Gilberto Benetton

Gilberto Benetton (19 June 1941 – 22 October 2018) was an Italian billionaire businessman, one of Europe's most influential industrialists. He was a co-founder of Benetton Group, the Italian fashion brand which he started and ran with his three siblings. In June 2018, the conglomerate he created had assets of €12.1 billion. The company became well known for its brightly colored clothing. By the 1980s the company was distributing in 100 countries, and the Benetton family had become billionaires.

The Benetton Group was controversial for its ads, which often went against the social norms of the time. The ads challenged social taboos such as sexuality, war, racism, and AIDS. In 2011 the company pulled an ad featuring a photoshopped image of the Pope kissing a prominent Islamic cleric after the Vatican complained. The company became one of the world's largest retail groups, with 5000 stores in 120 companies. Benetton was the former chairman of Edizione, the family's holding company which controls Atlantia. There were claims the weakness in the bridge was known in advance, and that the disaster was avoidable. The holding company Edizione lost €2 billion in value after the incident. It is expected that he will be succeeded in his board role by Gilberto's daughter Sabrina.

He was inducted into the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame, in 2012. This was due to his contribution to the sport of Italian basketball, while he was the owner of the Italian professional basketball club Treviso Basket. bought the club in 1980, A statement from the Benetton Group said "His wife Lalla, daughters Barbara and Sabrina and son-in-law Ermanno were with him in his final moments".