We featured Marco Tronchetti's efforts to restructure Telecom Italia and bolster the communication behemoth's lagging stock.
Tronchetti pushed past tenured Pirelli executives to take charge of the troubled tiremaker in 1991.
Tronchetti even has his eye on reviving Olivetti, now a division of Tel Italia.
Tronchetti also has continued to add substantial valuations for Pirelli Group in real estate.
In both the wired and wireless businesses Tronchetti has to contend with price-cutting mandates by regulators.
In September Tronchetti abruptly resigned his post after being publicly embarrassed by Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.
Tronchetti still wields influence as chairman of holding company Olimpia, which controls 18% of Telecom Italia's voting shares.
Mr Tronchetti Provera says that he has clear ideas for reducing the debt, but cannot reveal them yet.
ECONOMIST: A risky move into telecoms has upset a lot of shareholders
But Tronchetti sees pockets of expansion throughout the world, and he is keen to see Pirelli treads leave their mark.
Prodi revealed details of private talks he'd held with Tronchetti and criticized Tronchetti's plan to sell off a chunk of Telecom Italia's assets.
Mr Tronchetti Provera has even more minority shareholders to keep sweet.
ECONOMIST: A risky move into telecoms has upset a lot of shareholders
Pirelli's boss, Marco Tronchetti Provera, 53, though very much from the salotto buono himself, is typical of the new breed of Italian managers who promote the need for opening up.
Tronchetti himself represents the society in which he lives.
Those talks came after Tronchetti and News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch failed to agree on a deal to deliver News Corp's media content, such as sports and movies, to Telecom Italia's broadband TV customers.
TI's chairmanship last September, Marco Tronchetti Provera, Pirelli's chairman, must be hoping that this will bring down the final curtain on an adventure that has proved hugely expensive for Pirelli's shareholders, of which he is the largest.
Those talks came after Tronchetti and News Corp (nyse: NWS - news - people ) Chairman Rupert Murdoch failed to agree on a deal to deliver News Corp's media content, such as sports and movies, to Telecom Italia's broadband TV customers.
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