Leonardo Maugeri, one of the world's leading experts on oil and fossil energy, has died at the age of 53. The Florentine economist and manager passed away after a long illness. His precocious career was lived as a protagonist between academic research and the Eni group, where he was called by Franco Bernabé, but launched by his successor Vittorio Mincato, who in 2000 appointed him director of strategies and development. Maugeri quickly became the trusted advisor of the Venetian manager, and planned his growth strategy - based on small acquisitions of foreign companies - which since then in five years almost doubled the daily production of barrels of the Italian giant up to 1,73 million; a level that has only been surpassed in recent months.
With Mincato and the then general manager Stefano Cao, Maugeri was among the protagonists of the relaunch of the San Donato group, but the arrival of the new CEO Paolo Scaroni in 2005 put him in the shade, and in 2010 he was jubilated with his appointment as president of Polimeri Europa (formerly Enimont and current Versalis), e the following year, he left the group. In 2014 Maugeri was among the candidates for the position of head of ENI, which has since been entrusted to Claudio Descalzi.
On October 5 of the same year Maugeri also released an interview with FIRSTonline, in which he predicted the fall in oil prices due to the surge in world production capacity.
