Adriano Olivetti | |
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Member of the Chamber of Deputies | |
In office 12 June 1958 – 5 November 1959 | |
Constituency | Turin |
Personal details | |
Born | Ivrea, Kingdom of Italy | 11 April 1901
Died | 27 February 1960 Aigle, Switzerland | (aged 58)
Political party | Community Movement |
Alma mater | Polytechnic University of Turin |
Profession | Engineer, industrialist |
Signature | |
Adriano Olivetti (11 April 1901 – 27 February 1960) was an Italian engineer, entrepreneur, politician, and industrialist.[1] He was known worldwide during his lifetime as the Italian manufacturer of Olivetti brand typewriters, calculators, and computers. He was son of the founder of Olivetti, Camillo Olivetti, and Luisa Revel, the daughter of a prominent Waldensian pastor and scholar. The Olivetti empire had been begun by his father.
The Olivetti factory initially consisted of 30 workers and concentrated on electric measurement devices. By 1908, 25 years after Remington in the United States, the company started to produce typewriters.
Adriano Olivetti transformed shop-like operations into a modern factory. He supported the utopian system of the Community Movement. In his company, apart from managers and technicians, he enrolled a large number of artists like writers and architects, following his interest in design and urban and building planning that were closely linked with his personal utopian vision. His participatory and enlightened corporate model was contrasted to the paternalism of Fiat S.p.A.'s Vittorio Valletta.[2]