A grade-A Juventus fan, a manager with years of experience first in the publishing business and then in commerce: Giovanni Cobolli Gigli, is the president “having our trust and a name of warranty” that the Agnelli family has chosen to renovated the “look” of the “Old Lady” of Italian football, today badly in need of a “face lift”. The new President was born in 1945, he is reserved and quite adamant in reaching his objectives; he is a workaholic and his friends and family say he is always in his office early in the morning and never leaves before 8:30 pm, and he doesn’t often take a lunch break. Giovanni Cobolli Gigli conquered the courage to face difficult challenges in the ring but also the capacity of analysis, of carefully studying an opponent to learn his moves and so anticipate his actions. Besides his prestigious positions at Mondadori and Rinascente, there is also his passion for boxing which he began at a young age at the Ignis Gym at the Vigorelli of Milan. During the years, he has left boxing to engage in other sports such as skiing, tennis, jogging: this latter a discipline he continues to practice religiously daily. He is a mountain enthusiast and he often goes to Valle d’Aosta. The new Juventus president adores sports and so likes to spend his vacations at the beach, preferably in Italy and on the Islands, with Ponza and the Tremiti his favourites.
He has a degree in Economics and Business from Bocconi University and he entered into IFIL in 1973 in the participations management sector and then moved up to various positions in companies such as Fabbri and Rinascente, a part of the holding belonging to the Agnelli family. He was MD of Rinascente from 1994 to July 2005 and since last December; he has been on the Board of Directors of Alpitour, the tour operator a part of IFIL. Giovanni Gobolli Gigli often speaks about his work experience in the book and magazine publishing sector (besides Fabbri he worked for other publishing companies such as Rizzoli Libri and Mondadori) not only when he loves to recall being “trained” by Valentino Bompiani, the legendary name in Italian publishing, or his friendship with various important exponents at Adelfi such as Zeli and Foa’ but also when he uses his so-called “intuition” to aim directly towards the target. A characteristic, he loves to recall, that he got while working for Fabbri in the encyclopaedia by instalments sector, those sold at newsstands, for which the first instalment is the key to the success of the entire collection: if the consumer is won over by the first issue, then this encyclopaedia is a good idea and can continue, if not then attention should be aimed elsewhere.
The rest of his biography has already been read: he has been president of Federdistribuzione since 2003, he is on the Board of Directors of Auchan, ICE – the National Institute for Foreign Trade, he is vice-president of UPA – Associated Advertisement Agency, he is on the Strategic Committee for Competitiveness of the Lombardy Region and at the end of 2005 he resigned his post as vice-president of Confcommercio because he did not see eye to eye with the former president.
The IFIL top management has given him a tough job: he has to give the Juventus team back to the football world, but before this he has to bring the values of sports back to the Football Club such as transparency, loyalty and fair-play. This commitment requires firmness and seriousness, characteristics Giovanni Cobolli Gigli is not lacking with his fame of being a demanding manager, one who loves getting the job done well and carefully. However, there is more to the story; those in the loop say that being a grade-A Juventus fan since the beginning, he often referred to the team’s victories before he had an important professional deadline with a hint of superstition: “if my favourite team can make it then this is a good omen also for me”. We can’t help but imagine what he thought when the vice-president of IFIL, John Elkann, called him to tell him he had been entrusted to help the Juventus Football Club get back on its feet.