INTERVIEW
MV AGUSTA PRESIDENT AND CEO GIOVANNI CASTIGLIONI: PART 1
P92
makes an 800 triple to sell? Will
the engine work, maybe it won't."
It was very difficult to get funds to
invest in the business.
But all this was while your
father became seriously ill,
and then eventually passed
away in 2011?
Yes, indeed. When we took
over MV Agusta again I think my
father came here two or three
times at the most, in August
2010, then October, and in
November he started undergo-
ing treatment in the USA, then
in August the next year he died,
and I was left on my own. I had
very good help from [former
Ducati CEO/Chief Engineer]
Massimo Bordi, who came to
work here for a while to advise
me. He's someone that I learned
a lot from, good things and bad!
I guess you needed a consi-
gliere [advisor] at this stage?
Yes, because my involvement
in the company since I joined
MV in 2002 had only been on
the business side. My back-
ground is in finance, this is what
I'd studied in London, so my real
contribution to the company in
those years had been only M&A
transactions [mergers and acqui-
sitions—AC], MV's sale to Proton
being the first deal I followed af-
ter our negotiations with Piaggio
fell through, and then the sale
of Husqvarna to BMW, and then
MV Agusta to Harley-Davidson,
then the re-acquisition.
But when I took over actually
running the company I found that
finance is one thing, but manag-
ing a manufacturing enterprise
Under his watch,
the MV Agusta has
launched a series
of new models
including this
Rivale 800.
