We are sad to report the death of Benito Pagnanelli, former aviation and space underwriter at Generali, who subsequently became an aerospace conference organiser and consultant.
Benito Pagnanelli Courtesy: PRS
Benito Pagnanelli graduated from Pisa University in political and social science and then in jurisprudence before beginning a career in the Assicurazioni Generali’s casualty underwriting department, based at its head office in Milan. Benito rose to become head of its domestic aviation business. At the same time he attended the High School of Economics for Commercial and Industrial Enterprise at the “Luigi Bocconi” University of Commerce in Milan.
In 1971 he set up Generali’s International Aviation Department in Trieste governing the Italian Aviation Pool for many years. In 1977, he presided over the firm’s move into space insurance with Generali becoming leading insurer for many international programmes such as Palapa, STS-3, STS-5, Marex, Italsat, Intelsat, and also acted as a consultant and insurer for ESA and other space agencies.
Under Benito Pagnanelli, Generali began its famous international space conferences on space insurance which were held every two years. At the third one in Rome in 1985 he made news himself when he presented the first “standard” space insurance policy which became a milestone for the international insurance market. Benito rose in Generali and eventually became CEO for Generali’s U.K. operations. While no longer in direct charge of space, Benito retained a keen interest and always chaired the space conference. He was known to be disappointed when the firm decided to withdraw from the space insurance class.
In 2001, he left Assicurazioni Generali and formed his own Company ‘Pagnanelli Risk Solutions Limited’ (PRS Ltd) to offer risk and insurance consultancy for the aerospace industry. Aided and abetted by his assistant Chiara Rossi, the firm, with offices in London and Bologna, held an international space conference to replace the Generali sponsored one. The last one in Rome was noted as being especially good, if under attended. For by then, its space insurance conference role had effectively been taken over by the World Space Forum in Dubai. Nevertheless, the firm continued to successfully run aerospace conferences in Italy and provide consultancy around the world. The firm is expected to continue in operations.
During his career Benito Paganelli was Chairman of the Space Risks Study Group and President of the Technical Committee of the International Union of Aviation Insurers (I.U.A.I.) in London, and has lectured on the subject of aviation and space insurance.
On a personal note, the above only gives Benito Pagnanelli’s career details, and does not really describe that he was a kind and gentle man. He was always helpful – especially to this writer in respect of the International Space Conference.
In his Italian accented English, Benito’s manner always reminded your correspondent of the tough but nice father character in the James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969). That is, his evident strong will, tempered with an obvious ability to charm, could not disguise the fact that he had very kind heart underneath.
Benito was previously married but his wife passed away many years ago. Nevertheless, he doted on his children and grandchildren. As such, we give his family and friends our sad condolences and good wishes, and salute Benito for all he did.
