As part of the succession plan at Pirelli Cie & SpA, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera has asked the board to consider Angelos Papadimitriou as his possible successor.
The proposal will be considered by the board on July 23.
Papadimitriou initially will serve as general manager co-CEO. The move is part of a reorganization at Pirelli that has the goal of broadening “the management team in consideration of the future succession path in line with the procedure already adopted by the company.”
The company expects that the search for a successor would conclude with the identification of a candidate by October 2022. The candidate would be proposed as the new CEO in the first half of 2023.
Papadimitrious has held leadership positions internationally in multinational companies that operate in a variety of industries. He earned a computer science and economics degree and a MBA from Harvard Business School, and worked in the pharmaceutical company, first at Laboratoires Fournier, then at Schering Plough pharmaceutical group. There he managed its Italian subsidiary and became the head of primary care in the U.S.
In 2003 he moved to Glaxo in London to head its commercial operations in Europe and then managed the repositioning and transformation of Italy’s position as a primary player in the sector.
He then became president of the Board of Foreign Investors of Confindustria and in 2010 became CEO of Coesia, a group active in the production of packaging machines. There he helped consolidate leadership in the sector at the global level “with actions to improve company performance and active growth through external avenues.”
At Pirelli, the structure would leave the executive vice chairman and CEO as the head of strategy and operations, and maintain these leaders as his reports: corporate affairs, compliance and company secretary; strategic planning, controlling and investor relations; communication and brand image; global institutional affairs and sustainability.
The new position of general manager co-CEO would staff all the other areas not reporting directly to the executive vice chairman and CEO, including Andrea Casaluci, general manager operations, to whom all the business lines and regions continue to report.