FARMER BOY’S SON
Spagnolini’s life in aviation began when his father ran away from the family’s poor, farming roots. Yes, there was sustenance to be found in the fertile Italian soil of their rural village, but the father, in youthful searching, wanted to add more spice to his life. He found his bounty as a pilot in the Italian Air Force. “He gained a lot of experience and three Silver Star awards during the war in Spain and World War II,” says his son with adulation. The former farm boy rose through the military ranks all the way to three-star general. He also saw to it that young Bruno would spend his formative years in Rome. “I was lucky to stay there through my schooling up until my secondary education when I went to the Italian Air Force Academy in Naples. So, the military and aviation are in my blood from my family.” Not only can love for aviation be inherited, but once acquired, Spagnolini has discovered that aviation is integral to one’s life. “You can make a lot more money in business by selling consumer goods like shoes or phones,” he says, “but if aerospace is inside you, it’s hard to leave it.”
While in the Naples academy, Spagnolini eventually acquired the equivalence of a U.S. master’s degree in aerospace engineering. From there it was on to active duty as an engineer in Italy’s air force. He recalls the camaraderie of those days. “It was quite an experience spending five years with your colleagues, living day and night together.”
Like his father before him, Spagnolini wanted something more. “After my air force experience in maintenance and procurement, I wanted to go into a bit more competitive market. I was interviewed for a job by fixed-wing manufacturer Aermacchi and also by (Italian helicopter OEM) Agusta to be chief of sales and marketing to the Italian government. I thought the future of rotorcraft advancement was more open than in the fixed-wing sector and I went with
Agusta. I was so lucky to immediately be involved in Agusta’s international projects. Then I moved into operations.”
While Spagnolini was moving up the corporate ladder, Agusta made a move of its own by merging with British aerospace company Westland Helicopters to form AgustaWestland, predecessor of today’s Leonardo Helicopters. Spagnolini would be chosen by his mentor, Agusta CEO Amedeo Caporaletti, to lead Agusta, which led to the decades-loyal employee eventually taking over the reins of the merged AgustaWestland as CEO in 2011. The one-time air force engineer had risen in the civilian world from sales to CEO of one of the largest aerospace companies on the planet. But alleged bribes would diminish Spagnolini’s time at the top when Italian police came to arrest him.
‘CHOPPERGATE’
In February 2010, India’s government signed a contract to purchase 12 AW101 choppers from AgustaWestland. These aircraft were primarily purchased for flying VVIPs, such as India’s president, prime minister, and others. In 2013, CEO Spagnolini and other corporate officers were charged with paying bribes to the Indian government to secure the sale. Spagnolini and another corporate officer were given prison sentences for false bookkeeping and ordered to pay the equivalent of millions of dollars in restitution. On appeal, a Milan court acquitted Spagnolini and the other officer, stating “There isn’t sufficient proof” to convict. The Wall Street Journal reported that the judge stated at the verdict reading that “while prosecutors had proven that fake invoices had been issued, there was no corruption.” The Journal concluded that the statement was an apparent rejection of the prosecution’s argument that there existed a direct connection between the false invoices and the payment of kickbacks.
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