Tronchetti proposes Angelos Papadimitriou as general manager, co-CEO

Pirelli executive vice chairman and CEO, Marco Tronchetti Provera has proposed Angelos Papadimitriou for the new office of general manager co-CEO. Papadimitriou will report directly to Marco Tronchetti Provera. The appointment has been added to the agenda for the scheduled 23 July 2020 board of directors meeting. According to an official statement outlining the appointment, “the aim of the reorganization is to support the realization of the business model and broaden the management team in view of the succession path which will be completed in the first half of 2023”. In other words, Papadimitriou is being positioned as Tronchetti Provera’s successor.

However, while succession is already been attached to Papadimitriou’s appointment, there is also a formal procedure to follow. According to the Pirelli, the procedure foresees that the path will conclude with the identification of a candidate by October 2022. The candidate will be proposed as the new chief executive officer of Pirelli in the first half of 2023, following the renewal of the board of directors by the shareholders meeting called to approve the company’s results for the year ending on 31 December 2022.

Details of the appointment have already shared with the chairman of the board of directors Ning Gaoning. Board members have also been informed.

In the proposed new macro-organizational structure, the executive vice chairman and CEO will continue to head the direction and control of strategy and extraordinary operations, and maintain as his reports Corporate Affairs, Compliance and Company Secretary; Strategic Planning & Controlling and Investor Relations; Communication and Brand Image; Global Institutional Affairs and Sustainability.

However, according to Pirelli, the general manager co-CEO will be attributed with “all the necessary executive levers, as well as all the staff areas not reporting directly to the executive vice chairman and CEO, and the general manager operations, Andrea Casaluci, to whom all the business lines and regions will continue to refer, will also report to him.”

Angelos Papadimitriou has held international leadership positions in a variety of industrial sectors. After obtaining a degree in Computer Science & Economics and an MBA at Harvard Business School, he began his career at Laboratoires Fournier and then moved to the Schering Plough pharmaceutical group to manage its Italian subsidiary and then become its Head of Primary Care in the United States. In 2003 he moved to Glaxo in London to head its commercial operations in Europe and then was given responsibility for Italy, managing its repositioning and transforming it into one of the country’s main players in the pharmaceutical sector. He then assumed a series of association roles, including the Presidency of the Board of Foreign Investors of Confindustria. In 2010, he became CEO of Coesia, a group active in the production of packaging machines, contributing to its path of development and the consolidation of its leadership in the sector at the global level, with actions to improve company performance and active growth through external avenues.

Last month Marco Tronchetti Provera was re-confirmed as Pirelli executive vice chairman and CEO.