Giovanni Ferrero (born September 21, 1964) is an Italian businessman. He took over leadership of the Ferrero confectionery company following the death of his brother Pietro Ferrero in 2011. As of May 2016, he had an estimated net worth of $24.2 billion according to Bloomberg.
He was born in Farigliano, Italy, to Maria Franca Fissolo and Michele Ferrero, the owner of the multinational confectionery corporation Ferrero. In 1975, he moved to Brussels, Belgium, where he attended European Schools. He later moved to the United States, where he studied marketing at Lebanon Valley College.
Ferrero is an Italian manufacturer of branded chocolate and confectionery products and is the third largest chocolate producer in the world. It was founded in 1946 in Alba, Piedmont, Italy, by Pietro Ferrero, a modest pastry chef who laid the foundation for the now-famous Nutella, using hazelnuts to reduce chocolate costs. The company experienced tremendous growth under Pietro’s son, Michele Ferrero, who later passed on the business to his sons. His son Pietro (Giovanni’s brother and the founder’s grandson) managed global operations until he died on April 18, 2011, in a cycling accident in South Africa at the age of 47.
Surveys by the Reputation Institute have ranked Ferrero as the company with the best reputation in the world. It is a privately held family company and has been described as “one of the world’s most secretive firms.” The Ferrero Group worldwide—now led by CEO Giovanni Ferrero—includes 38 commercial companies, 18 factories, and approximately 21,500 employees. It produces around 365,000 tons of Nutella every year. The headquarters of Ferrero International SA is located in Luxembourg. Its German factory is the largest, currently managed by Pasquale Giorgio.