The honorary president of Ariston Group, engineer Francesco Merloni, passed away at his residence in Fabriano (Ancona). The entrepreneur, who had recently turned 99, had founded the company. His life was marked by a long entrepreneurial career at the helm of the family heating systems conglomerate, as well as an equally long political career: he was twice Minister of Public Works in the Amato and Ciampi governments, from 1992 to 1994, and seven times as a parliamentarian, from 1972 to 2001. Cavaliere del Lavoro, he was a leading figure in Italian industry, carrying on his father Aristide's tradition by focusing his career on the international expansion of the family business. After graduating in mechanical engineering from Pisa, he ran his company for forty years before passing the mantle (in 2011) to one of his three sons, Paolo, who is now the executive chairman of Ariston Group. "Thanks to his far-sighted vision and a tenacious faith in the future", adds Ariston, "he has become the promoter of a business model capable of combining global competition, territorial roots and social responsibility."