico Cuccia, in June 2000.
Owned largely by other lenders, such as Unicredito and Banca di Roma, it has sig- nificant stakes in most of the nation’s principal firms. Under new leadership, this pinnacle of the salotto buono(literally, “good living room”) has been losing its grip on power and has missed out on several major deals. RCS Publishingholds the nation’s largest newspaper, Corriere della Sera, and is a good example of shareholder pacts. The paper generates solid cash flow and wields considerable influence in public opinion, so its major shareholders have a gentlemen’s agreement that it will never be subject to a takeover.
RCS (formerly known as HdP) once owned some unprofitable fashion ateliers, which made the holding company less attractive to corporate raiders. Telecom Italiais the number-one phone utility in the country, and also the owner of the leading cellular operator, Telecom Italia Mobile.
The former state monopoly twice switched hands in dramatic fashion. In 1999, it was the subject of a €33-billion ($43-billion) takeover by Olivetti, an erst while docile manufacturer of typewriters. Two years later, a group of investors, including the chairman of Pirelli cables and tires and the Benetton family, bought 23 percent of Olivetti and therefore took control of Telecom. Telecom then merged with Olivetti. Tiscali a Sardinia-based company was one of the first Internet service providers in Italy.
Tiscali’s was the darling of the new economy in the boom years, at one point posting a market capitalization larger than Fiat’s. Then came the crash. Tiscali burned off €1.4 blillion ($1.8 billion) in one week. It is listed on the Nuovo Mercato index, but no longer has a slew of shareholder suitors.
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