Paolo Vitelli, 1947-2024
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A giant of the luxury yachting industry, the Italian entrepreneur built the family-owned Azimut-Benetti Group into a global leader.
Paolo Vitelli, founder of Azimut and the Azimut-Benetti Group
Paolo Vitelli, who founded Azimut in 1969 and acquired Benetti in 1985, passed away on December 31, 2024, at the age of 77. Vitelli built the Azimut-Benetti Group into one of the world’s biggest builders of luxury yachts. The shipyard announced €1.3 billion in revenue for 2023/2024 and recently topped the Global Order Book for production of 24m-plus yachts for the 25th successive year.
His daughter Giovanna Vitelli (Leader, January 2023) heads Azimut-Benetti, having succeeded her father as Chair in early 2023, the year Benetti celebrated its 150th anniversary. In recent years, Paolo Vitelli was also involved in hospitality activities, with the family owning hotels in the mountains of Italy and France.
Born in Turin on October 4, 1947, Vitelli graduated with a degree in Economics and Business in June 1970 after four years of study. In 1969, he created Azimut as a side business to rent out sailing boats. A year later, Dutch shipyard Amerglass appointed Azimut as its dealer in Italy, and others soon followed. Vitelli then moved into production, initially with Amerglass, and Azimut soon made a name for its fibreglass yachts.
In 1985, he bought the Benetti shipyard and created the Azimut-Benetti Group, which currently includes both motoryacht brands, the Lusben refit service and Yachtique design studio.
Vitelli with daughter Giovanna, Chair of Azimut-Benetti since 2023
Today, Azimut builds yachts ranging from 13-44m across the Atlantis, Verve, Fly, S, Seadeck and Grande series. Benetti builds superyachts from 34-108m across the Class, Motopanfilo, Oasis, B.Yond, B.Now, B.Century, B.Loft and Custom families.
The Group has five shipyards in Italy (Avigliana, Savona, Viareggio, Livorno and Fano) and one in Brazil (Itajai), and launched a Corporate Academy in 2023. It has over 2,000 staff, employs more than 4,000 people in related industries, and oversees about 140 points of sale and service worldwide.
Azimut-Benetti’s diversification and investments have included the construction of new marinas in Italy (Varazze, Viareggio and Livorno), Malta (La Valletta) and Russia (Moscow). In 2004, Azimut-Benetti bought into Fraser and acquired 100 per cent ownership by 2017 before selling the brokerage house to US distributor MarineMax in 2019.
In 1997, the President of Italy awarded Vitelli the title of Cavaliere del Lavoro “for having distinguished himself singularly in the shipbuilding industry”. From 1998-2006, Vitelli was President of UCINA (now Confindustria Nautica). He received the ‘Campione della Crescita’ (‘Champions of Growth’) prize for heading the leading Italian company in terms of growth, innovation and globalisation from 2001-2006.
Vitelli was Honorary Consul for Norway from 1974-2018 and a member of the Italian Parliament from 2013-2015.
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