For a New York-born 33-year-old, John Elkann has a low-key but powerful presence in European public life. It is he from whom Claudio Ranieri, coach of Turin’s lately flagging Juventus football club, makes clear he takes his orders. On Thursday, Mr Elkann was on the panel of a symposium in the Swiss resort of St Gallen, giving a speech on creating an “industrial future”.

Both roles provide clues to his heritage. Mr Elkann is the great-great-grandson of Giovanni Agnelli, founder of Fiat, which this week shook the business world with a plan to merge the Italian carmaker with Opel, Saab and Chrysler to create a global automotive group as big as Volkswagen.