Hugo Dixon

LONDON/MILAN (Reuters) – Cesare Geronzi’s apparently hefty payoff and his seemingly lavish expenses during 11 months as non-executive chairman of Generali (GASI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) are set to come under the spotlight at the insurer’s shareholder meeting on Saturday, several directors and other sources said.

Geronzi, a powerful Italian corporate insider who has been close to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, resigned in the face of a boardroom coup on April 6. He was awarded a payoff of 16.6 million euros ($24.3 million) upon leaving Europe’s No.3 insurer, several Generali directors and other high-ranking Generali sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Geronzi also ran up bills to cover extensive use of private jets, five secretaries, multiple cars and drivers in four cities, the rent for a flat in Milan, a public relations team separate from the company’s main communications office, and sponsorship of events and media outside the company’s normal advertising program, according to the sources.

Generali declined to comment on the details or size of Geronzi’s costs, while a spokesman for Geronzi also declined to comment.

Consob, the Italian stock market regulator, has asked Generali to clarify the extent of the payoff, according to several insiders.

LONDON/MILAN, April 27 (Reuters) – Cesare Geronzi’s
apparently hefty payoff and his seemingly lavish expenses during
11 months as non-executive chairman of Generali (GASI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research) are
set to come under the spotlight at the insurer’s shareholder
meeting on Saturday, several directors and other sources said.

Geronzi, a powerful Italian corporate insider who has been
close to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, resigned in the face
of a boardroom coup on April 6. He was awarded a payoff of 16.6
million euros ($24.3 million) upon leaving Europe’s No.3
insurer, several Generali directors and other high-ranking
Generali sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Geronzi also ran up bills to cover extensive use of private
jets, five secretaries, multiple cars and drivers in four
cities, the rent for a flat in Milan, a public relations team
separate from the company’s main communications office, and
sponsorship of events and media outside the company’s normal
advertising programme, according to the sources.

LONDON/MILAN (Reuters) – Cesare Geronzi’s apparently hefty payoff and his seemingly lavish expenses during 11 months as non-executive chairman of Generali (GASI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research) are set to come under the spotlight at the insurer’s shareholder meeting on Saturday, several directors and other sources said.

Geronzi, a powerful Italian corporate insider who has been close to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, resigned in the face of a boardroom coup on April 6. He was awarded a payoff of 16.6 million euros (14 million pounds) upon leaving Europe’s No.3 insurer, several Generali directors and other high-ranking Generali sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Geronzi also ran up bills to cover extensive use of private jets, five secretaries, multiple cars and drivers in four cities, the rent for a flat in Milan, a public relations team separate from the company’s main communications office, and sponsorship of events and media outside the company’s normal advertising programme, according to the sources.

CAIRO (Reuters) – In early 2005, Cairo-based computer engineer Saad Bahaar was trawling the internet when he came across a trio of Egyptian expatriates who advocated the use of non-violent techniques to overthrow strongman Hosni Mubarak. Bahaar, then 32 and interested in politics and how Egypt might change, was intrigued by the idea. He contacted the group, lighting one of the fuses that would end in freedom in Tahrir Square six years later.

The three men he approached — Hisham Morsy, a physician, Wael Adel, a civil engineer by training, and Adel’s cousin Ahmed, a chemist — had all left Egypt for jobs in London.

Inspired by the way Serbian group Otpor had brought down Slobodan Milosevic through non-violent protests in 2000, the trio studied previous struggles. One of their favorite thinkers was Gene Sharp, a Boston-based academic who was heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi. The group had set up a webpage in 2004 to propagate civil disobedience ideas in Arabic.

LONDON (Reuters) – Gene Sharp’s writings on how to use non-violent techniques to bring down autocratic regimes are often cited as a major influence on the activists who led the campaign against Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak.

The 83-year-old American academic had never met or spoken to those behind the successful uprising. But he has strong views on what happened in Egypt and what is happening elsewhere in the Middle East. First and foremost, he stresses the importance of preparation and discipline. The Egyptian protesters were prepared while the Libyans were not, Sharp said in an hour-long telephone interview from Boston, where he runs the Albert Einstein Institution, a non-profit organization that advances the study and use of nonviolent action in conflicts around the world.

Discipline means remaining non-violent despite brutality and provocation. “Sometimes the people using non-violent techniques don’t fully understand the methods,” says Sharp, who has written numerous books on the history of non-violent struggles, including two books on India’s Mahatma Gandhi. “They think that if they refrain from violence, their opponents will too.”

CAIRO (Reuters) – In early 2005, Cairo-based computer engineer Saad Bahaar was trawling the internet when he came across a trio of Egyptian expatriates who advocated the use of non-violent techniques to overthrow strongman Hosni Mubarak. Bahaar, then 32 and interested in politics and how Egypt might change, was intrigued by the idea. He contacted the group, lighting one of the fuses that would end in freedom in Tahrir Square six years later.

The three men he approached — Hisham Morsy, a physician, Wael Adel, a civil engineer by training, and Adel’s cousin Ahmed, a chemist — had all left Egypt for jobs in London.

Inspired by the way Serbian group Otpor had brought down Slobodan Milosevic through non-violent protests in 2000, the trio studied previous struggles. One of their favourite thinkers was Gene Sharp, a Boston-based academic who was heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi. The group had set up a webpage in 2004 to propagate civil disobedience ideas in Arabic.