by Sonia Sirletti
Alberto Nagel has been running Mediobanca SpA since the month after Lehman Brothers collapsed. He is now signalling he’s still not done.
“I expressed my willingness to continue in the current position,” the chief executive officer of the Italian lender told reporters in a conference call on Thursday. He said that he has “come up with a business plan for a big push” at the bank as a reason for seeking another term.
Mediobanca is set to decide in October whether to reappoint Nagel for another three-year term, which would extend his reign to 18 years. He joined the bank in 1991 and became CEO in 2008, one of the longest CEO tenures in European banking. Frederic Oudea, the longest—serving chief at a major European lender, recently stepped down from his post at Societe Generale SA. He had been appointed in April 2008.
Nagel has navigated Mediobanca through the global financial crisis, the European debt crisis and countless Italian government changes. He’s also prevailed through various internal battles and big strategy shifts.
Run by Enrico Cuccia until his death in 2000, Mediobanca expanded by buying stakes in companies owned by some of Italy’s most powerful families such as the Agnellis, Pirellis and Ferruzzis. Nagel spelled an end to that strategy in a major revamp in 2013, instead strengthening Mediobanca’s investment bank, retail business and wealth management.
More recently, Nagel has faced criticism from some shareholders including Luxottica founder Leonardo Del Vecchio for being too conservative and overly dependent on the insurer Assicurazioni Generali SpA, in which Mediobanca owns a 13% stake. Del Vecchio’s holding company Delfin owns a 20% stake in Mediobanca and a 10% stake in Generali.
Nagel was pitted against Del Vecchio in a boardroom battle over Generali’s top management last year. Investors ultimately backed Mediobanca’s proposal, signalling confidence in Nagel’s choices.
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