“I am proud of the R&D organisation with competence centers in Reutlingen and in Tolmezzo”
Eugenio Razelli was born in 1950 in Genoa, Italy, where he earned a degree in electrical engineering. He started his career at Fiat before going to Zanussi as a plant manager producing dishwashers. This gave him insight into the variety involved in customer needs; Europeans at that time wanted small, quiet dishwashers while Americans wanted big ones and didn’t much care about noise. After a series of increasingly responsible positions at companies including Comind, Magneti Marelli, Pirelli Cavi, and Fiamm, he returned to Fiat and eventually in 2005 he came to be CEO of Magneti Marelli.
DVN: How are Magneti Marelli organised? What are the results?
Eugenio Razelli: Magneti Marelli have 6 Business Units: Automotive Lighting (the biggest), Powertrain, Plastic Components and modules, Shock absorbers, Aftermarket parts and Services, Infotainment, and Telematics.
In 2011, our sales were €5.9bn with 34,800 employees. R&D represent 5.3% of sales and we have 12 R&D centres.
For S1-2012, revenues and results are in line with 2011, Automotive Lighting being above the overall Magneti Marelli average.
DVN: Before meeting you, I visited the archive room and I was impressed by the volume of images and communication.
E.R.: Magneti Marelli, which was born in 1919, gathered along its important industrial heritage companies like Jaeger, Veglia,Borletti, Weber, Solex, and in the lighting field Carello. So, we have a big historical patrimony. The collection of the archive currently consists of 20,000 images , 500 videos and over 2,000 documents such as company magazines, brochures, advertisements and press reviews. The Archive also includes a significant selection of products like magnets, coils, control units, headlights, and historical measuring instruments tied to Magneti Marelli and to our historical trademarks.