FB Profiles

From rubber to hedge funds: the Manuli family story

March 16, 2011

The Manuli family made its first fortune in rubber and industrials, now the second generation are diversifying into spas and hedge funds. Second generation Antonello Manuli tells Campden FB about the transition

Italy is known for its family dynasties; Prada, Fiat and Missoni are just three that initially come to mind. Aside from their obvious business acumen, something which many people associate with these families is glamour.

And despite having made their money in the less than glamorous rubber industry, the Manuli family have proved just as successful and glamorous as many of their more famous contemporaries.

Constructing families

March 16, 2011

Construction might not be an area a family business would want to be in during a credit crisis – after all didn’t the crisis start with a collapse in the US property market? Katie Barker takes a look at how family businesses in the sector are coping

Huge family fortunes have been made in construction. Just ask Riley Bechtel – the chief executive of the eponymous company his great-grandfather founded in 1898 and now he heads up. In 2009, the Bechtel Group had revenues of more than $30 billion, up from $27 billion in 2007.

Succession top in mind for Italian “royal family” head

March 8, 2011

John Elkann, fifth-generation chairman of the founding Fiat family, has revealed how he attempts to balance his work burdens with raising a family and carefully exposing his young children to the family business.

In an interview with the Financial Times, 34-year-old Elkann explained when running a family business, it is not always possible to separate the business from family life. “Private life is to some extent part of work life. Ultimately if you want to balance that we cannot have silos, one part separate from the other,” he said.