Paolo Pininfarina, Esteemed Entrepreneur and President of the Iconic Company, Passes Away at 65

Entrepreneur Paolo Pininfarina, president of the namesake group, has passed away. Son of the lifetime senator, Sergio Pininfarina, and grandson of the founder of Pininfarina, 'Pinin' Farina, he was 65 years old and had been ill for some time. After graduating in mechanical engineering from the Polytechnic University of Turin, he continued his studies in the United States and Japan. Paolo Pininfarina's death comes 16 years after the loss of his brother Andrea, who died in a road accident in August 2008 while he was on his way to the company. The note of condolence emphasizes that until the last, his wife Ilaria, his five children Greta, Giovanni, Iole, Tullio, and Giulia, and his mother Giorgia Gianolio were close to him. The Board of Directors and the company 'gather around the family in memory of Paolo Pininfarina's professional and human figure, who for many years has devoted commitment, enthusiasm, and energy to the company founded by his grandfather Battista in 1930, presiding over it from 2008 to today. Thanks to Paolo Pininfarina's dedication, the company initiated a diversification process in the 1980s that has made it, over time, a point of reference in design fields beyond automotive. In 1982, Paolo Pininfarina began his professional journey at Pininfarina and in 1987 took on the role of president and CEO of Pininfarina Extra, a company of the Group specializing in industrial design, furniture, architecture, nautical, and aeronautics. From 1988, he was a member of the board of directors and from 2002 of the management committee of Pininfarina. In 2006 he took on the role of vice president and from 2008, after the sudden disappearance of his brother Andrea, that of president. Among the masterpieces he personally christened, two were particularly dear to him: the concept car Sergio, a two-seater barchetta based on Ferrari mechanics, which Paolo decided to create in 2013 in memory of his father, the lifetime senator Sergio Pininfarina, and the Automobili Pininfarina Battista, an electric hypercar that bears the name of his grandfather and which he himself unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in 2019.