Adriano Olivetti

Adriano Olivetti
Adriano Olivetti in Venice, 1957
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office
12 June 1958 – 5 November 1959
ConstituencyTurin
Personal details
Born(1901-04-11)11 April 1901
Ivrea, Kingdom of Italy
Died27 February 1960(1960-02-27) (aged 58)
Aigle, Switzerland
Political partyCommunity Movement
Alma materPolytechnic University of Turin
ProfessionEngineer, 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]

  1. ^ "L'imprenditore rosso". Archived from the original on 25 March 2013. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
  2. ^ Giva, Giorgio (10 August 2020). "Accadde oggi – Valletta, il capo della Fiat che avvicinò gli italiani all'auto". FIRSTonline (in Italian). Retrieved 11 February 2023.