Piero Lardi Ferrari is an Italian billionaire businessman and sport personality. He is the second and only living son of Enzo Ferrari, and a 10% owner of the Ferrari automotive company of which he is the vice chairman. He owns 13.2% of the Ferretti Group.
Early life
Piero Ferrari is the son of Enzo Ferrari and his mistress, Lina Lardi. Enzo had met Lina in the late 1930s when she was working at Carrozzerie Orlandi, a coachbuilder company in Modena. The two became romantically involved soon after and continued their relationship until Ferrari's death in 1988. As divorce was illegal in Italy until 1975, Piero could not be acknowledged as a Ferrari family member until the death of Enzo's estranged wife, Laura, in 1978. In 1990 he legally changed his name from Piero Lardi Ferrari to Piero Ferrari. Ferrari grew up in Modena. He became passionate about mechanics by hanging out in a bike repair shop close to his mother's home. In 1964, he obtained a degree in mechanical engineering at the Fermo Corni Institute in Modena.
Career at Ferrari
In 1969 Ferrari started working informally for the family company as an English translator for his father. In the early 1970s he was officially hired as technical supervisor, with the task of listing, describing and archiving defective or ineffective car components. One of his early jobs was taking the drawings and parts of the 196 Dino to the GT department, acting as a bridge between the road car and racing division. In doing so, he earned considerable experience about the operational dynamics of the factory. In 1974 he was moved to the Formula One team, where he worked as a co-organiser, assisting sporting directors Luca Cordero di Montezemolo and Daniele Audetto. In the mid-1980s he became supervisor of the production of road cars, where he helped developing concepts for the low-volume Ferrari F40, Ferrari F50 and LaFerrari. In 1988, when Enzo Ferrari died, Piero was the sole heir of the Ferrari family and inherited his father's 10% share of the company and the ownership of the Fiorano Circuit. In 1989 he was nominated vice chairman by Ferrari's then president Vittorio Ghidella. On the occasion of the 2013 Chinese Grand Prix, won by Fernando Alonso, Ferrari's then team principal Stefano Domenicali persuaded Piero Ferrari to collect the trophy for the team. It was the first time in the history of Scuderia Ferrari that a Ferrari family member would step on the podium of a Formula One race.
Business ventures
In 1998 Ferrari teamed up with José Di Mase and purchased Piaggio Aero Engineering with the idea of bringing Piaggio back to its roots as a designer and producer of business aircraft. Ferrari was nominated president. He resigned in 2015 when he sold the final 1.95% of his shares to Mubadala Development Company. The connection proved fruitful as Ferrari was then able to persuade Mubadala to become a title sponsor of the Ferrari Formula One Team the following year. Ferrari is also the chairman of HPE COXA, a company he founded in 1998 with the aim of providing high end engineering services in the mechanical field. In 2009 HPE acquired COXA, a manufacturing firm founded in 1985 and specialized in the high precision manufacturing of niche volumes and prototypes. Following Ferrari's IPO on 21 October 2015, his 10% stake was valued at US$1.1 billion. On 28 April 2016 he entered into the Ferretti Group with 13.2% of shares. In May 2019 he was ranked by Forbes at number 838 in the world's billionaires list with a net worth of $3.1 billion. In 2019 he acquired the first mega yacht of Riva the 50m "RACE", that launch the new Riva Superyacht Division of the shipyard. In April 2020 he was ranked by Forbes at number 680 in the world's billionaires list with a net worth of $3.4 billion.
Ferrari was very close to his paternal grandmother, Adalgisa Bisbini. His legitimate half-brother, Dino, died in 1956 of muscular dystrophy when Piero was ten. Piero is married to Floriana Nalin and has a daughter, Antonella, and two grandsons, Enzo and Piero. He lives in Modena in his father's old residence. Ferrari actively supports Centro Dino Ferrari, a research center for neuro degenerative and muscular diseases named after his brother and co-founded by his father.
